Evaluated psychological mechanisms underlying imitation of facial actions in 40 newborn infants. Results showed imitation of head movement and a tongue-protrusion gesture. Subjects imitated from memory after displays had stopped. (RJC)

Studied hand-mouth coordination in 40 infants of 1-3 days. Sucrose solution was delivered intraorally every 2 minutes. Results provide evidence for sucrose as a calming agent and for a coordinative behavorial system that integrates hand-mouth activity in supine human infants. (RJC)

Investigated newborns' responses to decreased sound pressure level (SPL) by means of a localized head turning habituation procedure. Findings, which demonstrated recovery of neonatal head turning to decreased SPL, were inconsistent with the selective receptor adaptation model. (RH)

Cyclical fluctuation in spontaneous motor activity (CM) emerges in fetus and persists in newborn. This "resetting" experiment perturbed CM by noise stimulus during infants' active sleep. Pre- and postperturbation CM were measured and compared. Subjects were 33 infants between 1 and 3 days of age. The stimulus induced a relative slowing of CM…

Of the 1,797 babies admitted to a hospital in Saudi Arabia over a 3-year period, 8% were documented as having NNS. Identified several gram-positive bacteria, several gram-negative bacteria, and candida albicans as etiological agents in the cases of NNS. Determined the antibiotic susceptibility of the bacteria. (BC)

Behavioral responses of 3- to 4-day-old newborns to the odors of various human milk (HM) and formula milk (FM) were examined in paired-choice tests. When both stimuli were nonfamiliar, breast-fed, as well as bottle-fed, infants oriented their head and mouthed more vigorously to HM than to FM. When breast-fed infants were exposed to nonfamiliar HM…

This study examined the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal behavior during mother-infant interactions during the neonatal period. Participants included 84 mother-infant dyads (43 cigarette-exposed and 41 nonexposed) who were recruited after birth and assessed at 2 to 4 weeks of infant age. Results indicated that…

Behavioral outcomes in mother-infant interaction in the first month of life after contact in the recovery room are described. In the first postpartum hour, personnel presented 62 infants to their mothers. Personnel crossed two modes (skin-to-skin versus cradling) and two durations (15 versus 60 minutes) of contact. Instances of maternal and infant…

Thirty papers are presented from a 1981 workshop on the relationship between health care and education for infants with special needs and their families. Following a synopsis of the keynote speech, "Assessment in Early Infancy as an Intervention" by T. Berry Brazelton, three theme speeches are presented: "Building Relationships:…

This new addition of a government pamphlet is a guide offering advice and information to new parents. Sections include: You and Your New Baby (handling the baby, care of the mother, feeding, etc.); First Weeks at Home (equipment, formula preparation, bathing, sleeping, crying, colic, etc.); After the First Weeks (temperament, "difficult" babies,…

The article describes a counseling program that combines both educational and counseling techniques to ease a man's transition to parenthood in a three-stage program (before, during, and after the birth of the first child). It acknowledges that many institutional changes would be necessary to accommodate this program. (LPG)

A factor analysis was performed on the behavioral items of the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale for an urban population of 328 newborns. (Author/JMB)

A sample of six newborn infants were picked up when spontaneously awake, and were presented recorded mother-talk while being held to the shoulder. Control groups received the same recorded stimulus while awake in the crib or received no stimulus trials. (Author/JMB)

Three experiments examined the visual attentiveness of full-term vs. premature infants. (SB)