Basal Feet: Walking to the Discovery of a Novel Hybrid Cilium.

Cilia are important cell structures found on nearly all cells. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Mennella and colleagues investigate the molecular architecture of basal foot proteins in cells with primary or motile cilia and discover a hybrid cilium with a unique assembly that regulates polarity in multiciliated cells.

The effects of early motor intervention on children with Down syndrome or cerebral palsy: a field-based study.

This study reports the results of a field-based investigation of the effects of two motor intervention approaches--neurodevelopmental treatment and developmental skills--on children with two different diagnoses. The sample included 50 children, of whom 27 were diagnosed as having Down syndrome and 23 as having cerebral palsy. Children had a mean chronological age of 14 months at the beginning of the study.

Treating substance-using women and their children in public housing: preliminary evaluation findings.

The Key West Housing Authority created SafePort, a residential substance abuse treatment program within public housing to provide drug treatment to parenting women. All family members-women, children, and significant others-receive comprehensive assessments to determine appropriate therapeutic interventions to resolve their problems. Preliminary evaluation findings suggest that women who participate with their children are more likely to remain drug free than are those who participated without their children.

Program evaluation findings of an intensive early intervention program.

An intensive early intervention program was evaluated through determining child gains made by 44 children with special needs in cognition, gross-motor, fine-motor, receptive language, and expressive language domains. Gains were examined for the total group and two subgroups based upon their delays at pretesting. Analyses comparing actual to predicted posttest scores for the total group did not reveal statistically significant gains in any domains.

Maternal education and maternal responsiveness as predictors of play competence in low birth weight, premature infants: a preliminary report.

Videotaped play interactions of 182 low birth weight, premature toddlers and their mothers were used to investigate whether a model including maternal responsiveness together with level of maternal education was a better predictor of play maturity scores of the children than a model consisting of education level alone. The videotapes were coded using the responsiveness subscale of the Maternal Behavior Rating Scale. Regression analyses revealed that maternal education alone significantly predicted play scores, accounting for 9% of the variance.