The purpose of this review of literature is to examine the association of phthalate exposure with development. Phthalates are chemical compounds used in poly-vinyl chloride, PVC; vinyl flooring, cosmetics, shampoo, air fresheners, soft plastic items, intravenous tubing, food packaging and wraps, textiles, paints, cleaning products and detergents.…

Limited literature exists which examines how parents of infants hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) transition from their infant's NICU hospital stay to home. This study examines the question, "What are the experiences of parents during their infant's transition from the NICU to home?" Grounded theory methods served as the…

Low maternal healthcare service utilization contributes to poor maternal and new born health outcomes in rural Zambia. The purpose of this study was to identify important factors influencing women's intention to use these services in Kalomo, Zambia. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 1007 women of reproductive…

A series of studies on newborns' abilities for recognizing speaking faces has been performed in order to identify the fundamental cues of social cognition. We used audiovisual dynamic faces rather than photographs or patterns of faces. Direct eye gaze and speech addressed to newborns, in interactive situations, appear to be two good candidates for…

Background: Recent evidence suggests that impaired foetal growth may provide an early indication of increased risk of child attention problems. However, despite both foetal growth and child attention problems differing by sex, few studies have examined sex differences in this association. Furthermore, no studies have been conducted in low- and…

Statistical learning--implicit learning of statistical regularities within sensory input--is a way of acquiring structure within continuous sensory environments. Statistics computation, initially shown to be involved in word segmentation, has been demonstrated to be a general mechanism that operates across domains, across time and space, and…

The ability to statistically segment a continuous auditory stream is one of the most important preparations for initiating language learning. Such ability is available to human infants at 8 months of age, as shown by a behavioral measurement. However, behavioral study alone cannot determine how early this ability is available. A recent study using…

Human neonates spend the majority of their time sleeping. Despite the limited waking hours available for environmental exploration, the first few months of life are a time of rapid learning about the environment. The organization of neonate sleep differs qualitatively from adult sleep, and the unique characteristics of neonatal sleep may promote…

Upon stimulation, real time maps of cortical hemodynamic responses can be obtained by non-invasive functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) which measures changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin after positioning multiple sources and detectors over the human scalp. The current commercially available transportable fNIRS systems have…

Using guidelines of the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology Group, we systematically reviewed the literature on neonatal jaundice (unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in term and preterm infants. Thirteen studies were included in a meta-analysis. Most used retrospective matched case-control…

This study used data from a population-based cerebral palsy (CP) registry and systematic review to assess the amount of heterogeneity between registries in topographical patterns when dichotomised into unilateral (USCP) and bilateral spastic CP (BSCP), and whether the terms diplegia and quadriplegia provide useful additional epidemiological…

Data were analyzed from a population-based, longitudinal sample of 8,650 U.S. children to (a) identify factors associated with or predictive of oral vocabulary size at 24 months of age and (b) evaluate whether oral vocabulary size is uniquely predictive of academic and behavioral functioning at kindergarten entry. Children from higher…

Medical and technological advances in neonatology have prompted the initiation and expansion of developmentally supportive services for newborns and have incorporated rehabilitation professionals into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) multidisciplinary team. Availability of therapists specialized in the care of neonates, the roles of…

Research has linked parents' educational expectations to children's educational attainment, but findings are inconsistent regarding differences in educational expectations by race and ethnicity. In addition, existing studies have focused on school-age children and their parents. In this study, we use a state representative sample to examine…

After agreeing to host over 200 students on a daylong genetics field trip, the author needed an easy-to-prepare genetics experiment to accompany the DNA-necklace and gel-electrophoresis activities already planned. One of the student's mothers is a pediatric physician at the local hospital, and she suggested exploring genetic-disease screening…