The developing brain has the capacity for a great deal of plasticity. A number of investigators have demonstrated that intellectual and language skills may be in the normal range in children following unilateral perinatal stroke. Questions have been raised, however, about whether these skills can be maintained at the same level as the brain…

Examined test retest stability of the Maternal Perinatal Scale in 41 mothers. Item stability found over a two-day period and intercorrelations between specific information assessed by items support the clinical and research potential of a systematic self-report format in the assessment of perinatal histories. (Author/NB)

Found that infants who were delivered with their head turned right exhibited a neonatal right supine head orientation and a right-hand preference in visually guided reaching tasks at 19 weeks of age. Contrary to prediction, infants delivered with their head turned left did not exhibit a left-sided preference in either neonatal head position or…

Neuroanatomical structure appears to be altered in preterm infants, but there has been little insight into the major perinatal risk factors associated with regional cerebral structural alterations. MR images were taken to quantitatively compare regional brain tissue volumes between term and preterm infants and to investigate associations between…

Perinatal HIV infection in the US continues to evolve from a fatal pediatric illness to a chronic medical condition of childhood and adolescence. Although navigating this period is influenced by multi-leveled deprivations commonly experienced by low-income minority families, HIV alters the timing and experience of developmental milestones for many…

This document contains the second in a series of Congressional hearings being held by the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families to examine substance abuse among pregnant and parenting women and to explore prevention and treatment strategies. In his opening statement, Committee Chairman George Miller expresses hope that testimony…

Contemporaneous birth records of 49 Dublin (Ireland) children with autism were compared to those of the previous same-sex live birth for maternal age, maternal parity, birth order, and birth weight. Autistic individuals did not differ from controls in terms of risk factors for autism associated with obstetric adversity, disputing the view that…

This article is excerpted from the authors' "The Community-Based Doula: Supporting Families Before, During, and After Childbirth", published in 2006 by "ZERO TO THREE." In the U.S., many new parents are socially isolated and lack access to ongoing caring and support because of poverty, immigration, language barriers, or the growing mobility and…

Background: Methodological challenges such as confounding have made the study of the early determinants of mental health morbidity problematic. This study aims to address these challenges in investigating antenatal, perinatal and postnatal risk factors for the development of mental health problems in pre-school children in a cohort of Western…

The natal influences, and the inter- and intrapair intellectual differences of 16 sets of identical twins were evaluated in a retrospective study. (DP)

Research on the contribution of low birthweight, perinatal problems, congenital disorders, and mental retardation to child abuse is reviewed. Analysis indicates handicapping conditions are not major causal factors, while longitudinal research suggest that minor deviations in child behavior rather than major handicaps are related to the occurence…

Children (N=434) with nonsyndromic mental retardation were analysed for frequency of prenatal, perinatal and infantile biological disturbances. Mildly retarded individuals of unrelated parentage, both idiopathic and familial, had a strikingly higher prevalence of disturbances than a control group of retarded individuals with consanguineous parents…

The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale was administered to 54 full-term, healthy infants on days 1 through 5 and on days 7 and 10. Infants were divided into eight groups, differing in terms of the obstetrical medication mothers received. Low dosages of obstetrical medication were found to have significant but subtle effects on the…