Examines the relationship between an infant's sex and its capacity to maintain eye contact. Subjects were 15 male and 15 female newborn infants. (MP)

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…

Results indicated that six cries differentially affected subjects' affective, self-reported, behavioral responses and tendency to report not hearing the cry. Participants were 53 male and 65 female psychology undergraduates and 58 mothers who were exposed to one of six types of infant cries. Higher pitched cries elicited less optimal responses…

Intended for early intervention professionals working with at-risk neonates, the article describes treatment approaches found in the neonatal intensive care unit in terms of: (1) organization and staffing patterns, (2) basic equipment, (3) routine care procedures, (4) family involvement, and (5) common infant diseases/problems and intervention…

Examined gender differences in bereavement following miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth, and neonatal death. Interviewed 56 couples using Perinatal Grief Scale. Women scored significantly higher than men on most dimensions of grief at two months, one year, and two years postloss, except on dimension indicating most serious consequences of…

Reviews prenatal and postnatal methods of gestational age estimation and evaluates implementation of this information in research. Recommendations concerning the assignment of gestational age in the perinatal period and the use of age correction for preterm infants are offered. (Author/BC)

Twice during the neonatal period, the behavioral organization of 42 newborns was assessed by the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), and the newborns' cortisol response to the NBAS procedure was determined. Newborns with low orientation showed a higher increase in cortisol during the NABS than newborns with high orientation. (MDM)

When tendon jerk reflexes were tested in seven newborns from one- to three-days old, stretch reflex responses in all major muscle groups of the lower limb were elicited. This "irradiation of reflexes" is a normal phenomenon in newborns, with the pathway becoming suppressed during normal maturation. In individuals with cerebral palsy,…

The organization and structuring of spontaneous arm movements of eight neonates were studied quantitatively, with each movement divided into an acceleration phase and a deceleration phase. Found that the movements of the two arms were coupled in all three dimensions of space and had a tendency to follow the body's longitudinal axis. (MDM)

Examined experiences of 215 young birthmothers who placed their infants for adoption through 30 maternity residences and agencies in 13 states. Examined prebirth services they received, their immediate postbirth experiences, and characteristics of their adoption arrangements. Found that several service-procedural variables were related to…

Used a modified visual-fixation-based auditory-preference procedure to test preferences for infant-directed singing versus adult-directed singing in 15 two-day-old hearing infants of deaf parents. Subjects heard a Japanese and an English play song. Found that infants prefer infant-directed singing over adult-directed singing and that the…

At their first postnatal meal, 3-hour-old rats learned an association between an odor and a sweet or bitter taste. Retention after a long interval or after associative interference was compared to that of 1-day-old rats. Despite equivalent and negligible effect of the long retention interval, contrary to infantile amnesia, newborns differed…

This study explored whether the reported inability of newborns to perceive object unity could result from the limited abilities of newborns to recognize the correspondence between 2 stimuli that were identical except for the presence or absence of an occluder. Five experiments were carried out using a visual habituation technique. The results of…

This most recent Iowa Kids Count data book, "Iowa Kids Count 2010: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children," provides data on 20 different indicators of child and family well-being at the United States, Iowa, substate and county level. The annually produced data book presents health, education, welfare and economic data including…

The expansion of newborn screening programs to include multiplex testing by tandem mass spectrometry requires understanding and close monitoring of performance metrics. This is not done consistently because of lack of defined targets, and interlaboratory comparison is almost nonexistent. Between July 2004 and April 2006 (N = 176,185 cases), the…