Tu & Th 9:30 – 10:45 AM
 
Flipse Room 302 or, as necessary, via Zoom
 Department of Psychology, University of Miami
 
Daniel Messinger, Ph.D. (he/his), dmessinger@miami.edu

Office Hours: Thursday 11:00 – 12:00 and at other times by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Gina Scorpiniti, gscorpiniti@miami.edu

This syllabus is a living document, meaning that it will be updated as the semester progresses.

 
Review contemporary theory, research, and methods relevant to the scientific study of infant development. Topics include physiological, cortical, motor, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social development in infancy. Human and other animal models will be considered. The course focuses on both normative and atypical development.
 

 
The class is a seminar with students reading and discussing key journal articles, which are linked to this syllabus. Readings are chosen to provide exposure to the theory, methods, and findings of current developmental research. One reading will be assigned for each class. Reading assignments marked “Additional” are suggested but not required for class. Additional readings will however be required for the textbook critique project. If you adopt the textbook project, you will also need a copy of Infant Development: A Topical Approach, a textbook by Alan Fogel and Daniel S. Messinger (2024). The textbook is available in the bookstore and is on reserve at the library.
 

 
The instructor will introduce key concepts, issues, and lines of research. Students are expected to take an active role in discussing and developing topics under consideration. Everyone is expected to complete all assigned readings and actively contribute to discussion. The PowerPoints can be reviewed before the class session.
 

 
In this class I welcome all students regardless of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or veteran status.
 

 
Participation refers to your level of engagement in class (15 points). Participation includes attendance, having done the required reading, asking pertinent questions, offering informed responses to questions, and constructive debate. Use of electronic devices during class time for anything except class work is prohibited, and will result in deductions from your participation grade.
 

 
Attendance is mandatory. In the case of documented medical conditions, students may opt to attend virtually via Zoom.
 

 
Office hours (listed above) or a meeting scheduled after class by email are an ideal setting for me to assist you with all elements of class work.
 

 
There are two main project choices: textbook and/or transcript (65 points). They are designed to teach critical reading, analysis, observation, and scientific communication. We will devote class time and specific class meetings to the project.
 
Critique the textbook as needed. The idea is to find something that the textbook omits or gets wrong according to the article. You will need to reference the specific sections of the textbook in question, and very specific points raised by the articles in question. If you indicate that the textbook does not cover a topic but the topic is covered in another portion of the textbook, points will be deducted. Responses should be 5-6 sentences in length.
 
 

 
Find paragraphs in the textbook that are incorrect according to the articles on the syllabus (main readings and additional readings). You will need to reference the specific sections of the textbook in question, and very specific points raised by the articles in question. You may also indicate points made by the articles that are omitted in the textbook. If you indicate that the textbook does not cover a topic but the topic is covered in another portion of the textbook, points will be deducted. Responses should be 5-6 sentences in length.
 

 
You will be assigned three transcripts of the speech of a child during a two multi-hour preschool observation. You will construct three 6-page narratives of the child's conversations during that day. The focus will be on what the child says and what is said around the child by peers and teachers. One third to one half of your narrative should be exact quotes from the transcripts. Use the transcript to indicate what activity is occurring during the day (e.g., circle time, snack). Describe teacher and child questions and responses. Describe the number of words in teacher and child utterances, and how many teacher and child utterances there are. Provide a sense of the child's day vis-à-vis their communication. Use of cloud-based AI tools for this assignment will violate the privacy of the research participants and will be grounds for failing this course.

This assignment requires you to register for and pass relevant modules of the protection of human subjects designated by the UM Institutional Review Board, complete a conflict of interest module, and request a UM Research Account. A help document with instructions is located here and under course documents in BlackBoard. Please contact the TA, Gina Scorpiniti, gscorpiniti@miami.edu, if you have questions about these requirements.  
 

 
Students will spend at least two hours observing an infant or infants (0-3 years of age) in 1-2 sessions (2 is ideal) and write up their observations. The goal of the write-ups is to be as descriptive as possible. The write-ups will be 1-2 pages. Conduct these observations at the Linda Ray Intervention Center https://www.fdlrs-um.miami.edu/, an early intervention, center-based provider. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. To conduct observations at LRIC, which is a few blocks east of medical campus, you will need to coordinate with the Executive Director, Ms. Isabel Chica.
 

 
The first paragraph should explain what infant you decided to observe. Use an iPhone or similar to make 30-second or 60-second blocks separated by an audible tone. Observe for one block and then write down what you observed for one block of time. (Here is a more formal description of this method, time sampling, APA Dictionary: time sampling, for background.) Do at least 30 minutes of observation structured in this way. This will be several pages of observations. These observations could be on different days or could be focused on different infants. You should have 2-4 paragraphs describing the days and times you observed, what you focused on, and what you saw. In addition, include a figure (it could be a screenshot).
 

As part of your project, conduct a 15 minute interview with one of the teaching staff who was most directly involved with the infant or infants you observed during the observation period. The objective of the interview is to understand the teaching staff member’s goals and integration strategies during the observation period and how these efforts connect to broader developmental outcomes. Ask them what their goals were during the observation period, what they observed of the infant's behavior during that period, how they were integrating what the infant was doing during that period with their (the teacher's) other responsibilities to other students and the classroom during that period.  The interview write-up portion of the assignment should be 1 page. 

 
Written assignments must be single spaced with an additional space between paragraphs (1" margins, 12-point font). Only assignments turned in on time will be graded. Most assignments will be submitted on Blackboard, typically using SafeAssign as an originality check.
 

 
Exams and final papers are governed by the honor code. They will be submitted through BlackBoard SafeAssign.
 

Introduction to Class and Developmental Psychology (ppt1)

Additional reading:

 Gómez-Robles A, Nicolaou C, Smaers JB, Sherwood CC (2024) The evolution of human altriciality and brain development in comparative context. Nature Ecology & Evolution 8:133-146.10.1038/s41559-023-02253-z. 

Developmental Design, Measurement, & Analysis (lec5.design.ppt)

Additional reading:

Davis-Kean, P. E., & Ellis, A. (2019). An overview of issues in infant and developmental research for the creation of robust and replicable science. Infant Behavior and Development, 57, 101339. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101339

Frank, M. C. (2019). Towards a more robust and replicable science of infant development. Infant Behavior and Development, 57, 101349. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101349

The genetic basis of behavior and development (ppt8)

Constantino, J. N., Kennon-McGill, S., Weichselbaum, C., Marrus, N., Haider, A., Glowinski, A. L., Gillespie, S., Klaiman, C., Klin, A., & Jones, W. (2017). Infant viewing of social scenes is under genetic control and is atypical in autism. Nature, 547(7663), 340-344. doi: 10.1038/nature22999

Additional reading:
Deary, I.J., Cox, S.R. & Hill, W.D. Genetic variation, brain, and intelligence differences. Mol Psychiatry 27, 335–353 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01027-y

Lester, B. M., Conradt, E., LaGasse, L. L., Tronick, E. Z., Padbury, J. F., & Marsit, C. J. (2018). Epigenetic Programming by Maternal Behavior in the Human Infant. Pediatrics. doi:10.1542/peds.2017-1890 see Movie

Chabris, C. F., Lee, J. J., Cesarini, D., Benjamin, D. J., & Laibson, D. I. (2015). The Fourth Law of Behavior Genetics. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(4), 304-312. doi:10.1177/0963721415580430

Conradt, E., Beauchaine, T., Abar, B., Lagasse, L., Shankaran, S., Bada, H., … Lester, B. (2016). Early caregiving stress exposure moderates the relation between respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity at 1 month and biobehavioral outcomes at age 3. Psychophysiology, 53(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12569 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/psyp.12569

 Aug 28 

The biological basis of behavior and development (ppt7)

Valadez EA, Tottenham N, Korom M, Tabachnick AR, Pine DS, Dozier M (2023) A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Parenting Intervention During Infancy Alters Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry in Middle Childhood. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2023.06.015 . https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10751390/pdf/nihms-1911850.pdf

Additional reading:

Tooley, U. A., Bassett, D. S., & Mackey, A. P. (2021). Environmental influences on the pace of brain development. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 22(6), 372-384. doi:10.1038/s41583-021-00457-5

Yin, W., Li, T., Wu, Z. et al. Charting brain functional development from birth to 6 years of age. Nat Hum Behav 9, 1246–1259 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02160-2

Tristan S. Yates et al. ,Hippocampal encoding of memories in human infants.Science387,1316-1320(2025).DOI:10.1126/science.adt7570 

Wijeakumar, S., Forbes, S.H., Magnotta, V.A. et al. Stunting in infancy is associated with atypical activation of working memory and attention networks. Nat Hum Behav 7, 2199�2211 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01725-3

Tottenham N (2020) Early Adversity and the Neotenous Human Brain. Biological Psychiatry 87:350-358.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.06.018. 

Bernier, A., Calkins, S. D., & Bell, M. A. (2016). Longitudinal Associations Between the Quality of Mother–Infant Interactions and Brain Development Across Infancy. Child Development, 87(4), 1159-1174. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12518 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01237-y

Xiao, Y., Wen, T. H., Kupis, L., Eyler, L. T., Goel, D., Vaux, K., Lombardo, M. V., Lewis, N. E., Pierce, K., & Courchesne, E. (2022). Neural responses to affective speech, including motherese, map onto clinical and social eye tracking profiles in toddlers with ASD. Nat Hum Behav, 6(3), 443-454. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01237-y 

Brody, G. H., Gray, J. C., Yu, T., Barton, A. W., Beach, S. R., Galván, A., MacKillop, J., Windle, M., Chen, E., Miller, G. E., & Sweet, L. H. (2017). Protective Prevention Effects on the Association of Poverty With Brain Development. JAMA Pediatr, 171(1), 46-52. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2988

Leong, V., Byrne, E., Clackson, K., Georgieva, S., Lam, S., & Wass, S. (2017). Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(50), 13290-13295. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702493114

Culture in Development (ppt3)

E. Bergelson, M. Soderstrom, I. Schwarz, C.F. Rowland, N. Ramírez-Esparza, L. R. Hamrick, E. Marklund, M. Kalashnikova, A. Guez, M. Casillas, L. Benetti, P.V. Alphen, A. Cristia,  Everyday language input and production in 1,001 children from six continents, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 120 (52) e2300671120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2300671120 (2023). 

Additional reading:

Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., Rigo, P., Esposito, G., Swain, J. E., Suwalsky, J. T. D., Su, X., Du, X., Zhang, K., Cote, L. R., De Pisapia, N., & Venuti, P. (2017). Neurobiology of culturally common maternal responses to infant cry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(45), E9465-E9473. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712022114

Weber, A., Fernald, A., & Diop, Y. (2017). When Cultural Norms Discourage Talking to Babies: Effectiveness of a Parenting Program in Rural Senegal. Child Development, 88(5), 1513-1526. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12882

Culture in Development (ppt4).

Additional reading:

Singh, L., Basnight-Brown, D., Cheon, B.K., Garcia, R., Killen, M., & Mazuka, R. (in press). Ethical and epistemic costs of a lack of geographical and cultural diversity in developmental science. Developmental Psychology. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-31206-001 . https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/4w5dp 

Ghai, S., Thériault, R., Forscher, P. ... Singh, L.. A manifesto for a globally diverse, equitable, and inclusive open science. Commun Psychol 3, 16 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00179-1

Causadias, J. M., Vitriol, J. A., & Atkin, A. L. (2018). The cultural (mis) attribution bias in developmental psychology in the United States. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 59, 65-74. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2018.01.003

Perceptual Development (ppt9)

Edgar EV, Todd JT, Bahrick LE (2023) Intersensory processing of faces and voices at 6 months predicts language outcomes at 18, 24, and 36 months of age. Infancy 28:569-596. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12533 

Additional reading:

Perapoch Amado M, Phillips E, Phillips E, Esposito G, Greenwood E, Ives J, Labendzki P, Lancaster K, Northrop T, Viswanathan NK, G�k M, Pe�aherrera-V�lez M, Jones E, Wass S (2023) Title: Who leads and who follows? The pathways to joint attention during free-flowing interactions change over developmental time.

Vong WK, Wang W, Orhan AE, Lake BM (2024) Grounded language acquisition through the eyes and ears of a single child. Science 383:504-511.doi:10.1126/science.adi1374. 

Abney, D., Suanda, S., Smith, L. B. & Yu, C. (in press) What are the building blocks of parent-infant coordinated attention in free-flowing interaction? Infancy. 

Clerkin, E.M., Hart, E., Rehg, J.M., Yu, C., & Smith, L.B. (2017). Real-world visual statistics and infants' first-learned object names. Philosophical Transactions on The Royal Society B: Biological Science, 372(1711).

Jakobsen, K., Umstead, L., & Simpson, E. (2015). Efficient human face detection in infancy. Developmental Psychobiology, 58(1), 129-136. 

Sep 16.   Guest lecture: C. Romero

Perceptual/Attention Development (ppt10).

Hadley, H., Pickron, C. B., & Scott, L. S. (2015). The lasting effects of process‐specific versus stimulus‐specific learning during infancy. Developmental Science, 18(5), 842-852.  

Additional reading:

Sep 18.  Guest lecture:  M. Drye

Joint attention Ostensive communication slides 

Schroer, S. E., & Yu, C. (2022). Looking is not enough: Multimodal attention supports the real-time learning of new words. Dev Sci, e13290. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13290 

Additional reading:

Yurkovic-Harding, J., Lisandrelli, G., Shaffer, R. C., Dominick, K. C., Pedapati, E. V., Erickson, C. A., Yu, C., & Kennedy, D. P. (2022). Children with ASD establish joint attention during free-flowing toy play without face looks. Current Biology, 32(12), 2739-2746.e2734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.044

Yurkovic, J. R., Lisandrelli, G., Shaffer, R. C., Dominick, K. C., Pedapati, E. V., Erickson, C. A., Kennedy, D. P., & Yu, C. (2021). Using head-mounted eye tracking to examine visual and manual exploration during naturalistic toy play in children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 3578. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81102-0

Adolph, K. E., & West, K. L. (2022). Autism: The face value of eye contact. Current Biology, 32(12), R577-R580. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.016 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222007758

Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Suma, K., & Robins, D. L. An Expanded View of Joint Attention: Skill, Engagement, and Language in Typical Development and Autism. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12973 

Sep 23.  Guest lecture: E. Leland
Cognitive Development (ppt11)

Schmidt, M. F. H., Butler, L. P., Heinz, J., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Young Children See a Single Action and Infer a Social Norm: Promiscuous Normativity in 3-Year-Olds. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616661182

van den Berg, L., & Gredebäck, G. (2021). The sticky mittens paradigm: A critical appraisal of current results and explanations [https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13036]. Developmental Science, 24(5), e13036. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13036

Additional reading:

Cognitive Development (ppt12)

Additional reading:
B. Pomiechowska, G. Bródy, E. Téglás, Á.M. Kovács,  Early-emerging combinatorial thought: Human infants flexibly combine kind and quantity concepts, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (29) e2315149121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2315149121 (2024).

Yu, C., Suanda, S. H. & Smith, L. B. (2018) Infant sustained attention but not joint attention to objects at 9 months predicts vocabulary at 12 and 15 months. Developmental Science. PMID: 30255968 

Boyer, T. W., Harding, S. M., & Bertenthal, B. I. (2020). The temporal dynamics of infants' joint attention: Effects of others' gaze cues and manual actions. Cognition, 197, 104151. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104151

Simpson, E. A., Sclafani, V., Paukner, A., Kaburu, S. S. K., Suomi, S. J., & Ferrari, P. F. (2019). Handling newborn monkeys alters later exploratory, cognitive, and social behaviors. Dev Cogn Neurosci, 35, 12-19. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.010

Language Development (ppt13)

Mitsven, S. G., Perry, L. K., Tao, Y., Elbaum, B. E., Johnson, N. F., & Messinger, D. S. (2021).  Objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations: Phonemic diversity is associated with language abilities.  Developmental Science, n/a(n/a), https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13177

Additional reading:

 Oller DK, Ramsay G, Bene E, Long HL, Griebel U (2021) Protophones, the precursors to speech, dominate the human infant vocal landscape. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376:20200255.doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0255.
 http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0255 

Warlaumont, A. S., Richards., J. A., Gilkerson, J., & Oller, D. K. (2014). A social feedback loop for speech development and its reduction in autism. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1314–1324. doi: 10.1177/0956797614531023 [supplemental materials, Akhtar et al., commentary on Warlaumont, Warlaumont et al. response to Akhtar] . 

Perry, L.K., Perlman, M., Winter, B., Massaro, D.W., & Lupyan, G. (2018). Iconicity in children and adults’ speech. Developmental Science, 21(3), e12572. doi: 10.1111/desc.12572. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/desc.12572

Oct 2.  Guest lecture: A. Viggiano

Language Development (ppt14)

Additional reading:

Temperament and Emotion (ppt15)

 Ahn YA, Önal Ertuğrul I, Chow S-M, Cohn JF, Messinger DS (2023). Automated measurement of infant and mother Duchenne facial expressions in the Face-to-Face/Still-Face. Infancy n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12556.

Additional reading:
Mattson, W. I., Cohn, J. F., Mahoor, M. H., Gangi, D. N., & Messinger, D. S. (2013). Darwin’s Duchenne: Eye constriction during infant joy and distress. PLOS ONE, 8(11). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080161

Ahn, Y. A., Moffitt, J., Custode, S., Beaumont, A., Cardona, S., Parlade, M., Durocher, J., Hale, M., Alessandri, M., Perry, L., Messinger, D. (2022). Objective measurement of social gaze and smile behaviors in children with suspected autism spectrum disorder during administration of the ADOS-2. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, under review. [will be sent.]

Mitsven, S. G., Messinger, D. S., Moffitt, J., & Ahn, Y. A. (in press). Infant Emotional Developments, pp. 748-782. In Lockman, J. & Tamis-Lemonda, C. (Eds.), Handbook of Infant Development. Cambridge University Press.

Oct 9
Textbook and Transcript Workshop 
Submit a draft and/bring a copy of you Nov 11 textbook/transcript assignment to class.

Temperament and Emotion (ppt16)

Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., & Quan, H. (2018, January). Revisiting the marshmallow test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later Outcomes. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797618761661. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6050075/pdf/10.1177_0956797618761661.pdf

Additional reading:

Colin L Drexler, Emilio A Valadez, Santiago Morales, Sonya V Troller-Renfree, Lauren K White, Kathryn A Degnan, Heather A Henderson, Daniel S Pine, Nathan A Fox. Longitudinal relations among temperament, cognitive control, and anxiety: From toddlerhood to late adolescence. 

Coffey, J. (2019). Cascades of infant happiness: Infant positive affect predicts childhood IQ and adult educational attainment. Emotion, 20. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000640

Zeng, G., Maylott, S. E., Leung, T. S., Messinger, D. S., Wang, J., & Simpson, E. A. (2022). Infant temperamental fear, pupil dilation, and gaze aversion from smiling strangers. Developmental Psychobiology, 64(7), e22324. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22324

Oct 21

Face-to-face interaction (ppt17) 

Abney et al. (2024). Mutual joint positive engagement and infant respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Will be distributed via BlackBoard/email.

Additional reading:
Abney DH, daSilva EB, Bertenthal BI (2021) Associations between infant�mother physiological synchrony and 4- and 6-month-old infants� emotion regulation. Developmental Psychobiology 63:e22161. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22161.

Leong, V., Byrne, E., Clackson, K., Georgieva, S., Lam, S., & Wass, S. (2017). Speaker gaze increases information coupling between infant and adult brains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(50), 13290-13295. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702493114

Ilyka, D., Johnson, M. H., & Lloyd-Fox, S. (2021). Infant social interactions and brain development: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 130, 448-469. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.001

Feldman, R., Rosenthal, Z., & Eidelman, A. I. (2014). Maternal-Preterm Skin-to-Skin Contact Enhances Child Physiologic Organization and Cognitive Control Across the First 10 Years of Life. Biological Psychiatry, 75(1), 56-64. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.08.012

Murray, L., De Pascalis, L., Bozicevic, L., Hawkins, L., Sclafani, V., & Ferrari, P. F. (2016). The functional architecture of mother-infant communication, and the development of infant social expressiveness in the first two months. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 39019. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39019.

Beebe, B., D. Messinger, L. E. Bahrick, A. Margolis, K. A. Buck, & H. Chen (2016). A Systems View of Mother-Infant Face-to-Face Communication. Developmental Psychology, 52(4), 556-571.

Still-face (ppt17) 

Elmlinger, S. L., Schwade, J. A., Vollmer, L., & Goldstein, M. H. (2022). Learning how to learn from social feedback: The origins of early vocal development [https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13296]. Developmental Science, n/a(n/a), e13296. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13296

Mitsven, S. G., Prince, E. B., Messinger, D. S., Tenenbaum, E. J., Sheinkopf, S. J., Tronick, E. Z., Seifer, R., & Lester, B. M. (2021). Testing the mid-range model: Attachment in a high-risk sample. Developmental Science, e13185. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13185 

Additional reading:

Sheinkopf SJ, Tenenbaum EJ, Messinger DS, Miller-Loncar CL, Tronick EZ, LaGasse LL, Shankaran S, Bada H, Bauer CR, Whitaker TM, Hammond JA, & Lester BM. (2016). Maternal and infant affect at 4 months predicts performance and verbal IQ at 4 and 7 years in a diverse population. Developmental Science. doi: 10.1111/desc.12479. PMID: 27774733

Predicting attachment (ppt18)
Dagan O, Schuengel C, Verhage ML, Madigan S, Roisman GI, Van Ijzendoorn M, Bakermans-Kranenburg M, Duschinsky R, Sagi-Schwartz A, Bureau J-F, Eiden RD, Volling BL, Wong MS, Schoppe-Sullivan S, Aviezer O, Brown GL, Reiker J, Mangelsdorf S, Fearon RMP, Bernard K, Oosterman M (2024) Attachment relationship quality with mothers and fathers and child temperament: An individual participant data meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology 60:2144-2156.10.1037/dev0001677. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38358672/ 

Additional reading:

Waters, T.E.A., Yang, R., Gu, Y., Zhu, V., Cui, L., Li, X., Way, N., Yoshikawa, H., Chen, X., Okazaki, S., Bernard, K., Zhang, G. and Liang, Z. (2025), Maternal Sensitivity Predicts Child Attachment in a Non-Western Context: A 9-Year Longitudinal Study of Chinese Families. Child Dev. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14256

Verhage, M. L., Schuengel, C., Madigan, S., Fearon, R. M. P., Oosterman, M., Cassibba, R., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2016). Narrowing the transmission gap: A synthesis of three decades of research on intergenerational transmission of attachment. Psychological Bulletin, 142(4), 337–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000038

Groh, A. M., Narayan, A. J., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., Roisman, G. I., Vaughn, B. E., Fearon, R. M. P., & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2016). Attachment and Temperament in the Early Life Course: A Meta-Analytic Review. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12677  

Fraley RC, Roisman GI, Booth-LaForce C, Owen MT, Holland AS. Interpersonal and genetic origins of adult attachment styles: a longitudinal study from infancy to early adulthood. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2013;104(5):817-838. doi:10.1037/a0031435 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624037/pdf/nihms716035.pdf

Raby, K. L., Roisman, G. I., & Booth-LaForce, C. (2015). Genetic moderation of stability in attachment security from early childhood to age 18 years: A replication study. Dev Psychol, 51(11), 1645-1649. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000053Oct 30

Oct 30
Attachment and sensitivity predict. Socialization Experiences I. Parent-child relationships (ppt19)

Groh, A. M., Fearon, R. M. P., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Roisman, G. I. (2017). Attachment in the Early Life Course: Meta-Analytic Evidence for Its Role in Socioemotional Development. Child Development Perspectives, 11(1), 70-76. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12213.

Additional reading:

Raby, K. L., Roisman, G. I., Fraley, R. C., & Simpson, J. A. (2014). The Enduring Predictive Significance of Early Maternal Sensitivity: Social and Academic Competence through Age 32 Years. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12325

Lazarus, M.F., Marchman, V.A., Feldman, H.M., Scala, M. and Travis, K.E. (2025), The Power of Early Experience: Neonatal Skin-To-Skin Care Mitigates SES-Related Disparities in Developmental Outcomes. Infancy, 30: e70024. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.70024 

Preschool (ppt23).

Drye, M., Banarjee, C., Perry, L., Viggiano, A., Irvin, D., & Messinger, D. (2024). Children's social preference for teachers versus peers in autism inclusion classrooms: An objective perspective. Autism Research, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3276 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aur.3276  

Additional reading:

Fasano, R. M., Mitsven, S. G., Custode, S. A., Sarker, D., Bulotsky-Shearer, R. J., Messinger, D. S., & Perry, L. K. (2023). Automated measures of vocal interactions and engagement in inclusive preschool classrooms. Autism Research, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2980

Fasano, R. M., Perry, L. K., Zhang, Y., Vitale, L., Wang, J., Song, C., & Messinger, D. S. (2021). A granular perspective on inclusion: Objectively measured interactions of preschoolers with and without autism.  Autism Research.

Chen, J., Justice, L. M., Rhoad-Drogalis, A., Lin, T.-J., & Sawyer, B. (2020). Social Networks of Children with Developmental Language Disorder in Inclusive Preschool Programs. Child Development, 91(2), 471-487. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13183

Gonzalez Villasanti, H., Justice, L. M., Chaparro-Moreno, L. J., Lin, T. J., & Purtell, K. (2020). Automatized analysis of children's exposure to child-directed speech in reschool settings: Validation and application. PloS one, 15(11), e0242511. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242511 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242511

Preschool predicts (ppt24)

Mitsven, S. G., Perry, L. K., Tao, Y., Elbaum, B. E., Johnson, N. F., & Messinger, D. S. (2021).  Objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations: Phonemic diversity is associated with language abilities.  Developmental Science, n/a(n/a), https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13177

Additional reading:

Hoch, J., Ossmy, O., W.G. Cole, S. Hasan, & Adolph, K. (in press). “Dancing” together: Infant-mother locomotor synchrony. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13513

Additional reading:

Ossmy, O., Adolph, K.E. (2020). Real-time assembly of coordination patterns in human infants. Current Biology, 30, 1-10.

Hoch, J. E., Rachwani, J., & Adolph, K. E. (in press). Where infants go: Real-time dynamics of locomotor exploration in crawling and walking infants . Child Development.

Nov 13  

Submit a draft and/bring a copy of your Nov 13 textbook/transcript assignment to class.

Prematurity.

Risnes, K., Bilsteen, J. F., Brown, P., Pulakka, A., Andersen, A.-M. N., Opdahl, S., Kajantie, E., & Sandin, S. (2021). Mortality Among Young Adults Born Preterm and Early Term in 4 Nordic Nations. JAMA Network Open, 4(1), e2032779-e2032779. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.32779

McGowan, E. C., Hofheimer, J. A., O’Shea, T. M., Kilbride, H., Carter, B. S., Check, J., Helderman, J., Neal, C. R., Pastyrnak, S., Smith, L. M., Camerota, M., Dansereau, L. M., Della Grotta, S. A., & Lester, B. M. (2022). Analysis of Neonatal Neurobehavior and Developmental Outcomes Among Preterm Infants. JAMA Network Open, 5(7), e2222249-e2222249. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.22249

Additional reading:

Substance Exposure.

Conradt, E., Flannery, T., Aschner, J. L., Annett, R. D., Croen, L. A., Duarte, C. S., Friedman, A. M., Guille, C., Hedderson, M. M., Hofheimer, J. A., Jones, M. R., Ladd-Acosta, C., McGrath, M., Moreland, A., Neiderhiser, J. M., Nguyen, R. H. N., Posner, J., Ross, J. L., Savitz, D. A., Ondersma, S. J., & Lester, B. M. (2019). Prenatal Opioid Exposure: Neurodevelopmental Consequences and Future Research Priorities. Pediatrics, 144(3), e20190128. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-0128

Additional reading:
Gleason, J. L., Sundaram, R., Mitro, S. D., Hinkle, S. N., Gilman, S. E., Zhang, C., Newman, R. B., Hunt, K. J., Skupski, D. W., Grobman, W. A., Nageotte, M., Robinson, M., Kannan, K., & Grantz, K. L. (2022). Association of Maternal Caffeine Consumption During Pregnancy With Child Growth. JAMA Network Open, 5(10), e2239609-e2239609. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.39609

Eze N, Smith LM, LaGasse LL, Derauf C, Newman E, Arria A, Huestis MA, DellaGrotta SA, Dansereau LM, Neal C, Lester BM. (2016) School-Aged outcomes following prenatal methamphetamine exposure: 7.5-year follow-up from the Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle Study. The Journal of Pediatrics. EPub ahead of print: doi:10.1016/j.peds.2015.11.070.

Beyond Infancy: Transition to parenthood (ppt26)

Servin-Barthet, C., Martínez-García, M., Paternina-Die, M. et al. Pregnancy entails a U-shaped trajectory in human brain structure linked to hormones and maternal attachment. Nat Commun 16, 730 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-55830-0

Additional reading:
Conte, E., Grazzani, I., & Pepe, A. (2018). Social cognition, language, and prosocial behaviors: A multitrait mixed-methods study in early childhood. Early Education and Development, 29(6), 814�830. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2018.1475820� Additional_Link

Paternina-Die, M., Martínez-García, M., Martín de Blas, D. et al. Women's neuroplasticity during gestation, childbirth and postpartum. Nat Neurosci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01513-2

Hoekzema, E., E. Barba-Müller, C. Pozzobon, M. Picado, F. Lucco, D. García-García, J. C. Soliva, A. Tobeña, M. Desco, E. A. Crone, A. Ballesteros, S. Carmona and O. Vilarroya (2016). Pregnancy leads to long-lasting changes in human brain structure. Nature Neuroscience 20: 287. (https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4458.pdf)

Martínez-García, M., Paternina-Die, M., Cardenas, S. I., Vilarroya, O., Desco, M., Carmona, S., & Saxbe, D. E. (2022). First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples. Cereb Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac333

Atzil, S., Touroutoglou, A., Rudy, T., Salcedo, S., Feldman, R., Hooker, J. M., Dickerson, B. C., Catana, C., & Barrett, L. F. (2017). Dopamine in the medial amygdala network mediates human bonding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612233114 http://www.pnas.org/content/114/9/2361.full.pdf

Dec 2. 

Class to be held at the Linda Ray Intervention Center

Additional reading:

Elbaum, B., & Celimli-Aksoy, S. (2022). Developmental Outcomes of Children Served in a Part C Early Intervention Program. Infants & Young Children, 35(1). https://journals.lww.com/iycjournal/Fulltext/2022/01000/Developmental_Outcomes_of_Children_Served_in_a.2.aspx

Campus Closure: In the event that the UM’s campus closes unexpectedly for an extended period of time due to a hurricane, pandemic, or other emergency situation that prevents this course from meeting in person, students should be prepared to continue their learning through other means as determined by the instructor. In the most likely scenario, instruction would be delivered remotely through BlackBoard and other platforms. Students are expected, to the extent feasible, to check their UM email and course BlackBoard regularly for communications from their instructors. If instructed by the faculty, students are expected, to the extent feasible, to continue their participation in their courses from their off-campus location.

Class Recordings Policy: Students are expressly prohibited from recording any part of this course. Meetings of this course might be recorded by the University. Any recordings will be available to students registered for this class as they are intended to supplement the classroom experience. Students are expected to follow appropriate University policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Recordings may not be reproduced, shared with those not in the class, or uploaded to other online environments. If the instructor of a University of Miami office plans any other uses for the recordings, beyond this class, students identifiable in the recordings will be notified to request consent prior to such use. See the separate FERPA consent.