Investigated 314 young children who had neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia. Results indicated that these children managed less well in neurological and psychological tests, had poorer school marks, and more often attended special classes than did members of the control group. (RJC)

Two studies found infants' scores on the Range of State Cluster of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale with Kansas Supplements to correlate significantly with visual discrimination performance at three months of age. The correlation with behavioral state organization contradicted the prediction that orientation scores would predict visual…

Examined asymmetries in movement behaviors of 36 full-term, newborn infants. The majority of infants had right-biased movement behaviors. Multiple subsystems, rather than a single asymmetric system, appeared to control asymmetric action of different body regions. There were sex differences in asymmetry of distal lower body movement behaviors that…

Neonates who were exposed to the same or different words on two consecutive days habituated to the sound on day one and recovered head turning on day two. Infants who heard the same word again on day two responded less well than infants exposed to the word for the first time on day two. (BC)

Variations in the aversiveness of a newborn's distress cry were examined by means of manipulation of features of fundamental frequency, intonation, and spectral complexity, and of information given to subjects about the infant's health status. Findings suggest that the listener's reaction to cry characteristics can be altered by the inducement of…

Notes that life-saving advances in medicine have created difficult ethical and legal dilemmas for health care professionals. Presents beginning knowledge base for bioethical practice, especially in hospital neonatal units. Outlines key elements of bioethical decision making and examines potential social work role from clinical and organizational…

Studied head-orientation response of breast-feeding neonates in paired-choice odor tests. Found that 2-day olds detected amniotic fluid and colostrum, treating them as similar sensorily and/or hedonically. Four-day olds exhibited a preference for breast milk. Three-day olds oriented longer toward the odor of their own amniotic fluid than alien…

This study examined event-related potentials (ERPs) to synthetic consonant-vowel syllables from 26 newborns with familial risk for dyslexia and 23 control infants participating in a longitudinal study of dyslexia. Results indicated that the cortical electric activation evoked by speech elements differed between children with and without risk for…

Students from Far Rockaway High School are just back from spring break, and media specialist Geri Ellner is busy getting ready for her first class. She's already pulled out a copy of Anthony Browne's award-winning picture book "The Shape Game" (Farrar, 2003), and now she's patiently cuing up a Disney video of "Pocahontas" on…

Expansion of newborn screening (NBS) has been driven primarily by a combination of advances in technology and medical treatment, and the sustained advocacy efforts of consumers and voluntary health organizations. The longstanding leadership of the March of Dimes has been credited by many as a critical factor in the expansion and improvement of…

Recent changes in genetics research have created new opportunities to improve the scope and quality of newborn screening services. Changes in newborn screening should be supported and directed by an organized program of research. The NICHD Research Initiative in Newborn Screening includes the development of systematic methods to identify…

Behavioral preferences for consonance over dissonance were tested in hearing infants of deaf parents and in hearing infants of hearing parents when they were 2 days old. Using a modified visual-fixation-based, auditory-preference procedure, I found that both 2-day-old infants of deaf parents and those of hearing parents looked longer at a visual…

This paper discusses the beginnings of post-natal psychic life, what constitutes the ordinary state of unintegration in the neonate, the nature of the baby's ego, and the clinical relevance of these questions. It is argued that an infant's state of passive unintegration in which the object functions as a "skin" to bind together the parts of the…

In a longitudinal study of 29 middle-class Japanese infants, an attempt was made to identify early temperamental dispositions that predict later attachment classification. Specifically, Ainsworth Strange Situation observations at 12 months of age were preceded by, among others, observation of distress evident in newborns when a nipple was removed;…

The materials cited in this annotated bibliography focus on maternal and infant health and the critical importance of good nutrition. Audiovisuals and books are listed in 152 citations derived from online searches of the AGRICOLA database. Materials are available from the National Agricultural Library or through interlibrary loan to a local…