Worldwide, 15 million babies are "born too soon" every year (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). Remarkably, prematurity survival rates now exceed 93% across all countries. More than 360,000 preterm babies survived in the United States in 2020; 10% of all births (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). While this is an…

Linguistic alignment--the contingent reuse of our interlocutors' language at all levels of linguistic structure--pervades human dialogue. Here, we design unique measures to capture the degree of linguistic alignment between interlocutors' linguistic representations at three levels of structure: lexical, syntactic, and semantic. We track these…

This paper reports on a 3-month longitudinal study comparing the crying behavior of a group of babies delivered by the "nonviolent" Leboyer method with a control group delivered by traditional methods. Subjects were 24 white, middle class infants delivered by minimally medicated, multiparous and primiparous mothers. Fourteen newborns…

This report discusses the magnitude of the problem of birth defects, outlines advances in the birth defects field in the past decade, and identifies those areas where research is needed for the prevention, treatment, and management of birth defects. The problem of birth defects has consumed a greater portion of our health care resources because of…

This speech sketches a picture of post-natal health care in the United States, circa 1979. Between 1970 and 1976, post-natal infant deaths in the first week after birth dropped 32%. During the same period, the post-neonatal decline was just 12%. Statistics are presented which highlight areas of concern. Variation across states, high incidence in…

This pilot study examined the effects of potential "risk" factors on mother-infant interaction using a short-term longitudinal design. Twenty infants were observed in their homes at 3 and 8 months and maternal ratings of infant temperament were obtained. Mothers of infants born after severe obstetric complications held their babies more…

This study examined the effects of early vs. extended mother-infant contact on infant, maternal and interactional outcomes in the lying-in period for 104 lower class mother-infant dyads. The early contact treatment consisted of placing the mother and neonate together for 10 to 45 minutes within the first 3 postpartum hours. The extended contact…

This study of 134 mothers and their newborn infants evaluated the relationships between neonatal style and mother-infant interaction. The procedure included a newborn assessment with the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale and two mother-infant interaction observations, one carried out during feeding and the other during a semi-structured…

This study examining children's understanding of biological inheritance addressed four central questions: (1) are young children able to distinguish between the relative influences of nature and nurture in their understanding of how physical characteristics versus behaviors and preferences develop in animals? (2) does children's understanding of…

This study examined Hungarian mothers' recollections, 8 years after the birth of their premature baby, of their stress at the time of the baby's birth. Interviews were conducted with 30 mothers whose babies had been born between 30 and 37 weeks gestational age. At the time of the follow-up, all children had normal IQs and were attending normal…

To assess the relationship between specific neonatal variables and subsequent mental development, a longitudinal study of 41 children from a high-risk neonatal nursery was conducted. For each child, 58 measures of neonatal condition (e.g., head size, various laboratory values, delivery mode) were available, as were developmental assessments up to…

This paper presents results of the first part of a research program designed to test the hypothesis that an hour of extra contact between mother and infant beginning about one half hour after delivery would be associated with more secure attachment of an infant to its mother at one year. In the overall study extra contact infants were also…

This report examines the relationship between maternal medication during labor and mother-infant interaction on the third day of life. Subjects were 45 black low-income mothers and their healthy full-term infants. The mothers' perinatal drug history was obtained, and a coded observational schedule was used to record maternal and infant behaviors…

Examined with over 28,000 7-year-old children whose mothers registered for prenatal care was the relationship between perinatal complications and such characteristics as poor school achievement, hyperactivity, and neurological soft signs associated with the diagnosis of minimal brain dysfunction (MBD). Ten perinatal antecedents were studied:…

This paper reviews the evidence for various biological mechanisms in autism and discusses implications of these mechanisms for treatment. A brief introductory discussion examines the history of research on autism. Then the literature is reviewed and treatment implications are drawn for the following biological mechanisms: genetic disorders;…