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PubMed1985

Effects of nutritional supplementation on children's responses to novel, frustrating, and competitive situations.

The effects of caloric supplementation for pregnant women and children from an endemically malnourished population on children's school age behavior were examined. The child's abilities to respond to routinely stressful problem-solving situations and to interact appropriately with peers were the dependent variables. Seventy-eight boys and 60 girls in rural Guatemala received different amounts of food supplementation, pre- and postnatally, as part of the INCAP Longitudinal Study. Children were classified as High or Low Supplementation, based on supplemental caloric intake prenatally and from birth to four years. When measured at 6 to 8 yr, High Supplementation children showed more interest in and exploration of a novel environment, more involvement in a competitive game, greater persistence on a frustrating task, better motor impulse control, and greater initiative across several group tasks than did Low Supplementation children. In free play with peers, the High Supplementation children showed more frequent happy affect, social involvement, and moderate activity level, and were less frequently timid or anxious. Results are consistent with findings from studies on the effects of early undernutrition on infant behavior, and suggest that behavior impairments associated with early undernutrition have long-term consequences for the child's development.

Body Height↗
PubMed1999

Genetic analyses of focal aspects of infant temperament.

The authors explored the genetic and environmental underpinnings of individual differences in temperament with a sample of 604 3- to 16-month-old infant twins and their parents. Mothers completed Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ), and a subsample of 140 9-month-old twins participated in behavioral assessment of temperament in the laboratory as well. For IBQ Smiling and Laughter and Duration of Orienting, both additive genetic and shared environmental effects were needed to best represent the data. Shared environmental effects fully accounted for cotwin similarity for IBQ Soothability, and conversely, additive genetic effects fully accounted for cotwin similarity for the IBQ Distress to Limitations, Distress to Novelty, and Activity Level scales. With the subsample, the authors fit a multivariate model to mother report, father report, and lab measures of stranger distress and found that genetic influences were most important for the covariation among these measures.

Arousal↗
PubMed2006

The effects of infant massage on weight, height, and mother-infant interaction.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the effects of infant massage (auditory (mother's voice), tactile/kinesthetic (massage) and visual (eye to eye contact) stimulation) on weight and height of infant and mother-infant interaction with normal infants over a period of 4 weeks. METHOD: This study was designed as a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The experimental group infants (aged 2-6 months) participated in one of the infant massage programs at the health district center for 4 weeks. The control group (N=26) was paired with the experimental group (N=26) by matching the infant's age and sex. Infant weight, height, and mother-infant interaction were measured two times and recordings of the mother-infant interaction were done using the video equipment in a room at the health center for 10 minutes. RESULTS: After 4 weeks of massage, there were no significant differences weight gain and height increase between the two groups. Comparison of the total scores for the mother-infant interaction between the two groups showed a significant difference (t=5.21, p=.000). There were also significant differences on maternal response (t=3.78, p=000), infant response (t=5.71, p=000) and dyadic response (t=4.05, p=000) in the mother-infant interaction between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Overall, the results of this study reassure that infant massage facilitates the mother-infant interaction for infants and mothers who give massage to their baby.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed2002

Level of prenatal cocaine exposure and scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development: modifying effects of caregiver, early intervention, and birth weight.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were 1) to assess whether there is an independent association between the level of prenatal cocaine exposure and infants' developmental test scores after control of potential confounding variables; and 2) if such an association exists, to determine which biological and social variables, individually and in interaction with each other, may modify it. METHODS: In a prospective, longitudinal study of 203 urban term infants, 3 cocaine exposure groups were defined by maternal report and infant meconium assay: unexposed, heavier cocaine exposure (>75th percentile self-reported days of use or meconium benzoylecognine concentration), or lighter cocaine exposure (all others). Examiners, masked to exposure history, tested infants at 6, 12, and 24 months of age with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. RESULTS: The final mixed linear regression model included as fixed covariates level of prenatal exposure to cocaine, alcohol, and cigarettes; prenatal marijuana exposure; gestational age and birth weight z score for gestational age; and gender. Age at test, caregiver at time of each test (biological mother, kinship caregiver, unrelated foster caregiver), and any previous child-focused early intervention were included as time-dependent covariates. There were no significant adverse main effects of level of cocaine exposure on Mental Development Index (MDI), Psychomotor Development Index (PDI), or Infant Behavior Record. Child-focused early intervention interacted with level of cocaine exposure such that heavily exposed children who received such intervention showed higher adjusted mean MDI scores than all other groups. Although the sample was born at or near term, there was also a significant interaction of cocaine exposure and gestational age on MDI scores, with those in the heavier exposure group born at slightly lower gestational age having higher mean MDI scores compared with other children born at that gestational age. There was also a significant interaction on MDI between child's age and caregiver. At 6 months, the adjusted MDI of children living with a kinship caregiver was 15.5 points lower than that of children living with their biological mother, but this effect was diminished and was no longer significant at 24 months (difference in means: 4.3 points). The adjusted mean MDI of children in unrelated foster care at 6 months was 8.2 points lower than children of biological mothers, whereas it was 7.3 points higher at 24 months. Early intervention attenuated the age-related decline in PDI scores for all groups. Birth weight <10th percentile was associated with lower PDI scores for children with heavier cocaine exposure and with lower MDI scores for all groups. CONCLUSIONS: Heavier prenatal cocaine exposure is not an independent risk factor for depressed scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development up to 24 months of age when term infants are compared with lighter exposed or unexposed infants of the same demographic background. Cocaine-exposed infants with birth weight below the 10th percentile for gestational age and gender and those placed with kinship caregivers are at increased risk for less optimal developmental outcomes. Pediatric clinicians should refer cocaine-exposed children to the child-focused developmental interventions available for all children at developmental risk.

Birth Weight↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Agreement between the neonatal neurological examination and a standardized assessment of neurobehavioural performance in a group of high-risk newborns.

The degree of agreement between the neonatal neurological examination and a standardized neurobehavioural assessment was investigated in a group of 32 newborns with congenital heart defects. A paediatric neurologist performed a neurological examination, and an occupational therapist administered the Einstein Neonatal Neurobehavioural Assessment Scale on all subjects. Both examiners independently evaluated each subject, and were blinded to the diagnosis, to perinatal status and to each other's clinical findings. Statistical analysis demonstrated a significant association between the overall impression between both examiners (p < .0001), with a crude agreement of 96.9%. Sixteen neonates were determined to be normal and 15 abnormal by both examiners, with disagreement in only one subject. Although two distinct approaches were employed in the neurological assessment of high-risk newborns, both assessments evaluate the maturity and integrity of the immature central nervous system. The results demonstrate a strong agreement between these two approaches, suggesting that the neonatal neurological examination is consistent and valid.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1996

Asymmetric headturning to speech and nonspeech in human newborns.

Functional asymmetries were examined in 59 newborns by recording headturns from midline to binaurally equivalent sounds. Results showed that robust, asymmetric pattern of headturning occurred in most newborns' responses to binaurally presented unfiltered female speech sounds, with increased rightward orientation demonstrated in five replications. Female speech that was modified by attenuation of frequencies above 500 Hz, as well as speech attenuated below 1500 Hz and above 3000 Hz, resulted in a significant rightward bias in headturning. In contrast, female speech attenuated below 3500 Hz, and continuous, repetitive stimuli such as heartbeat sounds and phrases of speech repeated at the rate of heartbeat (termed heartspeech), failed to generate the rightward orientation bias. These results suggest that female speech sounds, particularly low-frequency sounds related to the naturally occurring prosodic characteristics of speech, are a salient class of stimuli for the organization of lateral biases in orienting in newborns.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed2001

Human fetal and neonatal movement patterns: Gender differences and fetal-to-neonatal continuity.

Longitudinal quantification of leg movements per minute for human subjects during both fetal and neonatal periods was accomplished from videotapings conducted antenatally (ultrasonography 30, 34, and 37 weeks gestational age) and postnatally (birth and 6 weeks of age). Fetal/neonatal subjects displayed decreasing numbers of leg movements per minute during antenatal development (30 to 37 weeks), followed by increasing numbers of leg movements per minute during postnatal development (birth to 6 weeks of age). Male subjects displayed greater numbers of leg movements per minute than female subjects during both antenatal and postnatal development. Fetal-to-neonatal continuity for numbers of leg movements per minute was found for comparisons between fetal (37 weeks gestational age) and neonatal (during sleep states at birth) measures, and females displayed a stronger and different movement continuity pattern than males. These results indicate a differential time course for neurobehavioral development of male and female fetuses/neonates, and the findings have implications for the clinical assessment of fetal neurobehavioral development and well-being.

Embryonic and Fetal Development↗
PubMed2004

The temperament of pre-term, low birth weight infants and its potential biological substrates.

Temperament profiles of pre-term, low birth weight (LBW) infants were assessed at 6 months of age using standardized norms from the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire (RITQ). The contributions of perinatal risk, ethnicity, and gender to various temperament dimensions were examined. The sample included 152 infants with a mean birth weight of 1687 g and a mean gestational age of 31 weeks. Eighty percent of the infants were classified as having temperaments that were difficult to manage. Irregularity of the infants' biorhythms, slowness in their ability to adapt to changes, and distractibility were the most problematic. Birth weight, gestational age, and gender were not associated with temperament. Perinatal morbidity was related to the temperament dimension of infant persistence, with implications for the infant's attention span and task performance. Euro American infants were rated as more persistent and less intense in emotional expression than were infants of other ethnic groups. Results suggest the need for a more direct assessment of the effects of neurobiological processes on development of temperament phenotypes and for measurement of temperament that is socioculturally appropriate.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Low-level prenatal lead exposure and neurobehavioral development of children in the first year of life: a prospective study in Shanghai.

We used a prospective study design to assess the effects of prenatal low-level lead exposure on the development of urban, inner-city children in Shanghai. Umbilical cord blood samples wee consecutively collected from 605 live newborns. Two hundred and fifty-seven samples were excluded from the study due to clotting. Lead levels were determined on 348 cord blood samples. The geometric mean was 9.2 micrograms/dl. Based on their cord blood lead levels, infants were classified into two exposure groups: 104 in a relatively low lead group (lead levels < or = 30 percentile), and 104 in a relatively high lead group (lead levels > or = 70 percentile). Seventy-five subjects failed to complete the study, and 133 babies were included in the final cohort: 69 babies in the high lead group and 64 in the low lead group. At 3, 6, and 12 months, the Bayley Scales of Infant Development were administered and capillary blood lead levels were measured. Detailed information was obtained on a wide range of variables relevant to infant development. At all three ages, the Mental Development index (MDI) scores, adjusted for confounders, were inversely related to the infants' cord blood lead levels. The difference of the mean adjusted MDI scores between low and high lead groups was 3.4 at 3 months, 6.3 at 6 months, and 5.2 at 12 months of age. These differences were statistically significant at all time points. No significant association between cord blood lead levels and the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) scores was detected at all three visits after adjustment for confounders. Postnatal lead levels were unrelated to concurrent developmental status. We conclude that prenatal low-level lead exposure, which is relatively common in Shanghai, is associated with an adverse developmental impact on children through the first year of life.

Child Development↗
PubMed2001

Indexing individual objects in infant working memory.

Currently there are disputes in the infancy literature concerning when infants are first able to individuate physical objects by their features or properties. This issue has taken on new significance following claims that individuation by feature is linked to the emergence of object kind concepts toward the end of the first year. Needham (2001, this issue) presents evidence that infants as young as 4.5 months old can individuate objects by feature. We locate this controversy within the framework of brain mechanisms that index or track individual objects, drawing upon theories of attention and working memory developed in the study of adults. We find that Needham's work contributes to two issues: categorization and the effect of object history on the individuation of objects in a complex display.

Child Development↗
PubMed2001

The role of object recognition in young infants' object segregation.

Needham's (2001, this issue) new results confirm that young infants draw on experientially derived representations in resolving individuation ambiguities due to shared boundaries between adjacent objects. They extend previous findings in a surprising way: The memory representations that infants draw upon have bound together information about shape, color, and pattern. Our commentary on these important results draws a distinction between two senses of "recognition" and asks in which sense object recognition contributes to object individuation in these experiments.

Child Development↗
PubMed2001

Separating processes in object perception.

In this article, I consider research by Needham and colleagues examining the role of object knowledge on infant's segregation of scenes into objects. I suggest that research in this area would benefit from closer connections to computational, psychophysical, and neurophysiological research on adult perceptual segmentation and grouping. I sketch a framework for understanding the components of object perception and apply it to the paradigm and displays used by Needham. This analysis suggests two ideas. First, it would be valuable to demonstrate the role of object knowledge in cases that are less impoverished in terms of perceptual information for segregation and more typical of object arrangements in ordinary scenes. Second, some method is needed to distinguish whether infants' object knowledge affects perceptual organization of new scenes or produces specific beliefs, inferences, or expectations about particular objects and scenes. As a specific example of the benefits of connecting developmental and adult research, some recent research in adult perception is described. The research indicates that in adult object segregation, two types of processes may be distinguished: basic perceptual processes of object segregation and more cognitive processes involving recognition. I suggest that Needham's research may be revealing the developmental origins of the latter processes.

Child Development↗
PubMed2000

Computerised audiovisual event recording for infant apnoea and bradycardia.

Event recording, by differentiating between true and false events, has advanced the diagnosis and management of infants on home cardiorespiratory monitors; however, the pathogenesis of many events remains obscure. To clarify infant behaviours around the time of apnoea/bradycardia alarms, a computerised audiovisual event recording system (CAVERS) triggered by the apnoea/bradycardia recorder, has been developed. The audiovisual recording can begin up to 3 min before the alarm and can continue for up to 3 min after the alarm. CAVERS information is recorded for a total of 65 events in 13 infants. The CAVERS proves most helpful in documenting infant position and the wide variety of behaviours associated with bradycardic events. These behaviours range from sleep or quiet wakefulness to crying and generalised movements. Post-event activity is also highly variable. Interestingly, 20 of 65 events appear to terminate when the infant wakes to the audible monitor alarm. Nursing intervention is documented for 14 of 42 bradycardic events but only one of 23 apnoeic events. The CAVERS, by elucidating infant behaviours, provides information complementary to that given by cardiorespiratory event recording. It is suggested that infant monitors of the future should incorporate both audiovisual and cardiorespiratory data to elucidate optimally apparent life-threatening events, apnoeas and bradycardias.

Apnea↗