[Emergence and development of competence in young children].

Background: The childhood emergence and development of motor behavioural skills is imperfectly understood despite intensive study. This report is of the development of motor skills and social behaviour in young children.

Population And Methods: 17 infants (9 boys and 8 girls) in good health, aged 8 to 11 months at the beginning of the research, were studied.

Alternative child care in France: advances in the study of motor, interactive, and social behaviors of young children in settings allowing them to move freely in a group of peers.

This paper reports new data on the emergence and development from the 9th to 19th month of age of motor, interactive, and social behaviors of 17 children with peers in a milieu that allows the "conquest" of the third dimension of space without limitation of their motor activity. Their motor skills and social behaviors appear more precocious and complex than previously indicated by scientific publications, clinical observations, and developmental scales. 1.

[Interactive capacities of children aged 4 to 7 months with a child of the same age].

In this article we report on the first results of a research on the abilities and interactive behaviors of 16 infants aged from 4 to 7 months, with an infant of the same age. These infants are studied in dyads from the moment they are seated by their mother in two experimental seats. The position and distance of the seats are regulated at distance according to a procedure consisting in 8 phases of 3 minute duration each.

[Fluctuations of biological rhythms, behavior and intellectual activity in children in different environments].

We report in this paper research data which deal with the fluctuations of biological, biopsychological and intellectual variables throughout the day and week in children and adolescents attending various educational establishments. The first chapter is devoted to the evolution of sleep-arousal alternations from the second year of life and to the relations between this evolution and behavioral and physiological variations during the day. It is divided into four parts: temporal evolution of the sleep-wake rhythm of children from 2 to 5 years of age, attending kindergarten; modifications observed in the behavior and biological rhythms of children from the last year of kindergarten to the first year of primary school; the high variability of biological rhythms from one child to another; modifications observed in intellectual performances of children attending primary and secondary school.

[A new method to study behavioral categories and systems of interaction of young children. Initial data].

In the first part of this paper we report on a new method we have developed for the study of the genesis and regulations of the behavior of infants in interactive situations. Detailed information is given on the following aspects: 1. The technical characteristics of the device that allows the infants to be seated in an upright position; 2.