This thesis discusses normal principles of infant development during the first 2 to 3 months of life and applies these principles to the provision of services to drug-exposed infants. Emphasis is on the infant as an active and interactive participant in his/her own development, the primacy of the body during this early developmental period, and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the social support network of mothers with high risk infants and the relation between support and mother-infant interactive behavior. Two issues were investigated: who gave what kind of support to the mother as a function of her infant's birth status; and the relation between type of support and…

New research in brain development reveals the vital importance of the relationship between caregiver and child in the critical first years of life. This Spanish-language video explores the role of parents in stimulating early childhood development. The 28-minute video discusses: (1) attachment and the role of touch in creating a bond between…

The Gentle Approach is a method for lifting infants younger than 6 months that promotes security and reassurance during adult-imposed changes in position. Developed at the Emmi Pilker National Methodological Institute for Residential Nurseries in Budapest, Hungary, the approach provides continual support and less opportunity for unprotected…

This book is a comprehensive month-by-month guide covering parents' questions about the first year with a new baby. It includes an illustrated baby care primer, a first-aid guide, and recipes. It also contains special sections on the older sibling, selecting the right physician, seasonal concerns and traveling with baby, managing childhood…

This study investigated whether behavioral inhibition is best conceptualized as a continuous variable or as a distinct typology with two or more subcategories. The following data were gathered on 58 infants at 5, 7, 10, and 13 months of age; physiological functioning (cardiovascular activity and salivary cortisol); emotional expressivity in…

To make the point that infant emotions are more dynamic than suggested by Differential Emotions Theory, which maintains that infants show the same prototypical facial expressions for emotions as adults do, this paper explores two questions: (1) when infants experience an emotion, do they always show the corresponding prototypical facial…

This paper discusses the development of instruments to measure individual differences in behavior during infancy. The Infant Temperament Questionnaire (ITQ), which was designed to measure the temperament dimensions identified by the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS), constituted the methodological starting point in the search for a dimensional…

This exploratory study investigated whether the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) can predict an infant's behavior on mastery motivation tasks at 1 and 2 years of age. Subjects were 31 normal, full-term infants from white, mostly middle class families. Infants were assessed using the NBAS with Kansas Supplements (NBAS-K) at a…

This study examined whether cry acoustics enhance the prediction of developmental outcome in preterm infants, after accounting for medical and social variables. Selection criteria for 149 preterm subjects included being born at less than 35 weeks gestational age and less than 1,500 grams; for 25 term subjects, selection criteria included being…

This document contains a report from the North Carolina Task Force for the Prevention of Substance Use Among Pregnant Women, a task force established to develop a long-range plan to decrease infant death and disability due to exposure to toxic substances in utero. The executive summary identifies four major problem areas which negatively affect…

This study was designed to answer the following three questions: (1) Are infants' first words always context-bound when they are initially acquired? (2) Do mothers use infants' first words in a context-bound manner when interacting with their infants? (3) What relationship, if any, exists between infants' initial use of early words and mothers'…

An investigation was made of the behavioral effects of caffeine in a sample of 313 newborns and their mothers. A weighted measure of caffeine based on daily ingestion of coffee, tea, and cola was derived from a maternal interview. The majority of mothers consumed the equivalent of about 1.3 cups of coffee per day. Infant outcome measures included…

Focusing on infants' physical attractiveness and behavior, this study explores reasons some infants receive greater amounts and different types of attention from adults than do others. Subjects were observed in 21 groups of three, consisting of one adult and two same-sex infants. Adult subjects were unmarried, childless undergraduate women…

The influence of negative affect on the retrieval of information from memory during infancy was investigated in two studies through the use of an operant conditioning paradigm. The procedure used, known as "mobile conjugate reinforcement," involves a free operant task in which an infant is reinforced for footkicking by the movement of an…