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Verbal IQ scores in a socially heterogeneous sample of 215 4-year-old children were highly related to a cumulative environmental risk index composed of maternal, family and cultural variables. Different combinations of equal numbers of risk factors produced similar effects on IQ, providing evidence (1) that no single factor identified here uniquely enhances or limits early intellectual achievement and (2) that cumulative effects from multiple risk factors increase the probability that development will be compromised. The multiple risk index predicted substantially more variance in the outcome measure than did any single risk factor alone, including socioeconomic status. High-risk children were more than 24 times as likely to have IQs below 85 than low-risk children.

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The Interactive Metronome training appears to facilitate a number of capacities, including attention, motor control, and selected academic skills, in boys with ADHD.

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The developmental, individual-difference, relationship-based model (DIR), a theoretical and applied framework for comprehensive intervention, examines the functional developmental capacities of children in the context of their unique biologically based processing profile and their family relationships and interactive patterns. As a functional approach, it uses the complex interactions between biology and experience to understand behavior and articulates the developmental capacities that provide the foundation for higher order symbolic thinking and relating. During spontaneous 'floor time' play sessions, adults follow the child's lead utilizing affectively toned interactions through gestures and words to move the child up the symbolic ladder by first establishing a foundation of shared attention, engagement, simple and complex gestures, and problem solving to usher the child into the world of ideas and abstract thinking. This process is illustrated by a case example of a young boy on the autism spectrum interacting with his father during 'floor time' over a 3 year period.

In order to measure the prevalence of developmental delay among US infants and children, two types of questions were asked of parents in the 1994-95 National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NHIS-D). To measure functional delay (FD), questions from the Functional Developmental Growth Chart (FDQ), which measures specific age-appropriate tasks, were used. General delay (GD) was defined using the general type of questions about developmental delay that had been used in previous surveys. Using a nationally representative sample of 15 291 infants and children aged 4-59 months from the NHIS-D, analyses revealed that, according to these questions, approximately 3.3% had FD and 3.4% of the children had GD. However, only one-third of the children were identified by both sets of questions. Thus, two-thirds of the children identified as having FD were not recognised by their parents as having a delay. Conversely, many parents responded to the GD questions indicating that their child had a delay, but failed to indicate that their child had a functional problem. In addition, only 17% of the children with FD and 31% of those with GD were receiving special services. Multivariable logistic regression analyses found that children with both FD and GD were more likely to be male and to be living in families with incomes below 200% of the poverty level. The findings suggest that the general types of developmental delay questions used in national surveys may not identify children with functional delays. As parents failed to identify these children, it is possible that many of these children may be slipping through paediatric surveillance. Further research to evaluate the use of these measures in population surveys is recommended.