Daniel S. Messinger

Professor of Psychology, Pediatrics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Music Engineering

Curriculum vitae

Department of Psychology

University of Miami

PSY430-O

Fall 2025

Psychology of Infancy

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), [email protected]
Office Hours: Thursday 11:00 - 12:00 and at other times by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Gina Scorpiniti, [email protected]

This syllabus is a living document, meaning that it will be updated as the semester progresses. You are responsible for your responsibilities based on the updated syllabus.

Objective: 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 (e.g., autism) development because an understanding of one enriches an understanding of the other. Readings and participation will be supplemented by a project involving syntheses of the research literature.

Required weekly readings: 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.

Format. 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.

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

Office Hours. 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

Main Project. There are two main project choices: textbook and/or transcript (70 points). They are designed to teach critical reading, analysis, and scientific communication. We will devote class time and specific class meetings to the project.

Textbook
Submission of 10 substantive critiques to the textbook, Infant Development: A Topical Approach, based on all of the journal article readings on the syllabus (both the primary reading and additional readings). I can provide you with additional articles with which to 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.

Transcript Narratives
You will be assigned two transcripts of the speech of a child during a two multi-hour preschool observation. You will construct a two 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. Half of your narrative should be exact quotes from the transcripts. Provide a sense of the child's day vis-a-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 three relevant modules on the protection of human subjects designated by the UM Institutional Review Board. Click here or check course documents in BlackBoard for instructions.

Observation/interview project. 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 8:30a.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.

Observation write-up instructions. 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, https://dictionary.apa.org/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 little screenshot or a table), showing the actual observations that you made. Finish with a paragraph about what you learned doing the observations. The observation write-up portion of the assignment should be 2 pages.

Interview write-up instructions. 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. he 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.

Project assignments. 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.

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

Dates	Textbook Project	Transcript Project
Aug 26	Choose Textbook or Transcript project (5)	Choose Textbook or Transcript project (5)
Sep 2	Critique 1 (6)	Submit 3 completed IRB Modules (15)
Sep 11	Critique 2 (6)
Sep 25	Critique 3 (6)
Oct 9	Critique 4 (6)	Transcript 1 (15)
Oct 21	Critique 5 (6)
Oct 30	Critique 6 (6)	Transcript 2 (15)
Nov 6	Critique 7 (6)
Nov 13	Critique 8 (6)	Transcript 3 (15)
Nov 25	Critique 9 (6)
Dec 2	Critique 10 (6)
Dec 2	Observation/interview plan (5)	Observation/interview plan (5)
Dec 9	Observation/interview write-up (15)	Observation/interview write-up (15)

Students choose either the Textbook or Transcript project track. Assignments and points apply only to the chosen track. Points are listed in parentheses and sum to 65.

Grading Scale
A+	97-100	C+	77-79
A	94-96	C	74-76%
A-	90-94	C-	70-73%
B+	87-89	D	63-69%
B	84-86	F	62 - 0
B-	80-83

Points
Participation	15
Observation Project	20
Main Project	65
Total	100

Schedule of Classes, Readings, and Assignments

Aug 19

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.

Aug 21

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

Bornstein, M. H., Putnick, D. L., & Esposito, G. (2017). Continuity and Stability in Development. Child Development Perspectives, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12221

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

Aug 26

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

Conradt, E., Hawes, K., Guerin, D., Armstrong, D. A., Marsit, C. J., Tronick, E., & Lester, B. M. (2016). The Contributions of Maternal Sensitivity and Maternal Depressive Symptoms to Epigenetic Processes and Neuroendocrine Functioning. Child Development, 87(1), 73-85. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12483

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, 2199ï¿½2211 (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

Hazlett, H. C., Gu, H., Munsell, B. C., Kim, S. H., Styner, M., Wolff, J. J., Elison, J. T., Swanson, M. R., Zhu, H., Botteron, K. N., Collins, D. L., Constantino, J. N., Dager, S. R., Estes, A. M., Evans, A. C., Fonov, V. S., Gerig, G., Kostopoulos, P., McKinstry, R. C., Pandey, J., Paterson, S., Pruett, J. R., Schultz, R. T., Shaw, D. W., Zwaigenbaum, L., Piven, J., & The, I. N. (2017). Early brain development in infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorder. Nature, 542(7641), 348-351. doi: 10.1038/nature21369

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v542/n7641/abs/nature21369.html#supplementary-information

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

Sep 2

Textbook and transcript project workshop

Sep 4

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

Cristia, A., Dupoux, E., Gurven, M., & Stieglitz, J. Child-Directed Speech Is Infrequent in a Forager-Farmer Population: A Time Allocation Study. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12974

Sep 9

Culture in Development (ppt4).

Hilton, C. B., Moser, C. J., Bertolo, M., Lee-Rubin, H., Amir, D., Bainbridge, C. M., Simson, J., Knox, D., Glowacki, L., Alemu, E., Galbarczyk, A., Jasienska, G., Ross, C. T., Neff, M. B., Martin, A., Cirelli, L. K., Trehub, S. E., Song, J., Kim, M., Schachner, A., Vardy, T. A., Atkinson, Q. D., Salenius, A., Andelin, J., Antfolk, J., Madhivanan, P., Siddaiah, A., Placek, C. D., Salali, G. D., Keestra, S., Singh, M., Collins, S. A., Patton, J. Q., Scaff, C., Stieglitz, J., Cutipa, S. C., Moya, C., Sagar, R. R., Anyawire, M., Mabulla, A., Wood, B. M., Krasnow, M. M., & Mehr, S. A. (2022). Acoustic regularities in infant-directed speech and song across cultures. Nature Human Behaviour.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01410-x

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

Sep 11

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, Gï¿½k M, Peï¿½aherrera-Vï¿½lez 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.

Simpson, E. A., Jakobsen, K. V., Damon, F., Suomi, S. J., Ferrari, P. F., & Paukner, A. (2016). Face Detection and the Development of Own-Species Bias in Infant Macaques. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12565

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.

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:

NJ Minar, DJ Lewkowicz Overcoming the other‐race effect in infancy with multisensory redundancy: 10–12‐month‐olds discriminate dynamic other‐race faces producing speech. Developmental science 21 (4), e12604.

Jones, W., & Klin, A. (2013). Attention to eyes is present but in decline in 2-6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism. Nature, 504(7480), 427-431. doi: 10.1038/nature12715

Sep 18. Guest lecture: M. Drye

Joint attention Ostensive communication slides

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

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

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:

McGillion, M., Herbert, J. S., Pine, J., Vihman, M., dePaolis, R., Keren-Portnoy, T., & Matthews, D. (2017). What Paves the Way to Conventional Language? The Predictive Value of Babble, Pointing, and Socioeconomic Status. Child Development, 88(1), 156-166. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12671

Sep 25

Cognitive Development (ppt12)

Lauer, J. E., & Lourenco, S. F. (2016). Spatial Processing in Infancy Predicts Both Spatial and Mathematical Aptitude in Childhood. Psychological Science. doi: 10.1177/0956797616655977

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

Sep 30

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)

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Owen, M. T., Golinkoff, R. M., Pace, A., Yust, P. K., & Suma, K. (2015). The Contribution of Early Communication Quality to Low-Income Children's Language Success. Psychol Sci, 26(7), 1071-1083. doi: 10.1177/0956797615581493

Additional reading:

Golinkoff, R. M., Can, D. D., Soderstrom, M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2015). (Baby)Talk to Me: The Social Context of Infant-Directed Speech and Its Effects on Early Language Acquisition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(5), 339-344. doi: 10.1177/0963721415595345

Romeo, R. R., Segaran, J., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S. T., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Yendiki, A., Rowe, M. L., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Language Exposure Relates to Structural Neural Connectivity in Childhood. The Journal of Neuroscience. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0484-18.2018

Romeo, R. R., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S. T., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Rowe, M. L., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Beyond the 30-Million-Word Gap: Children's Conversational Exposure Is Associated With Language-Related Brain Function. Psychol Sci, 956797617742725. doi: 10.1177/0956797617742725

Oct 7

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.

No class on Oct 14: Fall recess

Oct 16

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 infantï¿½mother physiological synchrony and 4- and 6-month-old infantsï¿½ 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.

Ruvolo, P., Messinger, D., & Movellan, J. (2015). Infants time their smiles to make their moms smile. PLOS ONE, 10(9), e0136492. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136492.

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.

Oct 23

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

Bourvis, N., Singer, M., Saint Georges, C., Bodeau, N., Chetouani, M., Cohen, D., & Feldman, R. (2018). Pre-linguistic infants employ complex communicative loops to engage mothers in social exchanges and repair interaction ruptures. R Soc Open Sci, 5(1), 170274. doi: 10.1098/rsos.170274

Oct 28

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

Bornstein, M. H., & Manian, N. (2013). Maternal responsiveness and sensitivity reconsidered: Some is more. Dev Psychopathol, 25(4 Pt 1), 957-971. doi:10.1017/s0954579413000308

Groh, A. M., Propper, C., Mills-Koonce, R., Moore, G. A., Calkins, S., & Cox, M. Mothers' Physiological and Affective Responding to Infant Distress: Unique Antecedents of Avoidant and Resistant Attachments. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12912

Raby, K. L., Cicchetti, D., Carlson, E. A., Cutuli, J. J., Englund, M. M., & Egeland, B. (2012). Genetic and Caregiving-Based Contributions to Infant Attachment. Psychological Science, 23(9), 1016-1023. doi: 10.1177/0956797612438265

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

Nov 4.

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

Nov 6

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:

Bierman, K. L., Welsh, J. A., Heinrichs, B. S., Nix, R. L., & Mathis, E. T. (2015). Helping Head Start Parents Promote Their Children's Kindergarten Adjustment: The Research-Based Developmentally Informed Parent Program. Child Dev, 86(6), 1877-1891. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12448

van Huizen, T., Dumhs, L., & Plantenga, J. The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Universal Preschool: Evidence From a Spanish Reform. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12993

Nov 11

Physical growth and motor development.

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

Textbook and Transcript Workshop

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

Nov 18

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:

Mariette, M. M., & Buchanan, K. L. (2016). Prenatal acoustic communication programs offspring for high posthatching temperatures in a songbird. Science, 353(6301), 812-814. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf7049

Nov 20

Online class

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.

Lester, B. M., Bagner, D. M., Liu, J., LaGasse, L. L., Seifer, R., Bauer, C. R., Shankaran, S., et al. (2009). Infant neurobehavioral dysregulation: Behavior problems in children with prenatal substance exposure. Pediatrics, 124(5), 1355-1362.

Nov 25. ZOOM CLASS

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), 814ï¿½830. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2018.1475820ï¿½ 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

Riem, M. M. E., Lotz, A. M., Horstman, L. I., Cima, M., Verhees, M. W. F. T., Alyousefi-van Dijk, K., van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2021). A soft baby carrier intervention enhances amygdala responses to infant crying in fathers: A randomized controlled trial. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 132, 105380.

Abraham, E., Hendler, T., Shapira-Lichter, I., Kanat-Maymon, Y., Zagoory-Sharon, O., Feldman, R. (2014). Father’s brain is sensitive to childcare experiences. PNAS.

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

No class NOV 27: Thanksgiving break

Dec 2.

Class to be held at the Linda Ray Intervention Center

Early Intervention awareness and related services (occupational therapy and speech language pathology)

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.