Effects of Access to a Stimulating Object on Infant Behavior during Tummy Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kadey, Heather J.; Roane, Henry S.

2012-01-01

Placing infants in a prone position for "tummy time" often is recommended to ensure appropriate infant development and to combat the effects associated with infants spending extended periods of time in a supine position. However, tummy time may be associated with inappropriate infant behavior such as crying and noncompliance. We provided…

The Effect of the Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program on Mother-Infant Interaction after Very Preterm Birth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meijssen, Dominique; Wolf, Marie-Jeanne; Koldewijn, Karen; Houtzager, Bregje A.; Van Wassenaer, Aleid; Tronick, Ed; Kok, Joke; Van Baar, Anneloes

2010-01-01

Background: Prematurity and perinatal insults lead to increased developmental vulnerability. The home-based Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program (IBAIP) was designed to improve development of preterm infants. In a multicenter randomized controlled trial the effect of IBAIP on mother-infant interaction was studied as a secondary…

The Impact of Maternal Depression on the Infant: Implications for Object Relations Development and Subsequent Clinical Sequelae.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francis, Barbara Joanne

In this paper the impact of maternal depression on infant behavior is evaluated through a review of current research. The following topics are discussed: (1) types of maternal depression; (2) impact of maternal depression on infant behavior; (3) attachment behaviors of infants with depressed mothers; and (4) the older child of a depressed mother,…

Development and Initial Validation of a Parent Report Measure of the Behavioral Development of Infants at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldman, Maurice A.; Ward, Rebecca A.; Savona, Danielle; Regehr, Kaleigh; Parker, Kevin; Hudson, Melissa; Penning, Henderika; Holden, Jeanette J. A.

2012-01-01

We developed and evaluated a new parent report instrument--Parent Observation of Early Markers Scale (POEMS)--to monitor the behavioral development of infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) because they have older affected siblings. Parents of 108 at-risk infants (74 males, 34 females) completed the POEMS from child age 1-24 months.…

Trajectories of regulatory behaviors in early infancy: Determinants of infant self-distraction and self-comforting.

PubMed

Planalp, Elizabeth M; Braungart-Rieker, Julia M

2015-03-01

The ability to effectively regulate emotions is an important marker for early socioemotional development. The uses of self-comforting behaviors and self-distraction have been empirically supported as effective regulatory strategies for infants, though research on determinants of such behaviors is scarce. Thus, a more thorough examination of the development of regulatory behaviors is needed. For the current study, 135 mothers, fathers, and their infants participated in laboratory visits at 3-, 5-, and 7-months of age where parent sensitivity and infant regulatory strategies were coded from the Still Face Paradigm. Parents also filled out questionnaires about infant temperament and parental involvement. Using multi-level modeling to examine levels and trajectories of self-comforting and self-distraction, the current study found: 1) infants higher in temperamental surgency used more self-distraction and self-comforting, 2) infants lower in surgency with highly involved parents increased in self-distraction at a faster rate, particularly with highly involved fathers, and 3) infants used self-comforting more than average with fathers when the infant was also lower in temperamental regulation. In addition, we examined trajectories of parent involvement and temperament in relation to infant regulatory strategy.

Longitudinal associations between maternal disrupted representations, maternal interactive behavior and infant attachment: a comparison between full-term and preterm dyads.

PubMed

Hall, R A S; Hoffenkamp, H N; Tooten, A; Braeken, J; Vingerhoets, A J J M; van Bakel, H J A

2015-04-01

This prospective study examined whether or not a mother's representations of her infant were more often disrupted after premature childbirth. Furthermore, the study examined if different components of maternal interactive behavior mediated the relation between maternal disrupted representations and infant attachment. The participants were mothers of full-term (n = 75), moderately preterm (n = 68) and very preterm infants (n = 67). Maternal representations were assessed by the Working Model of the Child Interview at 6 months post-partum. Maternal interactive behavior was evaluated at 6 and 24 months post-partum, using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Care Research Network mother-infant observation scales. Infant attachment was observed at 24 months post-partum and was coded by the Attachment Q-Set. The results reveal that a premature childbirth does not necessarily generate disrupted maternal representations of the infant. Furthermore, maternal interactive behavior appears to be an important mechanism through which maternal representations influence the development of infant attachment in full-term and preterm infants. Early assessment of maternal representations can identify mother-infant dyads at risk, in full-term and preterm samples.

Motor, mental and behavioral developments in infancy are associated with fatty acid pattern in breast milk and plasma of premature infants.

PubMed

Sabel, K-G; Strandvik, B; Petzold, M; Lundqvist-Persson, C

2012-04-01

The objective of this study was to investigate any association between infants' early development and PUFA concentrations in early breast milk and infants' plasma phospholipids at 44 weeks gestational age. Fifty-one premature infants were included. The quality of general movement was assessed at 3 months, and motor, mental and behavioral development at 3, 6, 10 and 18 months corrected age using Bayley's Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II). Linoleic acid, the major n-6/n-3 FA ratios, Mead acid and the EFA deficiency index in early breast milk were negatively associated with development up to 18 months of age. DHA and AA, respectively, in infants' plasma phospholipids was positively, but the AA/DHA ratio negatively, associated with development from 6 to 18 months of age. Our data suggest that the commonly found high n-6 concentration in breast milk is associated with less favorable motor, mental and behavioral development up to 18 months of age. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Does the development of executive functioning in infants born preterm benefit from maternal directiveness?

PubMed

van de Weijer-Bergsma, Eva; Wijnroks, Lex; van Haastert, Ingrid C; Boom, Jan; Jongmans, Marian J

2016-12-01

Problems in early development of executive functioning may underlie the vulnerability and individual variability of infants born preterm for behavioral and learning problems. Parenting behaviors may aggravate or temper this increased risk for dysfunction. This study assessed how maternal parenting behaviors predict individual differences in early development of executive functioning in infants born preterm, and whether this varies with infant temperament, i.e., self-regulation. Participants were 76 infants born preterm (≤36weeks' gestation and <2500g birth weight) and their mothers. Maternal sensitive responsiveness and directiveness were observed during a mother-infant interaction situation at 7, 10 and 14months corrected age. At the same ages, executive functioning was measured using the A-not-B task. An infant self-regulation questionnaire (IBQ-R) was completed by mothers at 7months. After controlling for perinatal risk factors, Multivariate Latent Growth Modeling showed that consistently higher levels of maternal directiveness predicted a stronger increase in A-not-B performance, which did not vary with infant self-regulation. No relationship between maternal sensitive responsiveness and development in A-not-B performance in infants born preterm was found. These results suggest that preterm infants' early executive functioning development in the first year of life may benefit from a more and consistent directive approach by their mothers. These findings have important implications for early intervention programs aimed at facilitating preterm infants' development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Postural Complexity Differs Between Infant Born Full Term and Preterm During the Development of Early Behaviors

PubMed Central

Dusing, Stacey C; Izzo, Theresa A.; Thacker, Leroy R.; Galloway, James C

2014-01-01

Background and Aims Postural control differs between infants born preterm and full term at 1–3 weeks of age. It is unclear if differences persist or alter the development of early behaviors. The aim of this longitudinal study was to compare changes in postural control variability during development of head control and reaching in infants born preterm and full term. Methods Eighteen infants born preterm (mean gestational age 28.3±3.1 weeks) were included in this study and compared to existing data from 22 infants born full term. Postural variability was assessed longitudinally using root mean squared displacement and approximate entropy of the center of pressure displacement from birth to 6 months as measures of the magnitude of the variability and complexity of postural control. Behavioral coding was used to quantify development of head control and reaching. Results Group differences were identified in postural complexity during the development of head control and reaching. Infants born preterm used more repetitive and less adaptive postural control strategies than infants born full term. Both groups changed their postural complexity utilized during the development of head control and reaching. Discussion Early postural complexity was decreased in infants born preterm, compared to infants born full term. Commonly used clinical assessments did not identify these early differences in postural control. Altered postural control in infants born preterm influenced ongoing skill development in the first six months of life. PMID:24485170

Sex differences in parent-infant interaction during free play, departure, and separation.

PubMed

Weinraub, M; Frankel, J

1977-12-01

20 18-month-olds were observed with their mothers and 20 with their fathers in laboratory free-play, departure, and separation situations. Parent and infant behaviors were allowed to vary naturally. Although there were no parent sex or infant sex differences in infants' free-play behavior, there were parent sex X infant sex differences in parental free-play behaviors. Parents talked to, sat on the floor more with, and tended to share play more with same-sexed than opposite-sexed infants, and the patterning of free-play behaviors was different for mothers and fathers. During departure, fathers talked to the infants more than mothers. Infants were more distressed in the absence of same-sexed than opposite-sexed parents. There were infant sex X parent sex differences in the relationships between separation distress and parental free-play and departure behaviors. The implications of these findings for understanding differential roles of mothers and fathers, the development of sex differences, and the determinants of separation distress are discussed.

Early Language Development in Context: Interactions between Infant Temperament and Parenting Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laake, Lauren M.; Bridgett, David J.

2018-01-01

Research Findings: This study considered the interplay between infant temperament and maternal caregiving behaviors in relation to early language. A total of 118 mother-infant dyads participated in the study. Mothers rated infant positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), and maternal behaviors were coded during a free-play task when infants…

The dynamic still-face effect: do infants decrease bidding over time when parents are not responsive?

PubMed

Ekas, Naomi V; Haltigan, John D; Messinger, Daniel S

2013-06-01

The still-face paradigm (SFP) was designed to assess infant expectations that parents will respond to infant communicative signals. During the still-face (SF) episode, the parent ceases interaction and maintains a neutral expression. Original, qualitative descriptions of infant behavior suggested changes within the SF episode: infants decrease bidding and disengage from their impassive parent. Research has documented changes in mean levels of infant behavior between episodes of the SFP. The hypothesis that infant behavior changes within the SF episode has not been empirically tested. In this study, hierarchical linear modeling indicated that infant gazing at the parent, smiling, and social bidding (smiling while gazing at the parent) decreased with time in the SF episode, while infant cry-face expressions increased. Changes in infant behaviors within the SF episode were associated with infant attachment and infant internalizing problems. The dynamic still-face effect quantifies infant initiation of interaction in the face of parental unresponsiveness and is a potential predictor of individual differences in development. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Effect of the home environment on motor and cognitive behavior of infants.

PubMed

Miquelote, Audrei F; Santos, Denise C C; Caçola, Priscila M; Montebelo, Maria Imaculada de L; Gabbard, Carl

2012-06-01

Although information is sparse, research suggests that affordances in the home provide essential resources that promote motor and cognitive skills in young children. The present study assessed over time, the association between motor affordances in the home and infant motor and cognitive behavior. Thirty-two (32) infants were assessed for characteristics of their home using the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development--Infant Scale and motor and cognitive behavior with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development--III. Infant's home and motor behavior were assessed at age 9 months and 6 months later with the inclusion of cognitive ability. Results for motor ability indicated that there was an overall improvement in performance from the 1st to the 2nd assessment. We found significant positive correlations between the dimensions of the home (daily activities and play materials) and global motor performance (1st assessment) and fine-motor performance on the 2nd assessment. In regard to cognitive performance (2nd assessment), results indicated a positive association with fine-motor performance. Our results suggest that motor affordances can have a positive impact on future motor ability and speculatively, later cognitive behavior in infants. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Infants born preterm demonstrate impaired object exploration behaviors throughout infancy and toddlerhood.

PubMed

Lobo, Michele A; Kokkoni, Elena; Cunha, Andrea Baraldi; Galloway, James Cole

2015-01-01

Object exploration behaviors form the foundation for future global development, but little is known about how these behaviors are exhibited by infants born preterm. The study objective was to longitudinally compare a comprehensive set of object exploration behaviors in infants born preterm and infants born full-term from infancy into toddlerhood. Twenty-two infants born full-term and 28 infants born preterm were monitored as they interacted with objects throughout their first 2 years. Infants were provided up to 30 seconds to interact with each of 7 objects across 9 visits. Experimenters coded videos of infants' behaviors. Growth modeling and t tests were used to compare how much infants exhibited behaviors and how well they matched their behaviors to the properties of objects. Infants born preterm explored objects less in the first 6 months, exhibited less visual-haptic multimodal exploration, displayed reduced variability of exploratory behavior in a manner that reflected severity of risk, and were less able to match their behaviors to the properties of objects in a manner that reflected severity of risk. Infants born preterm with significant brain injury also had impaired bimanual abilities. There was a limited sample of infants born preterm with significant brain injury. Infants born preterm have impaired abilities to interact with objects even in the first months of life. This impairment likely limits the knowledge they acquire about objects and about how they can act on them; this limited knowledge may, in turn, impair their early learning abilities. These results highlight the need for assessment and intervention tools specific for object exploration in young infants. © 2015 American Physical Therapy Association.

Infants Born Preterm Demonstrate Impaired Object Exploration Behaviors Throughout Infancy and Toddlerhood

PubMed Central

Kokkoni, Elena; Cunha, Andrea Baraldi; Galloway, James Cole

2015-01-01

Background Object exploration behaviors form the foundation for future global development, but little is known about how these behaviors are exhibited by infants born preterm. Objective The study objective was to longitudinally compare a comprehensive set of object exploration behaviors in infants born preterm and infants born full-term from infancy into toddlerhood. Design Twenty-two infants born full-term and 28 infants born preterm were monitored as they interacted with objects throughout their first 2 years. Methods Infants were provided up to 30 seconds to interact with each of 7 objects across 9 visits. Experimenters coded videos of infants' behaviors. Growth modeling and t tests were used to compare how much infants exhibited behaviors and how well they matched their behaviors to the properties of objects. Results Infants born preterm explored objects less in the first 6 months, exhibited less visual-haptic multimodal exploration, displayed reduced variability of exploratory behavior in a manner that reflected severity of risk, and were less able to match their behaviors to the properties of objects in a manner that reflected severity of risk. Infants born preterm with significant brain injury also had impaired bimanual abilities. Limitations There was a limited sample of infants born preterm with significant brain injury. Conclusions Infants born preterm have impaired abilities to interact with objects even in the first months of life. This impairment likely limits the knowledge they acquire about objects and about how they can act on them; this limited knowledge may, in turn, impair their early learning abilities. These results highlight the need for assessment and intervention tools specific for object exploration in young infants. PMID:25169919

Learning to match auditory and visual speech cues: social influences on acquisition of phonological categories.

PubMed

Altvater-Mackensen, Nicole; Grossmann, Tobias

2015-01-01

Infants' language exposure largely involves face-to-face interactions providing acoustic and visual speech cues but also social cues that might foster language learning. Yet, both audiovisual speech information and social information have so far received little attention in research on infants' early language development. Using a preferential looking paradigm, 44 German 6-month olds' ability to detect mismatches between concurrently presented auditory and visual native vowels was tested. Outcomes were related to mothers' speech style and interactive behavior assessed during free play with their infant, and to infant-specific factors assessed through a questionnaire. Results show that mothers' and infants' social behavior modulated infants' preference for matching audiovisual speech. Moreover, infants' audiovisual speech perception correlated with later vocabulary size, suggesting a lasting effect on language development. © 2014 The Authors. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Do infants influence their quality of care? Infants' communicative gestures predict caregivers' responsiveness.

PubMed

Vallotton, Claire D

2009-12-01

Infants' effects on adults are a little studied but important aspect of development. What do infants do that increases caregiver responsiveness in childcare environments? Infants' communicative behaviors (i.e. smiling, crying) affect mothers' responsiveness; and preschool children's language abilities affect teachers' responses in the classroom setting. However, the effects of infants' intentional communications on either parents' or non-parental caregivers' responsiveness have not been examined. Using longitudinal video data from an infant classroom where infant signing was used along with conventional gestures (i.e. pointing), this study examines whether infants' use of gestures and signs elicited greater responsiveness from caregivers during daily interactions. Controlling child age and individual child effects, infants' gestures and signs used specifically to respond to caregivers elicited more responsiveness from caregivers during routine interactions. Understanding the effects of infants' behaviors on caregivers is critical for helping caregivers understand and improve their own behavior towards children in their care.

Developmental origins of infant emotion regulation: Mediation by temperamental negativity and moderation by maternal sensitivity.

PubMed

Thomas, Jenna C; Letourneau, Nicole; Campbell, Tavis S; Tomfohr-Madsen, Lianne; Giesbrecht, Gerald F

2017-04-01

Emotion regulation is essential to cognitive, social, and emotional development and difficulties with emotion regulation portend future socioemotional, academic, and behavioral difficulties. There is growing awareness that many developmental outcomes previously thought to begin their development in the postnatal period have their origins in the prenatal period. Thus, there is a need to integrate evidence of prenatal influences within established postnatal factors, such as infant temperament and maternal sensitivity. In the current study, prenatal depression, pregnancy anxiety, and diurnal cortisol patterns (i.e., the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal slope) were assessed in 254 relatively low-risk mother-infant pairs (primarily White, middle-class) in early (M = 15 weeks) and late pregnancy (M = 33 weeks). Mothers reported on infant temperamental negativity (Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised) at 3 months. At 6 months, maternal sensitivity (Parent Child Interaction Teaching Scale) and infant emotion regulation behavior (Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery) were assessed. Greater pregnancy anxiety in early pregnancy and a blunted CAR in late pregnancy predicted higher infant temperamental negativity at 3 months, and those infants with higher temperamental negativity used fewer attentional regulation strategies and more avoidance (i.e., escape behavior) at 6 months. Furthermore, this indirect effect was moderated by maternal sensitivity whereby infants with elevated negativity demonstrated maladaptive emotion regulation at below average levels of maternal sensitivity. These findings suggest that the development of infant emotion regulation is influenced by the ways that prenatal exposures shape infant temperament and is further modified by postnatal caregiving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Handling newborn monkeys alters later exploratory, cognitive, and social behaviors.

PubMed

Simpson, Elizabeth A; Sclafani, Valentina; Paukner, Annika; Kaburu, Stefano S K; Suomi, Stephen J; Ferrari, Pier F

2017-08-18

Touch is one of the first senses to develop and one of the earliest modalities for infant-caregiver communication. While studies have explored the benefits of infant touch in terms of physical health and growth, the effects of social touch on infant behavior are relatively unexplored. Here, we investigated the influence of neonatal handling on a variety of domains, including memory, novelty seeking, and social interest, in infant monkeys (Macaca mulatta; n=48) from 2 to 12 weeks of age. Neonates were randomly assigned to receive extra holding, with or without accompanying face-to-face interactions. Extra-handled infants, compared to standard-reared infants, exhibited less stress-related behavior and more locomotion around a novel environment, faster approach of novel objects, better working memory, and less fear towards a novel social partner. In sum, infants who received more tactile stimulation in the neonatal period subsequently demonstrated more advanced motor, social, and cognitive skills-particularly in contexts involving exploration of novelty-in the first three months of life. These data suggest that social touch may support behavioral development, offering promising possibilities for designing future early interventions, particularly for infants who are at heightened risk for social disorders. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Triplet Birth and Infant Development: The Impact of Intrauterine Growth and Maternal-Infant Interaction on the Infant's Emotional and Cognitive Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eidelman, Arthur I.; Feldman, Ruth

2006-01-01

The explosion in the rate of multiple births has led to new questions about how adequately prepared parents are for the demands of raising triplets and the implications for the healthy development of the infants. The authors examined the relationship between mothering, infant social behavior, and cognitive development in a longitudinal study of 23…

Infant gaze following during parent-infant coviewing of baby videos.

PubMed

Demers, Lindsay B; Hanson, Katherine G; Kirkorian, Heather L; Pempek, Tiffany A; Anderson, Daniel R

2013-01-01

A total of 122 parent-infant dyads were observed as they watched a familiar or novel infant-directed video in a laboratory setting. Infants were between 12-15 and 18-21 months old. Infants were more likely to look toward the TV immediately following their parents' look toward the TV. This apparent social influence on infant looking at television was not solely due to the common influence of the television program on looking behavior. Moreover, infant looks that were preceded by parent looks tended to be longer in length than those that were not preceded by parent looks, suggesting that infants assign greater value to media content attended to by their parents. Thus, parental patterns of attention to television may influence early viewing behavior. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

INFANT AVOIDANCE DURING A TACTILE TASK PREDICTS AUTISM SPECTRUM BEHAVIORS IN TODDLERHOOD.

PubMed

Mammen, Micah A; Moore, Ginger A; Scaramella, Laura V; Reiss, David; Ganiban, Jody M; Shaw, Daniel S; Leve, Leslie D; Neiderhiser, Jenae M

2015-01-01

The experience of touch is critical for early communication and social interaction; infants who show aversion to touch may be at risk for atypical development and behavior problems. The current study aimed to clarify predictive associations between infant responses to tactile stimuli and toddler autism spectrum, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. This study measured 9-month-old infants' (N = 561; 58% male) avoidance and negative affect during a novel tactile task in which parents painted infants' hands and feet and pressed them to paper to make a picture. Parent reports on the Pervasive Developmental Problems (PDP), Internalizing, and Externalizing scales of the Child Behavior Checklist were used to measure toddler behaviors at 18 months. Infant observed avoidance and negative affect were significantly correlated; however, avoidance predicted subsequent PDP scores only, independent of negative affect, which did not predict any toddler behaviors. Findings suggest that incorporating measures of responses to touch in the study of early social interaction may provide an important and discriminating construct for identifying children at greater risk for social impairments related to autism spectrum behaviors. © 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Behavior Guidance for Infants and Toddlers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Honig, Alice Sterling

This booklet provides guidance to parents regarding behavior of infants and toddlers, including behavior development and problems. It offers common sense advice and practical examples. The chapters are: (1) "Introduction: What Is Misbehavior of Babies?", discussing "crying" as an appropriate behavior for meeting physical and emotional needs, and…

Infant Feeding and Attachment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ainsworth, Mary D. Salter; Tracy, Russel L.

This paper has two major purposes: first, to consider how infant feeding behavior may fit into attachment theory; and second, to cite some evidence to show how an infant's early interaction with his mother in the feeding situation is related to subsequent development. It was found that sucking and rooting are precursor attachment behaviors that…

Development of the Prosodic Features of Infants' Vocalizing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Harlan; Sheppard, William

Traditional research methods of recording infant verbal behavior, namely, descriptions by a single observer transcribing the utterances of a single infant in a naturalistic setting, have been inadequate to provide data necessary for modern linguistic analyses. The Center for Research on Language and Language Behavior has undertaken to correct this…

Behavioral characteristics of very-low-birth-weight infants of varying biologic risk at 6, 15, and 24 months of age.

PubMed

Oehler, J M; Thompson, R J; Goldstein, R F; Gustafson, K E; Brazy, J E

1996-01-01

To explore the relationship between developmental outcome and behavior of very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants (< or = 1500 g) at high and low biologic risk. Descriptive, ex post facto. Clinic for follow-up of infants at high risk. A convenience sample of 102 VLBW infants, free of major congenital anomalies, who completed 6-, 15-, and 24-month developmental testing and who were part of a larger study of 274 VLBW infants. Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Infants at high biologic risk, versus infants at low biologic risk, were less attentive and active through age 15 months and were less adept in gross and fine motor skills through age 24 months (p < or = 0.05-0.001). Infants with continuous delay were less attentive than infants with no delay or late delay through age 24 months, less active through age 15 months (p < or = 0.001-0.001), and less skilled in motor behaviors through age 24 months (p < or = 0.05-0.001). Infants at high biologic risk and infants with developmental delays are less attentive, less active, and less skilled in motor tasks during the first 15-24 months of life, suggesting an association between biologic risk and behavior and developmental delay and behavior.

Behavioral consequences of developmental iron deficiency in infant rhesus monkeys

PubMed Central

Golub, Mari S.; Hogrefe, Casey E.; Germann, Stacey L.; Capitanio, John P.; Lozoff, Betsy

2006-01-01

Human studies have shown that iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in infants are associated with behavioral impairment, but the periods of brain development most susceptible to iron deficiency have not been established. In the present study, rhesus monkeys were deprived of iron by dietary iron restriction during prenatal (n = 14, 10 μg Fe/g diet) or early postnatal (n = 12, 1.5 mg Fe/L formula) brain development and compared to controls (n = 12, 100 μg Fe/g diet, 12 mg Fe/L formula) in behavioral evaluations conducted during the first four months of life in the nonhuman primate nursery. Iron deficiency anemia was detected in the pregnant dams in the third trimester and compromised iron status was seen in the prenatally iron-deprived infants at birth, but no iron deficiency was seen in either the prenatally or postnatally iron-deprived infants during the period of behavioral evaluation. Neither prenatal nor postnatal iron deprivation led to significant delays in growth, or gross or fine motor development. Prenatally deprived infants demonstrated a 20% reduced spontaneous activity level, lower inhibitory response to novel environments, and more changes from one behavior to another in weekly observation sessions. Postnatally deprived infants demonstrated poorer performance of an object concept task, and greater emotionality relative to controls. This study indicates that different syndromes of behavioral effects are associated with prenatal and postnatal iron deprivation in rhesus monkey infants and that these effects can occur in the absence of concurrent iron deficiency as reflected in hematological measures. PMID:16343844

Does Caregiver Behavior Mediate the Relationship Between Cultural Individualism and Infant Pain at 12 Months of Age?

PubMed

O'Neill, Monica C; Pillai Riddell, Rebecca; Garfield, Hartley; Greenberg, Saul

2016-12-01

This study aimed to understand the relationship between caregiver culture and infant pain expression at the 12-month immunization and discern if a mechanism subsuming this relationship was the quality of caregiver behaviors (emotional availability). Infants (N = 393) with immunization data at 12 months of age were examined. On the basis of the Development of Infant Acute Pain Responding model, a mediation model was developed to examine how caregiver behaviors mediate the relationship between caregiver heritage culture and infant pain. Culture was operationalized by an objectively derived quantification of caregivers' self-reported heritage culture's individualism. Two mediation models were estimated, examining infant pain expression at 1 and 2 minutes post-needle. Caregivers who self-reported heritage cultures that were more highly individualistic tended to show greater emotional availability, which in turn predicted decreased infant pain expression at 1 and 2 minutes post-needle. The present findings further our understanding of one mechanism by which caregiver culture affects infant acute pain expression. Adding to the literature examining direct relationships between culture and infant immunization pain, this article proposes the quality of caregiver behaviors as a mechanism by which culture affects infant acute pain expression at 12 months of age. Results support the proposed mechanism and inform our understanding of the role of caregiver culture in the infant pain context. Copyright © 2016 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Childrearing practices and developmental expectations for Mexican-American mothers and the developmental status of their infants.

PubMed

Kolobe, Thubi H A

2004-05-01

The impact of parent education programs on early intervention programs is not thought to be uniform among children from majority and minority populations. This study examined the relationship between maternal childrearing practices and behaviors and the developmental status of Mexican-American infants. Participants were 62 Mexican-American mother-infant pairs. The infants' mean adjusted age was 12 months (SD=1.7, range=9-14). A third of the children were diagnosed with developmental delays and referred for early intervention by physicians or therapists when the children received their medical follow-up. The group was stratified according to socioeconomic status and acculturation using the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics. This scale uses cutoff points to classify individuals into 3 levels of acculturation. Information on childrearing practices and behaviors was gathered using the Parent Behavior Checklist (PBC), the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory, and the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (NCATS). Infants' developmental status was assessed by use of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID II). The Pearson product moment correlation, partial correlations, Fisher z transformation, and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between childrearing practices and parenting behaviors, demographic factors, and infants' developmental status. Maternal nurturing behaviors, parent-child interaction, and quality of the home environment were positively correlated with the infants' cognitive development. Maternal years of education modified the observed relationship between PBC and BSID II scores but not the observed relationship between HOME Inventory and NCATS scores. The childrearing practices, maternal socioeconomic status (SES) and age, and infants' gestational age at birth (GA) explained 45% of the variance in infants' cognitive scores. The infants' GA, maternal SES and age, and NCATS scores accounted for 32% of the motor scores on the BSID II. The findings partially support a link between aspects of the mothers' childrearing behaviors and their infants' cognitive developmental status. For motor developmental status, the association appeared stronger with the infants' characteristics than with maternal childrearing practices and behaviors tested in this study.

Responsive parenting: establishing early foundations for social, communication, and independent problem-solving skills.

PubMed

Landry, Susan H; Smith, Karen E; Swank, Paul R

2006-07-01

Mothers whose infants varied in early biological characteristics (born at term, n = 120; born at very low birth weight [VLBW], n = 144) were randomized to a target group (n = 133) or developmental feedback comparison group (n = 131) to determine whether learning responsive behaviors would facilitate infant development. The target condition included videotaped examples, problem-solving activities, and mothers' critique of their own behaviors through video procedures across 10 home visits. All target versus comparison mothers showed greater increases across multiple responsiveness behaviors observed in 4 assessments conducted across 6-13 months of age; changes in emotionally supportive behaviors were strongest for target mothers of infants born at VLBW. Increased maternal responsiveness facilitated greater growth in target infants' social, emotional, communication, and cognitive competence, supporting a causal role for responsiveness on infant development. Although benefits were generally comparable across risk groups, aspects of social and emotional skills showed greater change for those born at VLBW. Evidence for responsiveness as a multidimensional construct was provided as well as the importance of different aspects of responsiveness mediating the effect of the intervention on different infant skill domains.

A Method For The Longitudinal Study Of Behavioral Development In Infants And Children: The Early Development Of XXY Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walzer, Stanley; And Others

1978-01-01

This report summarizes preliminary results from a behavioral study of 13 male infants who were ascertained to have an XX Y sex chromosome complement at birth and who are being followed longitudinally through early ontogenesis. (CM)

Effects of prenatal exposure to atypical antipsychotics on postnatal development and growth of infants: a case-controlled, prospective study.

PubMed

Peng, Mei; Gao, Keming; Ding, Yiling; Ou, Jianjun; Calabrese, Joseph R; Wu, Renrong; Zhao, Jingping

2013-08-01

This study aims to investigate the developmental effects of atypical antipsychotics on infants who were born to mothers taking an atypical antipsychotic throughout pregnancy. The developmental progress of 76 infants who experienced fetal exposure to atypical antipsychotics was compared to that of 76 matched control infants who had no fetal exposure to any antipsychotics. Planned assessment included Apgar score, body weight, height, and the cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior composite scores of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, third edition (BSID-III). Student's t test and Chi-square analysis were used as appropriate. Repeated measurements were evaluated by analysis of covariance. At 2 months of age, the mean composite scores of cognitive, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior of BSID-III were significantly lower in atypical antipsychotic-exposed infants than the controls. More atypical antipsychotic-exposed infants had delayed development in cognitive, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior domains as defined by the composite score of <85 in these subscales of BSID-III. At 12 months of age, there were no significant differences between the two groups in all mean composite scores of BSID-III. More atypical antipsychotic-exposed infants had low birth weight than the controls (13.2 vs. 2.6 %, P = 0.031), although there were no significant difference in mean birth weight and height between the two groups. Fetal exposure to atypical antipsychotics may cause short-term delayed development in cognitive, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior, but not in language, body weight, or height.

Social play behavior in infant Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) in Qinling Mountains, China.

PubMed

Li, Yinhua; Guo, Songtao; Ji, Weihong; He, Gang; Wang, Xiaowei; Li, Baoguo

2011-09-01

We describe the development of social play behavior and assess factors influencing the development of play in infant Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana). Infant snub-nosed monkeys began to exhibit social play at 3 months of age, when they spent an average 0.89% of time engaging in this behavior (range: 0.7-1.12%). At 6 months of age, there was a significant increase in the proportion of time spent in social play, averaging 9.78% of observation time (range: 4.92-17.08%). However, from 7 to 9 months of age during the winter, social play decreased gradually before rising again from 10 months of age in the spring. Play behavior in infant snub-nosed monkeys is influenced by environmental temperature. Males were observed to play more than females, although further data on this are required. Social rank did not influence the social play of wild Sichuan snub-nosed monkey infants. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Multimodal Sex-Related Differences in Infant and in Infant-Directed Maternal Behaviors during Months Three through Twelve of Development

PubMed Central

Fausto-Sterling, Anne; Crews, David; Sung, Jihyun; Garcia-Coll, Cynthia; Seifer, Ronald

2015-01-01

Using the concept of sensory and affective experience, this work relates the concepts of socialization and cognitive development to the embodiment of gender in the human infant. Evidence obtained from biweekly observations from 30 children and their mothers observed from age 3 months to age 12 months revealed measurable sex-related differences in how mothers handle and touch their infants. This work offers novel approaches to visualizing combinations of behaviors with the aim of encouraging researchers to think in terms of suites of action rather than singular sensory or motor systems. New avenues of research into the mechanisms which produce sex-related differences in behavior are suggested. PMID:26372294

Infant Vocal Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hursh, Daniel E.

In Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, three categories of environmental control over instances of verbal behavior appear to be relevant to the study of infant vocal development: the mand, the tact, and the echoic categories. Procedures used in the remediation of language deficiencies and procedures found in work in the area of language…

Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale as a predictor of cognitive development and IQ in full-term infants: a 6-year longitudinal study.

PubMed

Canals, Josefa; Hernández-Martínez, Carmen; Esparó, Griselda; Fernández-Ballart, Joan

2011-10-01

To evaluate the predictive capacity of neonatal behaviour on infant mental and psychomotor development at 4 and 12 months, and infant intelligence at 6 years. Eighty full-term newborns were followed from 3 days until 6 years. Neonatal behaviour was assessed by the Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale (NBAS) at 3 days postpartum, infant mental and psychomotor development was assessed by the Bayley Scales for Infant Development at 4 and 12 months, and child intelligence was assessed by the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence at 6 years. Neonatal general irritability was the predictor of mental development at 12 months. Self-regulation behaviours were predictors of psychomotor development at 4 and 12 months and verbal and total intelligence quotient at 6 years. Neonatal orientation was a predictor of performance Wechsler subtests related to visomotor abilities and attention. Neonatal self-regulation behaviours were the best predictors of infant development and intelligence. We suggest that the NBAS could be a useful tool to observe behaviours related to later development in healthy infants. © 2011 The Author(s)/Acta Paediatrica © 2011 Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

Nutrition, Development, and Social Behavior. Proceedings of the Conference on the Assessment of Tests of Behavior From Studies of Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kallen, David J., E.

Contents of this book include the following papers, followed by discussion and comment: "Malnutrition and Animal Behavior," David A. Levitsky and Richard H. Barnes; "Malnutrition in Infants," Henry N. Ricciuti; "Nutrition and the Community," David J. Kallen; "A Methodological Note: The Development of Visual Attention in Infants," A. C.…

Infant Risk Factors Associated with Internalizing, Externalizing, and Co-Occurring Behavior Problems in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Renee C.; Hans, Sydney L.

2015-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to examine the unique and interactive contributions of infant negative emotionality and family risk factors in the development of internalizing-only, externalizing-only, and co-occurring behavior problems in early childhood. The sample included 412 infants and their primary caregivers. Interviews and…

Spatial Exploration and Changes in Infant-Mother Dyads around Transitions in Infant Locomotion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thurman, Sabrina L.; Corbetta, Daniela

2017-01-01

Infants' motor skill development triggers changes in parent-infant interactions, exploration, and play behaviors, particularly during periods of locomotor transitions. We investigated how these transitions reorganized infants' and mothers' explorations of spatial layouts. Thirteen infants and their mothers were followed biweekly from the age of 6…

Developmental Outcomes of Preterm Infants With Neonatal Hypoglycemia.

PubMed

Goode, Rachel H; Rettiganti, Mallikarjuna; Li, Jingyun; Lyle, Robert E; Whiteside-Mansell, Leanne; Barrett, Kathleen W; Casey, Patrick H

2016-12-01

Neonatal hypoglycemia has been associated with abnormalities on brain imaging and a spectrum of developmental delays, although historical and recent studies show conflicting results. We compared the cognitive, academic, and behavioral outcomes of preterm infants with neonatal hypoglycemia with those of normoglycemic controls at 3 to 18 years of age. A secondary analysis of data from the Infant Health and Development Program, a national, multisite, randomized controlled longitudinal intervention study of long-term health and developmental outcomes in preterm infants. Of the 985 infants enrolled in the Infant Health and Development Program, 745 infants had glucose levels recorded. Infants were stratified into 4 groups by glucose level. By using standardized cognitive, academic, and behavioral assessments performed at 3, 8, and 18 years of age, we compared groups after adjusting for intervention status, birth weight, gestational age, sex, severity of neonatal course, race, maternal education, and maternal preconception weight. No significant differences were observed in cognitive or academic skills between the control and effected groups at any age. Participants with more severe neonatal hypoglycemia reported fewer problem behaviors at age 18 than those without hypoglycemia. No significant differences in intellectual or academic achievement were found between preterm infants with and without hypoglycemia. A statistical difference was found in behavior at age 18, with hypoglycemic children showing fewer problematic behaviors than normoglycemic children. This difference was not clinically meaningful. Using extended outcomes, our results are consistent with previous studies that found no significant neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with neonatal hypoglycemia in preterm-born children. Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Developmental Outcomes of Preterm Infants With Neonatal Hypoglycemia

PubMed Central

Rettiganti, Mallikarjuna; Li, Jingyun; Lyle, Robert E.; Whiteside-Mansell, Leanne; Barrett, Kathleen W.; Casey, Patrick H.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Neonatal hypoglycemia has been associated with abnormalities on brain imaging and a spectrum of developmental delays, although historical and recent studies show conflicting results. We compared the cognitive, academic, and behavioral outcomes of preterm infants with neonatal hypoglycemia with those of normoglycemic controls at 3 to 18 years of age. METHODS: A secondary analysis of data from the Infant Health and Development Program, a national, multisite, randomized controlled longitudinal intervention study of long-term health and developmental outcomes in preterm infants. Of the 985 infants enrolled in the Infant Health and Development Program, 745 infants had glucose levels recorded. Infants were stratified into 4 groups by glucose level. By using standardized cognitive, academic, and behavioral assessments performed at 3, 8, and 18 years of age, we compared groups after adjusting for intervention status, birth weight, gestational age, sex, severity of neonatal course, race, maternal education, and maternal preconception weight. RESULTS: No significant differences were observed in cognitive or academic skills between the control and effected groups at any age. Participants with more severe neonatal hypoglycemia reported fewer problem behaviors at age 18 than those without hypoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: No significant differences in intellectual or academic achievement were found between preterm infants with and without hypoglycemia. A statistical difference was found in behavior at age 18, with hypoglycemic children showing fewer problematic behaviors than normoglycemic children. This difference was not clinically meaningful. Using extended outcomes, our results are consistent with previous studies that found no significant neurodevelopmental outcomes associated with neonatal hypoglycemia in preterm-born children. PMID:27940690

Sex-dependent role of the amygdala in the development of emotional and neuroendocrine reactivity to threatening stimuli in infant and juvenile rhesus monkeys

PubMed Central

Raper, Jessica; Wallen, Kim; Sanchez, Mar M.; Stephens, Shannon B. Z.; Henry, Amy; Villareal, Trina; Bachevalier, Jocelyne

2013-01-01

Amygdala dysfunction and abnormal fear and stress reactivity are common features of several developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. Yet, little is known about the exact role the amygdala plays in the development of threat detection and emotional modulation. The current study examined the effects of neonatal amygdala lesions on defensive, emotional, and neuroendocrine reactivity of infant rhesus monkeys reared with their mothers in large species-typical social groups. Monkeys received either bilateral MRI-guided ibotenic acid amygdala (Neo-A; n = 16) or sham (Neo-C; n = 12) lesions at 24.8 ± 1.2 days of age, or served as behavioral control (Neo-BC; n = 3). Defensive and emotional responses were assessed using the Human Intruder Paradigm as infants and as juveniles (2.5 and 12 months of age, respectively), whereas neuroendocrine reactivity was only examined during the juvenile period. As infants, Neo-A animals expressed similar levels of freezing and hostile behaviors as compared to controls, whereas during the juvenile period Neo-A animals expressed significantly less freezing compared to controls. Interestingly, the sex of the infant modulated the behavioral effects of neonatal amygdalectomy, leading to different patterns of behavior depending on the sex and lesion status of the infant. Unlike controls, Neo-A infants did not modulate their behavioral responses based on the salience of the threat. The impact of neonatal amygdalectomy increased with age, such that Neo-A juveniles exhibited fewer emotional behaviors and increased cortisol response to the stressor as compared to controls. These data indicate that the amygdala plays a critical role in the development of both emotional and neuroendocrine reactivity as well as the expression of sexually dimorphic emotional expression. PMID:23380162

Early dyadic patterns of mother-infant interactions and outcomes of prematurity at 18 months.

PubMed

Forcada-Guex, Margarita; Pierrehumbert, Blaise; Borghini, Ayala; Moessinger, Adrien; Muller-Nix, Carole

2006-07-01

With the increased survival of very preterm infants, there is a growing concern for their developmental and socioemotional outcomes. The quality of the early mother-infant relationship has been noted as 1 of the factors that may exacerbate or soften the potentially adverse impact of preterm birth, particularly concerning the infant's later competencies and development. The first purpose of the study was to identify at 6 months of corrected age whether there were specific dyadic mother-infant patterns of interaction in preterm as compared with term mother-infant dyads. The second purpose was to examine the potential impact of these dyadic patterns on the infant's behavioral and developmental outcomes at 18 months of corrected age. During a 12-month period (January-December 1998), all preterm infants who were <34 weeks of gestational age and hospitalized at the NICU of the Lausanne University Hospital were considered for inclusion in this longitudinal prospective follow-up study. Control healthy term infants were recruited during the same period from the maternity ward of our hospital. Mother-infant dyads with preterm infants (n = 47) and term infants (n = 25) were assessed at 6 months of corrected age during a mother-infant play interaction and coded according to the Care Index. This instrument evaluates the mother's interactional behavior according to 3 scales (sensitivity, control, and unresponsiveness) and the child's interactional behavior according to 4 scales (cooperation, compliance, difficult, and passivity). At 18 months, behavioral outcomes of the children were assessed on the basis of a semistructured interview of the mother, the Symptom Check List. The Symptom Check List explores 4 groups of behavioral symptoms: sleeping problems, eating problems, psychosomatic symptoms, and behavioral and emotional disorders. At the same age, developmental outcomes were evaluated using the Griffiths Developmental Scales. Five areas were evaluated: locomotor, personal-social, hearing and speech, eye-hand coordination, and performance. Among the possible dyadic patterns of interaction, 2 patterns emerge recurrently in mother-infant preterm dyads: a "cooperative pattern" with a sensitive mother and a cooperative-responsive infant (28%) and a "controlling pattern" with a controlling mother and a compulsive-compliant infant (28%). The remaining 44% form a heterogeneous group that gathers all of the other preterm dyads and is composed of 1 sensitive mother-passive infant; 10 controlling mothers with a cooperative, difficult, or passive infant; and 10 unresponsive mothers with a cooperative, difficult, or passive infant. Among the term control subjects, 68% of the dyads are categorized as cooperative pattern dyads, 12% as controlling pattern dyads, and the 20% remaining as heterogeneous dyads. At 18 months, preterm infants of cooperative pattern dyads have similar outcomes as the term control infants. Preterm infants of controlling pattern dyads have significantly fewer positive outcomes as compared with preterm infants of cooperative pattern dyads, as well as compared with term control infants. They display significantly more behavioral symptoms than term infants, including more eating problems than term infants as well as infants from cooperative preterm dyads. Infants of the controlling preterm dyads do not differ significantly for the total development quotient but have worse personal-social development than term infants and worse hearing-speech development than infants from cooperative preterm dyads. The preterm infants of the heterogeneous group have outcomes that can be considered as intermediate with no significant differences compared with preterm infants from the cooperative pattern or the controlling pattern dyads. Among mother-preterm infant dyads, we identified 2 specific patterns of interaction that could play either a protective (cooperative pattern) or a risk-precipitating (controlling pattern) role on developmental and behavioral outcome, independent of perinatal risk factors and of the family's socioeconomic background. The controlling pattern is much more prevalent among preterm than term dyads and is related to a less favorable infant outcome. However, the cooperative pattern still represents almost 30% of the preterm dyads, with infants' outcome comparable to the ones of term infants. These results point out the impact of the quality of mother-infant relationship on the infant's outcome. The most important clinical implication should be to support a healthy parent-infant relationship already in the NICU but also in the first months of the infant's life. Early individualized family-based interventions during neonatal hospitalization and transition to home have been shown to reduce maternal stress and depression and increase maternal self-esteem and to improve positive early parent-preterm infant interactions.

Using nonlinear methods to quantify changes in infant limb movements and vocalizations.

PubMed

Abney, Drew H; Warlaumont, Anne S; Haussman, Anna; Ross, Jessica M; Wallot, Sebastian

2014-01-01

The pairing of dynamical systems theory and complexity science brings novel concepts and methods to the study of infant motor development. Accordingly, this longitudinal case study presents a new approach to characterizing the dynamics of infant limb and vocalization behaviors. A single infant's vocalizations and limb movements were recorded from 51-days to 305-days of age. On each recording day, accelerometers were placed on all four of the infant's limbs and an audio recorder was worn on the child's chest. Using nonlinear time series analysis methods, such as recurrence quantification analysis and Allan factor, we quantified changes in the stability and multiscale properties of the infant's behaviors across age as well as how these dynamics relate across modalities and effectors. We observed that particular changes in these dynamics preceded or coincided with the onset of various developmental milestones. For example, the largest changes in vocalization dynamics preceded the onset of canonical babbling. The results show that nonlinear analyses can help to understand the functional co-development of different aspects of infant behavior.

Using nonlinear methods to quantify changes in infant limb movements and vocalizations

PubMed Central

Abney, Drew H.; Warlaumont, Anne S.; Haussman, Anna; Ross, Jessica M.; Wallot, Sebastian

2014-01-01

The pairing of dynamical systems theory and complexity science brings novel concepts and methods to the study of infant motor development. Accordingly, this longitudinal case study presents a new approach to characterizing the dynamics of infant limb and vocalization behaviors. A single infant's vocalizations and limb movements were recorded from 51-days to 305-days of age. On each recording day, accelerometers were placed on all four of the infant's limbs and an audio recorder was worn on the child's chest. Using nonlinear time series analysis methods, such as recurrence quantification analysis and Allan factor, we quantified changes in the stability and multiscale properties of the infant's behaviors across age as well as how these dynamics relate across modalities and effectors. We observed that particular changes in these dynamics preceded or coincided with the onset of various developmental milestones. For example, the largest changes in vocalization dynamics preceded the onset of canonical babbling. The results show that nonlinear analyses can help to understand the functional co-development of different aspects of infant behavior. PMID:25161629

Preterm Infants Who Are Prone to Distress: Differential Effects of Parenting on 36-month Behavioral and Cognitive Outcomes

PubMed Central

Poehlmann, Julie; Hane, Amanda; Burnson, Cynthia; Maleck, Sarah; Hamburger, Elizabeth; Shah, Prachi E.

2012-01-01

Background The differential susceptibility (DS) model suggests that temperamentally prone-to-distress infants may exhibit adverse outcomes in negative environments but optimal outcomes in positive environments. This study explored temperament, parenting, and 36-month cognition and behavior in preterm infants using the DS model. We hypothesized that temperamentally prone to distress preterm infants would exhibit more optimal cognition and fewer behavior problems when early parenting was positive; and less optimal cognition and more behavior problems when early parenting was less positive. Methods Participants included 109 preterm infants (gestation < 37 weeks) and their mothers. We assessed neonatal risk and basal vagal tone in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU); infant temperament and parenting interactions at 9 months postterm; and child behavior and cognitive skills at 36 months postterm. Hierarchical regression analyses tested study hypotheses. Results Temperamentally prone-to-distress infants exhibited more externalizing problems if they experienced more critical parenting at 9 months (β= -.20, p<0.05) but fewer externalizing problems with more positive parenting. Similarly, variations in maternal positive affect (β= .25, p< .01) and intrusive behaviors (β= .23, p< .05) at 9 months predicted 36-month cognition at high but not at low levels of infant temperamental distress. Higher basal vagal tone predicted fewer externalizing problems (β= -.19, p< .05). Conclusions Early parenting behaviors relate to later behavior and development in preterm infants who are temperamentally prone to distress, and neonatal basal vagal tone predicts subsequent externalizing behaviors. These findings suggest that both biological reactivity and quality of caregiving are important predictors for later outcomes in preterm infants and may be considered as foci for developmental surveillance and interventions. PMID:22582942

Parent-infant synchrony and the social-emotional development of triplets.

PubMed

Feldman, Ruth; Eidelman, Arthur I

2004-11-01

To study the social-emotional development of triplets, 23 sets of triplets, 23 sets of twins, and 23 singleton infants (N=138) were followed from birth to 2 years. Maternal depression and social support were assessed in the postpartum period, mother-infant and father-infant interaction and the home environment were observed at 3 months, a separation-reunion episode and a maternal interview were conducted at 12 months, and infant behavior problems were evaluated at 24 months. Lower parent-infant synchrony was observed for triplets. Triplets showed less distress during maternal separation and less approach at reunion. Mothers reported lower adjustment and differentiation among siblings for triplets than for twins. Higher internalizing problems were reported for triplets, and the triplet with intrauterine growth retardation showed the poorest outcomes. Behavior problems were predicted by medical risk, maternal depression, parent-infant synchrony, infant approach, and mother adjustment. Discussion focuses on developmental risk when the exclusivity of the parent-infant relationship is compromised. (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved

Effects of stress and social support on mothers and premature and full-term infants.

PubMed

Crnic, K A; Greenberg, M T; Ragozin, A S; Robinson, N M; Basham, R B

1983-02-01

This study examined the relationships of stress and social support to maternal attitudes and early mother-infant interactive behavior. 52 mother-premature infant pairs and 53 mother-full-term infant pairs were seen for structured home interviews at 1 month, and behavioral interactions at 4 months. Maternal life stress, social support, life satisfaction, and satisfaction with parenting were assessed at the 1-month home visit. Although no group differences were found, both stress and support significantly predicted maternal attitudes at 1 month and interactive behavior at 4 months when data were pooled. Mothers with greater stress were less positive in their attitudes and behavior, while mothers with greater support were significantly more positive. Intimate support proved to have the most general positive effects. Additionally, social support moderated the adverse effects of stress on mother's life satisfaction and on several behavioral variables. Maternal social support was further found to have several significant effects on infant interactive behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the ecological significance of social support to parenting and infants' early development.

Maturing Brain Mechanisms and Developing Behavioral Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedrich, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D.

2010-01-01

The relation between the maturation of brain mechanisms responsible for the N400 elicitation in the event-related brain potential (ERP) and the development of behavioral language skills was investigated in 12-month-old infants. ERPs to words presented in a picture-word priming paradigm were analyzed according to the infants' production and…

The Infant Development Center.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birr, Jack

Reported are services provided to developmentally or behaviorally disturbed children (0-to-3-years-old) and their parents by the Infant Development Center (IDC) in Mission, Kansas. Outlined is information such as the IDC's primary activities (infant developmental stimulation and parental training and support), secondary activities (such as…

Social interaction shapes babbling: Testing parallels between birdsong and speech

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldstein, Michael H.; King, Andrew P.; West, Meredith J.

2003-06-01

Birdsong is considered a model of human speech development at behavioral and neural levels. Few direct tests of the proposed analogs exist, however. Here we test a mechanism of phonological development in human infants that is based on social shaping, a selective learning process first documented in songbirds. By manipulating mothers' reactions to their 8-month-old infants' vocalizations, we demonstrate that phonological features of babbling are sensitive to nonimitative social stimulation. Contingent, but not noncontingent, maternal behavior facilitates more complex and mature vocal behavior. Changes in vocalizations persist after the manipulation. The data show that human infants use social feedback, facilitating immediate transitions in vocal behavior. Social interaction creates rapid shifts to developmentally more advanced sounds. These transitions mirror the normal development of speech, supporting the predictions of the avian social shaping model. These data provide strong support for a parallel in function between vocal precursors of songbirds and infants. Because imitation is usually considered the mechanism for vocal learning in both taxa, the findings introduce social shaping as a general process underlying the development of speech and song.

Infant temperamental reactivity, maternal and grandparental sensitivity: Differential susceptibility for behavior problems in China.

PubMed

Xing, Shufen; Zhou, Quan; Archer, Marc; Yue, Jianhong; Wang, Zhengyan

2016-10-01

The differential susceptibility hypothesis suggests that children's innate characteristics and their rearing experiences interact differentially during development. Recently, the study of interactions between infants' temperament and rearing experiences has become a research hotspot. In China, grandparental care is a very common phenomenon, with many infants taken care of by grandparents while mothers are out for work. To investigate whether the associations between maternal and grandmaternal sensitivity, and behavior problems were moderated by infant temperamental reactivity, while the infants were raised by both their mothers and grandmothers. A total of 71 infants (average age of 17.6months), their mothers and grandmothers were included in this study. Maternal sensitivity and grandmaternal sensitivity were assessed with the Maternal Behavior Q-sort-Chinese Version, infants' temperamental reactivity was measured with Carey's Toddler Temperament Questionnaire-Chinese Revision, and infants' behavior problems were measured with the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment-Chinese Version. Maternal sensitivity significantly predicted infants' impulsivity and aggression. Infants' temperamental reactivity moderated the effect of maternal sensitivity on infants' general anxiety. In addition, infant temperamental reactivity moderated the impact of grandmaternal sensitivity on infants' separation distress. Our results support the differential susceptibility hypothesis to some extent. Infants with high temperamental reactivity not only suffer more from low maternal and grandmaternal sensitivity, but also benefit more from high maternal and grandmaternal sensitivity as compared to those infants with low temperamental reactivity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of using experimenter-given cues in infant chimpanzees: longitudinal changes in behavior and cognitive development.

PubMed

Okamoto-Barth, Sanae; Tomonaga, Masaki; Tanaka, Masayuki; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro

2008-01-01

The use of gaze shifts as social cues has various evolutionary advantages. To investigate the developmental processes of this ability, we conducted an object-choice task by using longitudinal methods with infant chimpanzees tested from 8 months old until 3 years old. The experimenter used one of six gestures towards a cup concealing food; tapping, touching, whole-hand pointing, gazing plus close-pointing, distant-pointing, close-gazing, and distant-gazing. Unlike any other previous study, we analyzed the behavioral changes that occurred before and after choosing the cup. We assumed that pre-choice behavior indicates the development of an attentional and spatial connection between a pointing cue and an object (e.g. Woodward, 2005); and post-choice behavior indicates the emergence of object permanence (e.g. Piaget, 1954). Our study demonstrated that infant chimpanzees begin to use experimenter-given cues with age (after 11 months of age). Moreover, the results from the behavioral analysis showed that the infants gradually developed the spatial link between the pointing as an object-directed action and the object. Moreover, when they were 11 months old, the infants began to inspect the inside of the cup, suggesting the onset of object permanence. Overall, our results imply that the ability to use the cues is developing and mutually related with other cognitive developments. The present study also suggests what the standard object-choice task actually measures by breaking the task down into the developmental trajectories of its component parts, and describes for the first time the social-physical cognitive development during the task with a longitudinal method.

Improving the outcome of infants born at <30 weeks' gestation - a randomized controlled trial of preventative care at home

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Early developmental interventions to prevent the high rate of neurodevelopmental problems in very preterm children, including cognitive, motor and behavioral impairments, are urgently needed. These interventions should be multi-faceted and include modules for caregivers given their high rates of mental health problems. Methods/Design We have designed a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a preventative care program delivered at home over the first 12 months of life for infants born very preterm (<30 weeks of gestational age) and their families, compared with standard medical follow-up. The aim of the program, delivered over nine sessions by a team comprising a physiotherapist and psychologist, is to improve infant development (cognitive, motor and language), behavioral regulation, caregiver-child interactions and caregiver mental health at 24 months' corrected age. The infants will be stratified by severity of brain white matter injury (assessed by magnetic resonance imaging) at term equivalent age, and then randomized. At 12 months' corrected age interim outcome measures will include motor development assessed using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale and the Neurological Sensory Motor Developmental Assessment. Caregivers will also complete a questionnaire at this time to obtain information on behavior, parenting, caregiver mental health, and social support. The primary outcomes are at 24 months' corrected age and include cognitive, motor and language development assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III). Secondary outcomes at 24 months include caregiver-child interaction measured using an observational task, and infant behavior, parenting, caregiver mental health and social support measured via standardized parental questionnaires. Discussion This paper presents the background, study design and protocol for a randomized controlled trial in very preterm infants utilizing a preventative care program in the first year after discharge home designed to improve cognitive, motor and behavioral outcomes of very preterm children and caregiver mental health at two-years' corrected age. Clinical Trial Registration Number ACTRN12605000492651 PMID:19954550

Neonatal Stroke Causes Poor Midline Motor Behaviors and Poor Fine and Gross Motor Skills during Early Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chao-Ying; Lo, Warren D.; Heathcock, Jill C.

2013-01-01

Upper extremity movements, midline behaviors, fine, and gross motor skills are frequently impaired in hemiparesis and cerebral palsy. We investigated midline toy exploration and fine and gross motor skills in infants at risk for hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Eight infants with neonatal stroke (NS) and thirteen infants with typical development (TD)…

Maternal Responses and Development of Communication Skills in Extremely Preterm Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benassi, Erika; Guarini, Annalisa; Savini, Silvia; Iverson, Jana Marie; Caselli, Maria Cristina; Alessandroni, Rosina; Faldella, Giacomo; Sansavini, Alessandra

2018-01-01

The present study examined maternal responses to infants' spontaneous communicative behaviors in a sample of 20 extremely-low-gestational-age (ELGA) infants and 20 full-term (FT) infants during 30 minutes of play interaction when infants were 12 months of age. Relations between maternal responses and infants' communication skills at 12 and 24…

The Role of Infant Sleep in Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma

PubMed Central

Hairston, Ilana S.; Waxler, Ellen; Seng, Julia S.; Fezzey, Amanda G.; Rosenblum, Katherine L.; Muzik, Maria

2011-01-01

Introduction: Children of parents who experienced trauma often present emotional and behavioral problems, a phenomenon named inter-generational transmission of trauma (IGTT). Combined with antenatal factors, parenting and the home environment contribute to the development and maintenance of sleep problems in children. In turn, infant sleep difficulty predicts behavioral and emotional problems later in life. The aim of this study was to investigate whether infant sleep problems predict early behavioral problems indicative of IGTT. Methods: 184 first-time mothers (ages 18–47) participated. N = 83 had a history of childhood abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD+); 38 women reported childhood abuse but did not meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD (PTSD−); and the control group (N = 63) had neither a history of abuse nor psychopathology (CON). Depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulty were assessed in the mothers at 4 months postpartum. Infant sleep was assessed using the Child Behavior Sleep Questionnaire (CSHQ). Outcome measures included the Parent Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) at 4 months and the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) at 18 months. Results: Infants of PTSD+ mothers scored higher on the CSHQ and had more separation anxiety around bedtime than PTSD− and CON, and the severity of their symptoms was correlated with the degree of sleep disturbance. Maternal postpartum depression symptoms mediated impaired mother-infant bonding, while infant sleep disturbance contributed independently to impaired bonding. Mother-infant bonding at 4 months predicted more behavioral problems at 18 months. Conclusions: Infant sleep difficulties and maternal mood play independent roles in infant-mother bonding disturbance, which in turn predicts behavioral problems at 18 months. Citation: Hairston IS; Waxler E; Seng JS; Fezzey AG; Rosenblum KL; Muzik M. The role of infant sleep in intergenerational transmission of trauma. SLEEP 2011;34(10):1373-1383. PMID:21966069

Parents attending to nurse visits and birth age contribute to infant development: A study about the determinants of infant development.

PubMed

Soares, Hélia; Barbieri-Figueiredo, Maria; Pereira, Sandra; Silva, Manuela; Fuertes, Marina

2018-05-24

Life experiences and parenting play an important role in infant development. To prevent developmental risks and support parents in their educational role, it is important to identify the determinants of infant development. In this study, we investigate the association between child, maternal, family and social variables, and infant development, as well as we investigate the determinants of infant development. A sample of 86 healthy infants and their mothers participated in this study. At 11-months, infant development was assessed with Schedule of Growing Skills II (SGSII). To assess mother-infant quality of interaction, the dyads were observed in free play at 12-months using CARE-Index. Maternal sensitivity and infant cooperative behavior were correlated with SGSII global scores and sub-scales. Infant development was associated with maternal years of education, number of siblings, birth weight or risks in pregnancy. Number of nurse visits attended by parents during the infant first year and birth age were determinants of infant development. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stability and Change in the Behavioral Development of Premature Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Sandra K.; Telzrow, Robert W.

The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (BNBAS) was administered to a group of 73 premature infants at approximately 34, 36, and 40 weeks of gestational age. Six behavioral cluster scores and one reflex cluster score were computed for each examination. Repeated measures analyses of variance showed significant steady improvement on all…

Maternal Caregiving Moderates the Relation between Temperamental Fear and Social Behavior with Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penela, Elizabeth C.; Henderson, Heather A.; Hane, Amie A.; Ghera, Melissa M.; Fox, Nathan A.

2012-01-01

Temperament works in combination with a child's environment to influence early socioemotional development. We examined whether maternal caregiving behavior at infant age 9 months moderated the relation between infant temperamental fear (9 months) and observations of children's social behavior with an unfamiliar peer at age 2 in a typically…

Development of Visual Motion Perception for Prospective Control: Brain and Behavioral Studies in Infants

PubMed Central

Agyei, Seth B.; van der Weel, F. R. (Ruud); van der Meer, Audrey L. H.

2016-01-01

During infancy, smart perceptual mechanisms develop allowing infants to judge time-space motion dynamics more efficiently with age and locomotor experience. This emerging capacity may be vital to enable preparedness for upcoming events and to be able to navigate in a changing environment. Little is known about brain changes that support the development of prospective control and about processes, such as preterm birth, that may compromise it. As a function of perception of visual motion, this paper will describe behavioral and brain studies with young infants investigating the development of visual perception for prospective control. By means of the three visual motion paradigms of occlusion, looming, and optic flow, our research shows the importance of including behavioral data when studying the neural correlates of prospective control. PMID:26903908

Development, Construct Validity, and Reliability of the Questionnaire on Infant Feeding: A Tool for Measuring Contemporary Infant-Feeding Behaviors.

PubMed

O'Sullivan, Elizabeth J; Rasmussen, Kathleen M

2017-12-01

The breastfeeding surveillance tool in the United States, the National Immunization Survey, considers the maternal-infant dyad to be breastfeeding for as long as the infant consumes human milk (HM). However, many infants consume at least some HM from a bottle, which can lead to health outcomes different from those for at-the-breast feeding. Our aim was to develop a construct-valid questionnaire that categorizes infants by nutrition source, that is, own mother's HM, another mother's HM, infant formula, or other and feeding mode, that is, at the breast or from a bottle, and test the reliability of this questionnaire. The Questionnaire on Infant Feeding was developed through a literature review and modified based on qualitative research. Construct validity was assessed through cognitive interviews and a test-retest reliability study was conducted among mothers who completed the questionnaire twice, 1 month apart. Cognitive interviews were conducted with ten mothers from upstate New York between September and December 2014. A test-retest reliability study was conducted among 44 mothers from across the United States between March and May 2015. Equivalence of questions with continuous responses about the timing of starting and stopping various behaviors and the agreement between responses to questions with categorical responses on the two questionnaires completed 1 month apart. Reliability was assessed using paired-equivalence tests for questions about the timing of starting and stopping behaviors and weighted Cohen's κ for questions about the frequency and intensity of behaviors. Reliability of the Questionnaire on Infant Feeding was moderately high among mothers of infants aged 19 to 35 months, with most questions about the timing of starting and stopping behaviors equivalent to within 1 month. Weighted Cohen's κ for categorical questions indicated substantial agreement. The Questionnaire on Infant Feeding is a construct-valid tool to measure duration, intensity, and mode of infant HM consumption and duration of maternal HM production that is reliable within 19 to 35 months postpartum. Criterion-validity testing of these questions will improve the utility of the Questionnaire on Infant Feeding as a surveillance tool. Copyright © 2017 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Speech preference is associated with autistic-like behavior in 18-months-olds at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Curtin, Suzanne; Vouloumanos, Athena

2013-09-01

We examined whether infants' preference for speech at 12 months is associated with autistic-like behaviors at 18 months in infants who are at increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) because they have an older sibling diagnosed with ASD and in low-risk infants. Only low-risk infants listened significantly longer to speech than to nonspeech at 12 months. In both groups, relative preference for speech correlated positively with general cognitive ability at 12 months. However, in high-risk infants only, preference for speech was associated with autistic-like behavior at 18 months, while in low-risk infants, preference for speech correlated with language abilities. This suggests that in children at risk for ASD an atypical species-specific bias for speech may underlie atypical social development.

Efficacy of preventative parenting interventions for parents of preterm infants on later child behavior: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Herd, Michael; Whittingham, Koa; Sanders, Matthew; Colditz, Paul; Boyd, Roslyn N

2014-01-01

The aim of this systematic review was to determine the efficacy of parenting interventions for parents of preterm infants to improve child behavior. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of parenting interventions for parents of preterm infants were included. Searchers were conducted of PubMed from 1951 to April 2013, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) from 1982 to April 2013, Scopus from 1966 to April 2013, PsycINFO from 1840 to April 2013, the Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. Twelve RCTs were identified that assessed child behavior. Of these studies, only data from three were able to be pooled for meta-analysis: the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) at 3 years, the Mother-Infant Transaction Program (modified; MITP-M) at 5 years, and the Victorian Infant Brain Studies (VIBeS Plus) at 4 years. Outcome from this analysis revealed a small, but significant, effect on child behavior favoring the intervention (95% CI: 0.08-0.32; p = .001). There is evidence that preterm parenting interventions can improve child behavior. Streamlined interventions such as MITP-M and VIBeS Plus that have a strong focus on the mother-infant relationship may have greatest potential. © 2014 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Intrauterine growth restriction affects the preterm infant's hippocampus.

PubMed

Lodygensky, Gregory A; Seghier, Mohammed L; Warfield, Simon K; Tolsa, Cristina Borradori; Sizonenko, Stephane; Lazeyras, François; Hüppi, Petra S

2008-04-01

The hippocampus is known to be vulnerable to hypoxia, stress, and undernutrition, all likely to be present in fetal intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). The effect of IUGR in preterm infants on the hippocampus was studied using 3D magnetic resonance imaging at term-equivalent age Thirteen preterm infants born with IUGR after placental insufficiency were compared with 13 infants with normal intrauterine growth age matched for gestational age. The hippocampal structural differences were defined using voxel-based morphometry and manual segmentation. The specific neurobehavioral function was evaluated by the Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior at term and at 24 mo of corrected age by a Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. Voxel-based morphometry detected significant gray matter volume differences in the hippocampus between the two groups. This finding was confirmed by manual segmentation of the hippocampus with a reduction of hippocampal volume after IUGR. The hippocampal volume reduction was further associated with functional behavioral differences at term-equivalent age in all six subdomains of the Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior but not at 24 mo of corrected age. We conclude that hippocampal development in IUGR is altered and might result from a combination of maternal corticosteroid hormone exposure, hypoxemia, and micronutrient deficiency.

Emergence of joint attention: relationships between gaze following, social referencing, imitation, and naming in infancy.

PubMed

Slaughter, Virginia; McConnell, Danielle

2003-03-01

The authors investigated the extent to which the joint-attention behaviors of gaze following, social referencing, and object-directed imitation were related to each other and to infants' vocabulary development in a sample of 60 infants between the ages of 8 and 14 months. Joint-attention skills and vocabulary development were assessed in a laboratory setting. Split-half reliability analyses on the joint-attention measures indicated that the tasks reliably assessed infants' capabilities. In the main analysis, no significant correlations were found among the joint-attention behaviors except for a significant relationship between gaze following and the number of names in infants' productive vocabularies. The overall pattern of results did not replicate results of previous studies (e.g., M. Carpenter, K. Nagell, & M. Tomasello, 1998) that found relationships between various emerging joint-attention behaviors.

The Role of Sociodemographic Risk and Maternal Behavior in the Prediction of Infant Attachment Disorganization

PubMed Central

Gedaly, Lindsey R.; Leerkes, Esther M.

2017-01-01

Predictors of infant attachment disorganization were examined among 203 primiparous mothers (52% European American, 48% African American) and their infants (104 female). The Strange Situation Procedure was administered at 1 year. Global maternal insensitivity and overtly negative maternal behavior were observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were 6 months and 1 year old. Mothers reported on their demographics to yield a measure of sociodemographic risk (i.e., age, education, income-to-needs). Overtly negative maternal behavior was positively associated with the infant attachment disorganization rating scale score, but did not predict being classified as disorganized. Global maternal insensitivity was associated with higher attachment disorganization, both the rating and the classification, when sociodemographic risk was high but not when sociodemographic risk was low. The pattern of results did not vary by maternal race. The results provide some support for the view that negative maternal behavior and the combination of sociodemographic risk and global maternal insensitivity play a role in the development of infant attachment disorganization. PMID:27477050

The role of sociodemographic risk and maternal behavior in the prediction of infant attachment disorganization.

PubMed

Gedaly, Lindsey R; Leerkes, Esther M

2016-12-01

Predictors of infant attachment disorganization were examined among 203 primiparous mothers (52% European American, 48% African American) and their infants (104 female). The Strange Situation Procedure was administered at one year. Global maternal insensitivity and overtly negative maternal behavior were observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were six months and one year old. Mothers reported on their demographics to yield a measure of sociodemographic risk (i.e., age, education, income-to-needs). Overtly negative maternal behavior was positively associated with the infant attachment disorganization rating scale score, but did not predict being classified as disorganized. Global maternal insensitivity was associated with higher attachment disorganization, both the rating and the classification, when sociodemographic risk was high but not when sociodemographic risk was low. The pattern of results did not vary by maternal race. The results provide some support for the view that negative maternal behavior and the combination of sociodemographic risk and global maternal insensitivity play a role in the development of infant attachment disorganization.

The relation of low-level prenatal lead exposure to behavioral indicators of attention in Inuit infants in Arctic Quebec.

PubMed

Plusquellec, P; Muckle, G; Dewailly, E; Ayotte, P; Jacobson, S W; Jacobson, J L

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between prenatal exposure to lead (Pb) and several aspects of behavioral function during infancy through examiner ratings and behavioral coding of video recordings. The sample consisted of 169 11-month-old Inuit infants from Arctic Quebec. Umbilical cord and maternal blood samples were used to document prenatal exposure to Pb. Average blood Pb levels were 4.6 mug/dL and 5.9 mug/dL in cord and maternal samples respectively. The Behavior Rating Scales (BRS) from the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-II) were used to assess behavior. Attention was assessed through the BRS and behavioral coding of video recordings taken during the administration of the BSID-II. Whereas the examiner ratings of behaviors detected very few associations with prenatal Pb exposure, cord blood Pb concentrations were significantly related to the direct observational measures of infant attention, after adjustment for confounding variables. These data provide evidence that increasing the specificity and the precision of the behavioral assessment has considerable potential for improving our ability to detect low-to-moderate associations between neurotoxicants, such Pb and infant behavior.

A review of attachment theory in the context of adolescent parenting.

PubMed

Flaherty, Serena Cherry; Sadler, Lois S

2011-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review attachment theory and relate the attachment perspective to adolescent mothers and their children. Attachment theory explains positive maternal-infant attachment as a dyadic relationship between the infant and mother that provides the infant with a secure base from which to explore the world. With respect to cognitive, social, and behavioral domains, securely attached infants tend to have more favorable long-term outcomes, while insecurely attached infants are more likely to have adverse outcomes. Adolescent parenthood can disrupt normal adolescent development, and this disruption influences development of the emotional and cognitive capacities necessary for maternal behaviors that foster secure attachment. However, it appears that if specialized supports are in place to facilitate the process of developing attachment, infants of adolescent mothers can obtain higher rates of secure attachment than normative samples in this population. Copyright © 2011 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Profiles of Observed Infant Anger Predict Preschool Behavior Problems: Moderation by Life Stress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooker, Rebecca J.; Buss, Kristin A.; Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn; Aksan, Nazan; Davidson, Richard J.; Goldsmith, H. Hill

2014-01-01

Using both traditional composites and novel profiles of anger, we examined associations between infant anger and preschool behavior problems in a large, longitudinal data set (N = 966). We also tested the role of life stress as a moderator of the link between early anger and the development of behavior problems. Although traditional measures of…

Vestibular Stimulation and Development of the Small Premature Infant.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neal, Mary V.

This study was designed to explore the effects of vestibular stimulation on the developmental behavior, respiratory functioning, weight and length gains, and morbidity and mortality rates of premature infants. A total of 20 infants participated in this study in 4 groups of 5 infants each. Group A infants were placed in a motorized hammock within…

Development of Salivary Cortisol Circadian Rhythm and Reference Intervals in Full-Term Infants.

PubMed

Ivars, Katrin; Nelson, Nina; Theodorsson, Annette; Theodorsson, Elvar; Ström, Jakob O; Mörelius, Evalotte

2015-01-01

Cortisol concentrations in plasma display a circadian rhythm in adults and children older than one year. Earlier studies report divergent results regarding when cortisol circadian rhythm is established. The present study aims to investigate at what age infants develop a circadian rhythm, as well as the possible influences of behavioral regularity and daily life trauma on when the rhythm is established. Furthermore, we determine age-related reference intervals for cortisol concentrations in saliva during the first year of life. 130 healthy full-term infants were included in a prospective, longitudinal study with saliva sampling on two consecutive days, in the morning (07:30-09:30), noon (10:00-12:00) and evening (19:30-21:30), each month from birth until the infant was twelve months old. Information about development of behavioral regularity and potential exposure to trauma was obtained from the parents through the Baby Behavior Questionnaire and the Life Incidence of Traumatic Events checklist. A significant group-level circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol secretion was established at one month, and remained throughout the first year of life, although there was considerable individual variability. No correlation was found between development of cortisol circadian rhythm and the results from either the Baby Behavior Questionnaire or the Life Incidence of Traumatic Events checklist. The study presents salivary cortisol reference intervals for infants during the first twelve months of life. Cortisol circadian rhythm in infants is already established by one month of age, earlier than previous studies have shown. The current study also provides first year age-related reference intervals for salivary cortisol levels in healthy, full-term infants.

Development of Salivary Cortisol Circadian Rhythm and Reference Intervals in Full-Term Infants

PubMed Central

Ivars, Katrin; Nelson, Nina; Theodorsson, Annette; Theodorsson, Elvar; Ström, Jakob O.; Mörelius, Evalotte

2015-01-01

Background Cortisol concentrations in plasma display a circadian rhythm in adults and children older than one year. Earlier studies report divergent results regarding when cortisol circadian rhythm is established. The present study aims to investigate at what age infants develop a circadian rhythm, as well as the possible influences of behavioral regularity and daily life trauma on when the rhythm is established. Furthermore, we determine age-related reference intervals for cortisol concentrations in saliva during the first year of life. Methods 130 healthy full-term infants were included in a prospective, longitudinal study with saliva sampling on two consecutive days, in the morning (07:30-09:30), noon (10:00-12:00) and evening (19:30-21:30), each month from birth until the infant was twelve months old. Information about development of behavioral regularity and potential exposure to trauma was obtained from the parents through the Baby Behavior Questionnaire and the Life Incidence of Traumatic Events checklist. Results A significant group-level circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol secretion was established at one month, and remained throughout the first year of life, although there was considerable individual variability. No correlation was found between development of cortisol circadian rhythm and the results from either the Baby Behavior Questionnaire or the Life Incidence of Traumatic Events checklist. The study presents salivary cortisol reference intervals for infants during the first twelve months of life. Conclusions Cortisol circadian rhythm in infants is already established by one month of age, earlier than previous studies have shown. The current study also provides first year age-related reference intervals for salivary cortisol levels in healthy, full-term infants. PMID:26086734

Effects of a Mechanical Response-Contingent Surrogate on the Development of Behaviors in Nursery-Reared Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

PubMed Central

Brunelli, Rebecca L; Blake, Jennifer; Willits, Neil; Rommeck, Ina; McCowan, Brenda

2014-01-01

Nursery-reared infants have several behavioral and physiologic differences from their mother-reared counterparts. We investigated whether a response-contingent surrogate mitigated some of those differences by decreasing fearfulness and partner-clinging and increasing environmental exploration in nursery-reared infants continuously paired with a peer. Six nursery-reared infant rhesus macaques (in pairs) were given a mechanical responsive surrogate (RS), and 6 (in pairs) were given an identical but nonresponsive surrogate (NRS). The 2 treatment groups were compared and then combined into a single group of all 12 of surrogate-exposed animals (CS) that was compared with a nonsurrogate control group (NS) of 10 nursery-reared infants. Results showed significant differences between CS and NS infants but no significant differences between the RS and NRS infants. As compared with NS infants, CS infants showed less partner-clinging, less affiliation directed toward only partner, and more foraging and tactile–oral exploration of the environment. These advantageous effects support additional research to develop improved surrogate and the implementation of surrogate programs for nursery-reared infants. PMID:25255068

Effects of a mechanical response-contingent surrogate on the development of behaviors in nursery-reared rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

PubMed

Brunelli, Rebecca L; Blake, Jennifer; Willits, Neil; Rommeck, Ina; McCowan, Brenda

2014-09-01

Nursery-reared infants have several behavioral and physiologic differences from their mother-reared counterparts. We investigated whether a response-contingent surrogate mitigated some of those differences by decreasing fearfulness and partner-clinging and increasing environmental exploration in nursery-reared infants continuously paired with a peer. Six nursery-reared infant rhesus macaques (in pairs) were given a mechanical responsive surrogate (RS), and 6 (in pairs) were given an identical but nonresponsive surrogate (NRS). The 2 treatment groups were compared and then combined into a single group of all 12 of surrogate-exposed animals (CS) that was compared with a nonsurrogate control group (NS) of 10 nursery-reared infants. Results showed significant differences between CS and NS infants but no significant differences between the RS and NRS infants. As compared with NS infants, CS infants showed less partner-clinging, less affiliation directed toward only partner, and more foraging and tactile-oral exploration of the environment. These advantageous effects support additional research to develop improved surrogate and the implementation of surrogate programs for nursery-reared infants.

Preterm infants who are prone to distress: differential effects of parenting on 36-month behavioral and cognitive outcomes.

PubMed

Poehlmann, Julie; Hane, Amanda; Burnson, Cynthia; Maleck, Sarah; Hamburger, Elizabeth; Shah, Prachi E

2012-10-01

The differential susceptibility (DS) model suggests that temperamentally prone-to-distress infants may exhibit adverse outcomes in negative environments but optimal outcomes in positive environments. This study explored temperament, parenting, and 36-month cognition and behavior in preterm infants using the DS model. We hypothesized that temperamentally prone to distress preterm infants would exhibit more optimal cognition and fewer behavior problems when early parenting was positive; and less optimal cognition and more behavior problems when early parenting was less positive. Participants included 109 preterm infants (gestation <37 weeks) and their mothers. We assessed neonatal risk and basal vagal tone in the neonatal intensive care unit; infant temperament and parenting interactions at 9 months post-term; and child behavior and cognitive skills at 36 months post-term. Hierarchical regression analyses tested study hypotheses. Temperamentally prone-to-distress infants exhibited more externalizing problems if they experienced more critical parenting at 9 months (β = -.20, p < 0.05) but fewer externalizing problems with more positive parenting. Similarly, variations in maternal positive affect (β = .25, p < .01) and intrusive behaviors (β = .23, p < .05) at 9 months predicted 36-month cognition at high but not at low levels of infant temperamental distress. Higher basal vagal tone predicted fewer externalizing problems (β = -.19, p < .05). Early parenting behaviors relate to later behavior and development in preterm infants who are temperamentally prone to distress, and neonatal basal vagal tone predicts subsequent externalizing behaviors. These findings suggest that both biological reactivity and quality of caregiving are important predictors for later outcomes in preterm infants and may be considered as foci for developmental surveillance and interventions. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2012 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Use of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale to characterize the motor development of infants born preterm at eight months corrected age.

PubMed

Bartlett, Doreen J; Fanning, Jamie E

2003-01-01

The Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) was used to examine variations in motor development of infants born preterm. Sixty infants attending a Developmental Follow-up Clinic participated. Infants were assessed by physical therapists using the AIMS and independently judged by physicians to be neurodevelopmentally and neurologically "normal," "suspect," or "abnormal." The AIMS clearly differentiated infants in these three categories. Compared to the normative sample, infants judged to be "normal" demonstrated similar motor behaviors, infants judged to be "abnormal" were significantly different across a wide range of items, and infants judged to be "suspect" were significantly different on items requiring antigravity postural control, lower extremity dissociation, and trunk rotation. The AIMS can be used to identify infants developing abnormally, to affirm normalcy in infants developing typically, and to identify motor differences in infants who are neurologically "suspect." In the latter group of infants, the AIMS can be used to provide anticipatory guidance to parents regarding the components of movement they might expect their infants to be developing next.

Infants' Developing Understanding of Social Gaze

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beier, Jonathan S.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2012-01-01

Young infants are sensitive to self-directed social actions, but do they appreciate the intentional, target-directed nature of such behaviors? The authors addressed this question by investigating infants' understanding of social gaze in third-party interactions (N = 104). Ten-month-old infants discriminated between 2 people in mutual versus…

Caregiving Behaviors and Early Cognitive Development as Related to Ordinal Position in Preterm Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Sarale E.; Beckwith, Leila

1977-01-01

Naturalistic home observations of 54 preterm infants and their caregivers were made when the infants were 1, 3, and 8 months of age. Differences were found in the kinds of everyday transactions which occur with preterm infants raised with and without siblings. (Author/JMB)

The Relationships Between Mothers, Fathers, Infants, and Siblings in the First Two Years of Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamb, Michael E.

This paper discusses the nature of the infant social world. Infants develop attachments to both parents. Father-child and mother-child relationships are qualitatively different. They involve different types of experiences and have different implications for the child's personality development. The fathers' sex-differentiating behavior focuses the…

Enhanced Handling and Positioning in Early Infancy Advances Development throughout the First Year

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lobo, Michele A.; Galloway, James C.

2012-01-01

Behaviors emerge, in part, from the interplay of infant abilities and caregiver-infant interactions. Cross-cultural and developmental studies suggest caregiver handling and positioning influence infant development. In this prospective, longitudinal study, the effects of 3 weeks of enhanced handling and positioning experiences provided to 14…

Cesarean Births and Attachment Behaviors of Fathers.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-01-01

Experienced Fathers Has parented one or more children . 3. Full-term Infants Infant weighing not less than 5 pounds (2500 grams) and between 37 and 42 weeks...of attachment, (b) paternal attachment, and (c) cesarean birth. The Concept of Attachment The study of maternal behavior in animals has stimulated...others to investigate the development of the mother-infant relationship in man. Recently, there have been studies on maternal and paternal attachment

Maternal Knowledge of Child Development and Quality of Parenting among White, African-American and Hispanic Mothers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, K.Y.; O'Brien Caughy, M.; Genevro, J.L.; Miller, T.L.

2005-01-01

This study examined the relationship between early maternal knowledge of child development and later quality of parenting behaviors. Differences by race/ethnic group were also examined. Mother-infant dyads (N=378) participated in the study. Mothers completed the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory (KIDI) when the infant was 2-4 months, and…

Isoflurane anesthesia has long-term consequences on motor and behavioral development in infant rhesus macaques

PubMed Central

Coleman, Kristine; Robertson, Nicola D.; Dissen, Gregory A.; Neuringer, Martha D.; Martin, L. Drew; Cuzon Carlson, Verginia C.; Kroenke, Christopher; Fair, Damien; Brambrink, Ansgar

2016-01-01

Background Experimental evidence correlates anesthetic exposure during early development with neuronal and glial injury and death as well as behavioral and cognitive impairments in young animals. Several, although not all, retrospective human studies of neurocognitive and behavioral disorders following childhood exposure to anesthesia suggest a similar association. Few studies have specifically investigated the effects of infant anesthesia exposure on subsequent neurobehavioral development. Using a highly translational nonhuman primate model, we investigated the potential dose-dependent effects of anesthesia across the first year of development. Methods We examined effects of single or multiple early postnatal isoflurane exposures on subsequent behavioral development in 24 socially reared rhesus macaques. Infants were exposed to 5-h of isoflurane anesthesia either once, three times, or not at all (control). We assessed reflex development and anxiety using standardized tests. At approximately one year, infants (n=23) were weaned and housed indoors with 5-6 other subjects. We recorded their response to this move and re-assessed anxiety. Results Compared to controls, animals exposed to repeated isoflurane (ISO-3) presented with motor reflex deficits at 1 month (median, range: ISO-3= 2 [1–5] versus control= 5 [3–7], p<0.005) and responded to their new social environment with increased anxiety (median, range: ISO-3=0.4 bouts/minute [0.2–0.6]; control= 0.25 [0.1–0.3], p,0.05) and affiliative/appeasement behavior (median, range: ISO-3=0.1 bouts/min [0–0.2]; control= 0 [0–0.1], p<0.01) at 12 months. There were no statistically significant behavioral alterations after single isoflurane exposure. Conclusions Neonatal exposure to isoflurane, particularly when repeated, has long-term behavioral consequences affecting both motor and socio-emotional aspects of behavior. PMID:27749311

[Maternal bonding and infant attachment in women with and without social phobia].

PubMed

Kraft, Ariane; Knappe, Susanne; Petrowski, Katja; Petzoldt, Johanna; Martini, Julia

2017-01-01

To examine the association of maternal social phobia with maternal bonding and infant attachment in a prospective-longitudinal study (MARI study, N = 306). A subsample of 46 women with and without lifetime social phobia (Composite International Diagnostic Interview for Women, CIDI-V) and their infants was investigated. Mothers reported antenatal and postnatal bonding (MAAS, MPAS). Infants’ attachment classifications/behavior were observed in the strange situation test at 16 months after delivery. The rate of insecure attachment was higher in infants of mothers with social phobia (45.4 % vs. 33.3 %), and infants needed significantly more time to reconnect with their mothers during reunion in the strange situation (U = 160.0, p = .019). There were no group differences with regard to maternal bonding during pregnancy (t = -.151, p = .881) and after delivery (t = .408, p = .685) and resistant (U = 262.5, p = .969), avoidant (U = 311.5, p = .258) as well as contact-keeping behaviors (U = 224.0, p = .373) of the infant in the strange situation. Mothers with social phobia may transmit their inhibited behavioral disposition to their infants or fail to encourage their infants to interact with other people. Mothers with social phobia should be informed about the possible link of maternal avoidance behavior with adverse infant development and should be provided with information on treatment options.

Prelinguistic Behavior of Infants of Assisted Reproductive Techniques

PubMed Central

Noori, Soudabeh; Nedaeifard, Leila; Agarasouli, Zahra; Koohpaiehzadeh, Jalil; Kermani, Ramin Mozafari; Fazeli, Abolhasan Shahzadeh

2012-01-01

Objective The aim of this study is assessment of effects of different assisted reproductive techniques (ART) like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on prelinguistic behavior of infants conceived by these techniques. Methods In this descriptive, cross sectional study, prelinguistic behavior of 151 full term ART infants of Royan Institute have been assessed in Children's Health and Development Research Center of Tehran from August 2007 until August 2009. Questionnaires were completed by parents at 9 months old. The questionnaire was standard according to Early Language Milestone Scale-2 (ELM-2). Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 and using chi-square test. Findings Twenty-two (14.5%) of infants were conceived by IVF and 129 (85.4%) by ICSI. Number of infants with delay in reduplicated babbling in ICSI method was more than in IVF. There was only a significant difference in echolalia delay in the two sexes. Echolalia was delayed more in boys. Delay of reduplicated babbling was more in infants of younger mothers. There was no relation between speech and language defect of parents and infants. Conclusion This study showed that prelingustic behavior of ART infants are affected by kind of ART method, infant sex, and mother's age at the time of pregnancy. PMID:23431035

The functional neuroanatomy of maternal love: mother's response to infant's attachment behaviors.

PubMed

Noriuchi, Madoka; Kikuchi, Yoshiaki; Senoo, Atsushi

2008-02-15

Maternal love, which may be the core of maternal behavior, is essential for the mother-infant attachment relationship and is important for the infant's development and mental health. However, little has been known about these neural mechanisms in human mothers. We examined patterns of maternal brain activation in response to infant cues using video clips. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements while 13 mothers viewed video clips, with no sound, of their own infant and other infants of approximately 16 months of age who demonstrated two different attachment behaviors (smiling at the infant's mother and crying for her). We found that a limited number of the mother's brain areas were specifically involved in recognition of the mother's own infant, namely orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), periaqueductal gray, anterior insula, and dorsal and ventrolateral parts of putamen. Additionally, we found the strong and specific mother's brain response for the mother's own infant's distress. The differential neural activation pattern was found in the dorsal region of OFC, caudate nucleus, right inferior frontal gyrus, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (PFC), anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate, thalamus, substantia nigra, posterior superior temporal sulcus, and PFC. Our results showed the highly elaborate neural mechanism mediating maternal love and diverse and complex maternal behaviors for vigilant protectiveness.

[Standardization of the Kent Infant Development Scale: implications for primary care pediatricians].

PubMed

García-Tornel Florensa, S; Ruiz España, A; Reuter, J; Clow, C; Reuter, L

1997-02-01

The purpose of this study was the standardization of an infant assessment protocol based on behavioral observations of Spanish parents. The Kent Infant Development (KIDS) scale was translated into Spanish and named "Escala de Desarrollo Infantil de Kent" (EDIK). The EDIK normative data were collected from the parents of 662 healthy infants (ages 1 to 15 months) in pediatric clinics. Infants born more than 2 weeks premature or who had serious physical or neurological illness were not included. EDIK raw scores of Spanish infants were converted to developmental ages by comparing them with the number of behaviors for each age group in the normative sample. We obtained the mean score and standard deviation for the full scale and different domains (cognitive, motor, social, language, and self-help). This study shows that EDIK is sensitive to differences in ages and a good instrument that allows one to make a classification between normal infants or those at risk. It should prove useful in developmental pediatric practice.

Implications of kangaroo care for growth and development in preterm infants.

PubMed

Dodd, Virginia L

2005-01-01

To review research on kangaroo care with implications for growth and development in preterm infants. Nursing, medical, and child development research literature was searched through PubMed through 2003 using the search terms kangaroo Care, skin-to-skin, growth/development, and premature infants. Randomized controlled trials, pretest-posttest designs, and other comparative studies of kangaroo care were reviewed. Reports exploring parent perspectives were examined for attachment and parent-infant interaction findings. Theory and research regarding growth in preterm infants were explored. Research on topics of kangaroo care, skin-to-skin contact, preterm infant growth, preterm infant weight gain, and failure to thrive was evaluated. Research on kangaroo care reports physiologic safety for preterm infants and increased attachment for parents. Attachment promotes nurturing behaviors that support growth and development. Weight gain as a benefit of kangaroo care remains in question. Kangaroo care is safe for preterm infants and may have important benefits for growth and development. Suggestions are made for future research on effects of KC on preterm infants.

Mothers’ Emotional Reactions to Crying Pose Risk for Subsequent Attachment Insecurity

PubMed Central

Leerkes, Esther M.; Parade, Stephanie H.; Gudmundson, Jessica A.

2011-01-01

Links between maternal emotional reactions to crying (anger and anxiety) and infant attachment security were examined in 119 mother-infant dyads. Mothers rated the intensity of their emotional responses to videotapes of crying infants prenatally. Maternal sensitivity was observed during infant exposure to emotion eliciting tasks at six and 16 months postpartum and mothers’ self-reported on their responses to their infant’s negative emotions at 16 months. Infant attachment security was assessed using the Strange Situation at 16 months postpartum. Results indicated that observed sensitivity was associated with fewer avoidant and resistant behaviors and prenatal maternal anger and anxiety in response to infant crying predicted the developing attachment system independent of observed sensitivity, but in different ways. Maternal anxiety in response to crying was positively associated with resistant behaviors as a direct effect. Maternal anger in response to crying was associated with avoidant behaviors indirectly through mothers’ self-reported punitive and minimizing responses to infant distress at sixteen months. Theoretical, applied and methodological implications are discussed. PMID:21517171

Maternal postpartum depression and infant social withdrawal among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive mother-infant dyads.

PubMed

Hartley, C; Pretorius, K; Mohamed, A; Laughton, B; Madhi, S; Cotton, M F; Steyn, B; Seedat, S

2010-05-01

Maternal postpartum depression poses significant risks for mother-child interaction and long-term infant outcomes. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status has also been implicated in the development of postpartum depression, but the association between maternal depression and infant social behavior in the context of HIV infection has not been fully investigated. First, we examined the relationship between maternal postpartum depression and infant social withdrawal at 10-12 months of age in HIV-infected mothers and infants. Second, we ascertained whether infant social withdrawal could be significantly predicted by maternal postpartum depression. The sample consisted of 83 HIV-infected mother-infant dyads. Mothers were assessed for postpartum depression with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and infant social withdrawal behavior was rated using the Modified Alarm Distress Baby Scale (m-ADBB). 42.2% of the mothers scored above the cut-off point for depression on the EPDS, and a third of infants (31%) were socially withdrawn. Notably, maternal depression did not predict infant social withdrawal as measured by the m-ADBB. Infant social withdrawal was also not significantly associated with failure to thrive or gender. These preliminary findings need further investigation with respect to the impact on long-term neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes.

Infant bonding and attachment to the caregiver: Insights from basic and clinical science

PubMed Central

Sullivan, Regina; Perry, Rosemarie; Sloan, Aliza; Kleinhaus, Karine; Burtchen, Nina

2011-01-01

The bonding and early life attachment between the infant and caregiver is a dynamic, bidirectional process involving caregiver nurturing of the infant, as well as complementary infant behavior that elicits parental care. Attachment appears to have a dual function. The first function is to ensure the infant remains close to the caregiver in order to receive necessary care for survival. Interestingly, animal research has shown that both nurturing and painful stimuli associated with the caregiver support attachment. Secondly, the quality of attachment and its associated sensory stimuli organize the brain to define the infant's cognitive and emotional development. Specifically, the patterning and quality of care regulate the infant's brain function and behavioral expression that determines long-term emotional regulation. These issues, presented within an historical view of infant attachment, highlight the importance of integrating human and animal research in understanding infant care. PMID:22107895

Cocaine Exposure Is Associated with Subtle Compromises of Infants' and Mothers' Social-Emotional Behavior and Dyadic Features of Their Interaction in the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tronick, E. Z.; Messinger, D. S.; Weinberg, M. K.; Lester, B. M.; LaGasse, L.; Seifer, R.; Bauer, C. R.; Shankaran, S.; Bada, H.; Wright, L. L.; Poole, K.; Liu, J.

2005-01-01

Prenatal cocaine and opiate exposure are thought to subtly compromise social and emotional development. The authors observed a large sample of 236 cocaine-exposed and 459 nonexposed infants (49 were opiate exposed and 646 nonexposed) with their mothers in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Infant and maternal behaviors were microanalytically…

Maternal Adjustment and Infant Outcome in Medically Defined High-Risk Pregnancy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levy-Shiff, Rachel; Lerman, Maya; Har-Even, Dov; Hod, Moshe

2002-01-01

Explored relation of biological and psychosocial risk factors to infant development among pregnant women who had pregestational diabetes, gestational diabetes, or were nondiabetic. Found that infants of diabetic mothers scored lower on the Bayley Scales at 1 year and revealed fewer positive and more negative behaviors than infants of nondiabetic…

Experience Facilitates the Emergence of Sharing Behavior among 7.5-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Jing; Saether, Lucie; Sommerville, Jessica A.

2016-01-01

Given the centrality of prosociality in everyday social functioning, understanding the factors and mechanisms underlying the origins of prosocial development is of critical importance. This experiment investigated whether experience with reciprocal object exchanges can drive the developmental onset of sharing behavior. Seven-month-old infants took…

Experience facilitates the emergence of sharing behavior among 7.5-month-old infants

PubMed Central

Xu, Jing; Saether, Lucie; Sommerville, Jessica A.

2016-01-01

Given the centrality of prosociality in everyday social functioning, understanding the factors and mechanisms underlying the origins of prosocial development is of critical importance. This experiment investigated whether experience with reciprocal object exchanges can drive the developmental onset of sharing behavior. Seven-month-old infants took part in two laboratory visits to assess their sharing behavior and ability to release objects. During the intervening 7 −14 day period parents led infants in an intervention in which they were either encouraged to release objects into a container (bucket condition, n = 20), or share objects with the parent in the context of reciprocal object exchanges (sharing condition, n = 20). Results showed that infants in the sharing condition shared significantly more than infants in the bucket condition following the intervention, and infants in the sharing condition significantly increased their sharing behavior across the two visits. Parental empathy moderated the effect of this sharing intervention, but frequency of practice did not. These results suggest that reciprocal turn-taking in dyadic object-exchange interactions may facilitate the early emergence of sharing behavior, and this effect is mediated by parental empathy. PMID:27657650

Infants’ Behavioral Styles in Joint Attention Situations and Parents’ Socio-economic Status

PubMed Central

Second, Monika Abels; Hutman, Ted

2016-01-01

In this study the eco-cultural model of parenting (Keller, 2007) was applied to the study of joint attention behavior of children from families with different socioeconomic status (SES). It was hypothesized that infants’ early communication styles would differ with SES reflecting more independent or interdependent interactions with their caregivers. It was also hypothesized that infants would use the same types of behaviors whether they have declarative or imperative communication goals. The Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS, Mundy et al., 2003) was administered to 103 typically developing infants of 12 months (half of them siblings of children with autism). A factor analysis, yielding four behavioral factors, namely pointing, eye contact, actions and following points, confirmed the hypothesis that infants use behaviors consistently across situations independent of their communicative intent. MANOVAs (comprising parental education and income) Revealed that higher SES infants showed actions more frequently in the ESCS whereas lower SES infants followed experimenter’s points more frequently. The results are discussed in the context of presumably differing socialization goals for infants and the divergent contribution of parental education and income that seem to have additive contribution to some factors (actions, following points) but divergent contributions to others (pointing, eye contact). PMID:26164418

Excessive infant crying doubles the risk of mood and behavioral problems at age 5: evidence for mediation by maternal characteristics.

PubMed

Smarius, Laetitia Joanna Clara Antonia; Strieder, Thea G A; Loomans, Eva M; Doreleijers, Theo A H; Vrijkotte, Tanja G M; Gemke, Reinoud J; van Eijsden, Manon

2017-03-01

The onset of behavioral problems starts in early life. This study examined whether excessive infant crying (maternal ratings) is a determinant of emotional and behavioral problems at age 5-6 years. In the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) study, a large prospective, observational, population-based multiethnic birth cohort, excessive infant crying (crying for three or more hours per 24 h day over the past week) during the 13th week after birth (range 11-25 weeks, SD 2 weeks), maternal burden of infant care and maternal aggressive behavior (either angry speaking, or physical aggression) was assessed using a questionnaire. Children's behavioral and emotional problems at the age of 5-6 were assessed by Goodman's Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), by the subscale of generalized anxiety of the preschool anxiety scale (PAS), and by the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ). Inclusion criterion was singleton birth. Exclusion criteria were preterm born babies or congenital disorders. Among 3389 children, excessive infant crying (n = 102) was associated with a twofold increased risk of the overall problem behavior, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and mood problems at the age of 5-6 [ORs between 1.75 (95 % CI 1.09-2.81) and 2.12 (95 % CI 1.30-3.46)]. This association was mediated by maternal burden of infant care (change in odds' ratio 1-17 %) and maternal aggressive behavior (change in odds' ratio 4-10 %). There was no effect modification by the child's gender or maternal parity. Excessive infant crying was not associated with general anxiety problems. Excessive infant crying doubles the risk of behavioral, hyperactivity, and mood problems at the age of 5-6, as reported by their mother. Maternal burden of infant care partially mediates the association between excessive crying and behavioral and mood problems. Special care for mothers with a high burden of care for their excessive crying infant, notwithstanding their own good health, can be a feasible strategy for possible prevention of mood and behavioral problems in their children later in life.

Infant negative reactivity defines the effects of parent-child synchrony on physiological and behavioral regulation of social stress.

PubMed

Pratt, Maayan; Singer, Magi; Kanat-Maymon, Yaniv; Feldman, Ruth

2015-11-01

How infants shape their own development has puzzled developmentalists for decades. Recent models suggest that infant dispositions, particularly negative reactivity and regulation, affect outcome by determining the extent of parental effects. Here, we used a microanalytic experimental approach and proposed that infants with varying levels of negative reactivity will be differentially impacted by parent-infant synchrony in predicting physiological and behavioral regulation of increasing social stress during an experimental paradigm. One hundred and twenty-two mother-infant dyads (4-6 months) were observed in the face-to-face still face (SF) paradigm and randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: SF with touch, standard SF, and SF with arms' restraint. Mother-infant synchrony and infant negative reactivity were observed at baseline, and three mechanisms of behavior regulation were microcoded; distress, disengagement, and social regulation. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia baseline, reactivity, and recovery were quantified. Structural equation modeling provided support for our hypothesis. For physiological regulation, infants high in negative reactivity receiving high mother-infant synchrony showed greater vagal withdrawal, which in turn predicted comparable levels of vagal recovery to that of nonreactive infants. In behavioral regulation, only infants low in negative reactivity who received high synchrony were able to regulate stress by employing social engagement cues during the SF phase. Distress was reduced only among calm infants to highly synchronous mothers, and disengagement was lowest among highly reactive infants experiencing high mother-infant synchrony. Findings chart two pathways by which synchrony may bolster regulation in infants of high and low reactivity. Among low reactive infants, synchrony builds a social repertoire for handling interpersonal stress, whereas in highly reactive infants, it constructs a platform for repeated reparation of momentary interactive "failures" and reduces the natural tendency of stressed infants to disengage from source of distress. Implications for the construction of synchrony-focused interventions targeting infants of varying dispositions are discussed.

School-Aged Outcomes following Prenatal Methamphetamine Exposure: 7.5-Year Follow-Up from the Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle Study.

PubMed

Eze, Nwando; Smith, Lynne M; LaGasse, Linda L; Derauf, Chris; Newman, Elana; Arria, Amelia; Huestis, Marilyn A; Della Grotta, Sheri A; Dansereau, Lynne M; Neal, Charles; Lester, Barry M

2016-03-01

To assess the relationship between prenatal methamphetamine exposure (PME) and behavior problems at age 7.5 years and the extent to which early adversity mediated this relationship. The multicenter, longitudinal Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle study enrolled 412 mother-infant pairs at 4 sites. Methamphetamine-exposed participants (n = 204) were identified by self-report and/or gas chromatography/mass spectrometry confirmation of amphetamine and metabolites in infant meconium. Matched participants (n = 208) denied methamphetamine use and had a negative meconium screen. At the 7.5-year follow-up, 290 children with complete Child Behavior Checklist data and an early adversity index score were available for analysis (n = 146 exposed). PME was significantly associated with an increased early adversity index score (P < .001) and with increased externalizing, rule-breaking behavior, and aggressive behavior (P < .05). Early adversity was also associated with higher externalizing behavior scores. Early adversity significantly mediated the relationship between PME and behavioral problems. After adjusting the mediation model for sex, prenatal tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana exposures, and study site, the association of PME with early adversity remained significant. Though PME is associated with behavioral problems, early adversity may be a strong determinant of behavioral outcome for children exposed to methamphetamine in utero. Early adversity significantly mediated the relationship between PME and behavioral problems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sequential observation of infant regulated and dysregulated behavior following soothing and stimulating maternal behavior during feeding

PubMed Central

Brown, Lisa F.; Pridham, Karen A.; Brown, Roger

2014-01-01

Purpose To describe maternal behaviors occurring before infant regulated or dysregulated behavior at three times in early infancy and examine behavioral patterns over time with their prematurely born infants. Method & Design Video-recordings of 37 dyads were coded on infant regulated and dysregulated behaviors following maternal soothing and stimulating behaviors. Results At each time, infants showed more regulation after maternal soothing than after maternal stimulating. Further study is merited. Practice Implications Knowing infant regulation and dysregulation following categories of maternal behavior could help mothers anticipate infant regulatory or dysregulatory behavior in response to their own behavior and identify supportive caregiving strategies. PMID:24417766

[Mother-infant spatial relations in wild beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) during postnatal development under natural conditions].

PubMed

Krasnova, V V; Bel'kovich, V M; Chernetskiĭ, A D

2006-01-01

Elements of behavior under natural conditions, their duration, and frequency are described in three age groups of belugas calves: newborn, one-month-old, and two-month-old. The quantitative and qualitative indices of the recognized behavioral elements allowed us to evaluate the mother-infant contacts and to analyze their dynamics during calf growth. The most common calf positions relative to the mother during this period were "at the cow's tail" and "at the cow's side." The importance of behavioral responses of calf for the development of social behavior in adult animals is emphasized.

Postural complexity influences development in infants born preterm with brain injury: relating perception-action theory to 3 cases.

PubMed

Dusing, Stacey C; Izzo, Theresa; Thacker, Leroy R; Galloway, James Cole

2014-10-01

Perception-action theory suggests a cyclical relationship between movement and perceptual information. In this case series, changes in postural complexity were used to quantify an infant's action and perception during the development of early motor behaviors. Three infants born preterm with periventricular white matter injury were included. Longitudinal changes in postural complexity (approximate entropy of the center of pressure), head control, reaching, and global development, measured with the Test of Infant Motor Performance and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, were assessed every 0.5 to 3 months during the first year of life. All 3 infants demonstrated altered postural complexity and developmental delays. However, the timing of the altered postural complexity and the type of delays varied among the infants. For infant 1, reduced postural complexity or limited action while learning to control her head in the midline position may have contributed to her motor delay. However, her ability to adapt her postural complexity eventually may have supported her ability to learn from her environment, as reflected in her relative cognitive strength. For infant 2, limited early postural complexity may have negatively affected his learning through action, resulting in cognitive delay. For infant 3, an increase in postural complexity above typical levels was associated with declining neurological status. Postural complexity is proposed as a measure of perception and action in the postural control system during the development of early behaviors. An optimal, intermediate level of postural complexity supports the use of a variety of postural control strategies and enhances the perception-action cycle. Either excessive or reduced postural complexity may contribute to developmental delays in infants born preterm with white matter injury. © 2014 American Physical Therapy Association.

Maternal verbal responses to communication of infants at low and heightened risk of autism.

PubMed

Leezenbaum, Nina B; Campbell, Susan B; Butler, Derrecka; Iverson, Jana M

2014-08-01

This study investigates mothers' responses to infant communication among infants at heightened genetic risk (high risk) of autism spectrum disorder compared to infants with no such risk (low risk). A total of 26 infants, 12 of whom had an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder, were observed during naturalistic in-home interaction and semistructured play with their mothers at 13 and 18 months of age. Results indicate that overall, mothers of low-risk and high-risk infants were highly and similarly responsive to their infants' communicative behaviors. However, examination of infant vocal and gestural communication development together with maternal verbal responses and translations (i.e. verbally labeling a gesture referent) suggests that delays in early communication development observed among high-risk infants may alter the input that these infants receive; this in turn may have cascading effects on the subsequent development of communication and language. © The Author(s) 2013.

Self-Regulation and Infant-Directed Singing in Infants with Down Syndrome.

PubMed

de l'Etoile, Shannon K

2015-01-01

Infants learn how to regulate internal states and subsequent behavior through dyadic interactions with caregivers. During infant-directed (ID) singing, mothers help infants practice attentional control and arousal modulation, thus providing critical experience in self-regulation. Infants with Down syndrome are known to have attention deficits and delayed information processing as well as difficulty managing arousability, factors that may disrupt their efforts at self-regulation. The researcher explored responses to ID singing in infants with Down syndrome (DS) and compared them with those of typically developing (TD) infants. Behaviors measured included infant gaze and affect as indicators of self-regulation. Participants included 3- to 9-month-old infants with and without DS who were videotaped throughout a 2-minute face-to-face interaction during which their mothers sang to them any song(s) of their choosing. Infant behavior was then coded for percentage of time spent demonstrating a specific gaze or affect type. All infants displayed sustained gaze more than any other gaze type. TD infants demonstrated intermittent gaze significantly more often than infants with DS. Infant status had no effect on affect type, and all infants showed predominantly neutral affect. Findings suggest that ID singing effectively maintains infant attention for both TD infants and infants with DS. However, infants with DS may have difficulty shifting attention during ID singing as needed to adjust arousal levels and self-regulate. High levels of neutral affect for all infants imply that ID singing is likely to promote a calm, curious state, regardless of infant status. © the American Music Therapy Association 2015. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Infants, Mothers, and Dyadic Contributions to Stability and Prediction of Social Stress Response at 6 Months

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Provenzi, Livio; Olson, Karen L.; Montirosso, Rosario; Tronick, Ed

2016-01-01

The study of infants' interactive style and social stress response to repeated stress exposures is of great interest for developmental and clinical psychologists. Stable maternal and dyadic behavior is critical to sustain infants' development of an adaptive social stress response, but the association between infants' interactive style and social…

What are infant siblings teaching us about autism in infancy?

PubMed Central

Rogers, Sally J.

2009-01-01

International research to understand infant patterns of development in autism spectrum disorders has recently focused on a research paradigm involving prospective longitudinal studies of infant siblings of children with autism. Such designs use a comparison group of infant siblings without any familial risks (the low- risk group) to gather longitudinal information about developmental skills across the first three years of life, followed by clinical diagnosis of ASD at 36 months. This review focuses on five topics: presence of ASD in the infant sibling groups, patterns and characteristics of motor development, patterns and characteristics of social and emotional development, patterns and characteristics of intentional communication, both verbal and nonverbal, and patterns that mark the onset of behaviors pathognomonic for ASD. Symptoms in all these areas typically begin to be detected during the age period of 12 –24 months in infants who will develop autism. Onset of the symptoms occurs at varying ages and in varying patterns, but the pattern of frank loss of skills and marked regression reported from previous retrospective studies in 20–30% of children is seldom reported in these infant sibling prospective studies. Two surprises involve the very early onset of repetitive and unusual sensory behaviors, and the lack of predictive symptoms at age 6 months. Contrary to current views that autism is a disorder that profoundly affects social development from the earliest months of life, the data from these studies presents a picture of autism as a disorder involving symptoms across multiple domains with a gradual onset that changes both ongoing developmental rate and established behavioral patterns across the first two to three years of life. PMID:19582867

What are infant siblings teaching us about autism in infancy?

PubMed

Rogers, Sally J

2009-06-01

International research to understand infant patterns of development in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has recently focused on a research paradigm involving prospective longitudinal studies of infant siblings of children with autism. Such designs use a comparison group of infant siblings without any familial risks (the low-risk group) to gather longitudinal information about developmental skills across the first 3 years of life, followed by clinical diagnosis of ASD at 36 months. This review focuses on five topics: presence of ASD in the infant sibling groups, patterns and characteristics of motor development, patterns and characteristics of social and emotional development, patterns and characteristics of intentional communication, both verbal and nonverbal, and patterns that mark the onset of behaviors pathognomonic for ASD. Symptoms in all these areas typically begin to be detected during the age period of 12-24 months in infants who will develop autism. Onset of the symptoms occurs at varying ages and in varying patterns, but the pattern of frank loss of skills and marked regression reported from previous retrospective studies in 20-30% of children is seldom reported in these infant sibling prospective studies. Two surprises involve the very early onset of repetitive and unusual sensory behaviors, and the lack of predictive symptoms at the age of 6 months. Contrary to current views that autism is a disorder that profoundly affects social development from the earliest months of life, the data from these studies presents a picture of autism as a disorder involving symptoms across multiple domains with a gradual onset that changes both ongoing developmental rate and established behavioral patterns across the first 2-3 years of life.

Inhaled oxytocin increases positive social behaviors in newborn macaques

PubMed Central

Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Sclafani, Valentina; Paukner, Annika; Hamel, Amanda F.; Novak, Melinda A.; Meyer, Jerrold S.; Suomi, Stephen J.; Ferrari, Pier Francesco

2014-01-01

Early caregiver–infant interactions are critical for infants’ socioemotional and cognitive development. Several hormones and neuromodulators, including oxytocin, affect these interactions. Exogenous oxytocin promotes social behaviors in several species, including human and nonhuman primates. Although exogenous oxytocin increases social function in adults—including expression recognition and affiliation—it is unknown whether oxytocin can increase social interactions in infants. We hypothesized that nebulized oxytocin would increase affiliative social behaviors and such effects would be modulated by infants’ social skills, measured earlier in development. We also hypothesized that oxytocin’s effects on social behaviors may be due to its anxiolytic effects. We tested these hypotheses in a blind study by nebulizing 7- to 14-d-old macaques (n = 28) with oxytocin or saline. Following oxytocin administration, infants’ facial gesturing at a human caregiver increased, and infants’ salivary oxytocin was positively correlated with the time spent in close proximity to a caregiver. Infants’ imitative skill (measured earlier in development: 1–7 d of age) predicted oxytocin-associated increases in affiliative behaviors—lip smacking, visual attention to a caregiver, and time in close proximity to a caregiver—suggesting that infants with higher propensities for positive social interactions are more sensitive to exogenous oxytocin. Oxytocin also decreased salivary cortisol, but not stress-related behaviors (e.g., scratching), suggesting the possibility of some anxiolytic effects. To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that oxytocin increases positive social behaviors in newborns. This information is of critical importance for potential interventions aimed at ameliorating inadequate social behaviors in infants with higher likelihood of developing neurodevelopmental disorder. PMID:24778211

Psychomotor Development and School Performance of Children Who Were Low-Birth Infants: Relation to Neurobehavioural Condition in the Newborn Period.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leijon, Ingemar; And Others

This study investigated neurological and psychomotor development and intelligence from birth to 8 years of age among Swedish infants with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). The relationship between neonatal neurological and behavioral condition to follow-up results was also investigated. Twenty-two infants with IUGR were arranged in 2 groups…

Association between feeding difficulties and language delay in preterm infants using Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Third Edition.

PubMed

Adams-Chapman, Ira; Bann, Carla M; Vaucher, Yvonne E; Stoll, Barbara J

2013-09-01

To evaluate the relationship between abnormal feeding patterns and language performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Third Edition at 18-22 months adjusted age among a cohort of extremely premature infants. This is a descriptive analysis of 1477 preterm infants born ≤ 26 weeks gestation or enrolled in a clinical trial between January 1, 2006 and March 18, 2008 at a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network center who completed the 18-month neurodevelopmental follow-up assessment. At 18-22 months adjusted age, a comprehensive neurodevelopmental evaluation was performed by certified examiners including the Receptive and Expressive Language Subscales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Third Edition and a standardized adjusted age feeding behaviors and nutritional intake. Data were analyzed using bivariate and multilevel linear and logistic regression modeling. Abnormal feeding behaviors were reported in 193 (13%) of these infants at 18-22 months adjusted age. Abnormal feeding patterns, days of mechanical ventilation, hearing impairment, and Gross Motor Functional Classification System level ≥ 2 each independently predicted lower composite language scores. At 18 months adjusted age, premature infants with a history of feeding difficulties are more likely to have language delay. Neuromotor impairment and days of mechanical ventilation are both important risk factors associated with these outcomes. Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Breastfeeding, Parenting, and Infant Attachment Behaviors.

PubMed

Gibbs, Benjamin G; Forste, Renata; Lybbert, Emily

2018-04-01

Objectives Infants and toddlers need secure attachments in order to develop the social competence required to successfully navigate later peer and adult relationships. Breastfeeding is a parenting factor that has been associated with child emotional development-specifically the attachment between children and their mothers. Yet, this link may simply be the result of other parenting behaviors that are associated with breastfeeding. Thus, our objective is to examine whether the link between infant attachment behaviors and breastfeeding endures when accounting for a broad array of in-depth measures of parenting. Methods We use the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of children from 9 months to 2 years of age collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. Using Ordinary Least Squares regression, data analyses examine the association between the Toddler Attachment Sort-45 (TAS-45) measures of toddler-parent attachment (infant attachment security and temperamental dependency) and breastfeeding practices. We also examine individual items of the TAS-45 to isolate specific attachment behaviors that have the strongest associations with breastfeeding. Results We find an enduring link between children who are predominantly breastfed for six or more months and infant attachment security. However, we find no evidence that breastfeeding is linked to a child's temperamental dependency. Of the nine items used to examine infant attachment behaviors, we find that breastfed children are rated as having slightly higher scores on two measures ("warm and cuddly," "cooperative") and lower scores on one measure ("demanding/angry"). Conclusions for Practice Breastfeeding has an important link to the child's use of their caregiver as a secure base for exploration and a place of comfort when distressed (infant attachment security). Yet, breastfeeding does not appear to reduce a child's temperamental dependency or level of clinginess as measured by how demanding, fussy or distressed the child becomes when separated.

Effects of early life abuse differ across development: Infant social behavior deficits are followed by adolescent depressive-like behaviors mediated by the amygdala

PubMed Central

Raineki, Charlis; Cortés, Millie Rincón; Belnoue, Laure; Sullivan, Regina M.

2012-01-01

Abuse during early life, especially from the caregiver, increases vulnerability to develop later life psychopathologies such as depression. Although signs of depression are typically not expressed until later life, signs of dysfunctional social behavior have been found earlier. How infant abuse alters the trajectory of brain development to produce pathways to pathology is not completely understood. Here we address this question using two different but complementary rat models of early-life abuse from postnatal days (PN) 8–12: a naturalistic paradigm, where the mother is provided with insufficient bedding for nest building and a more controlled paradigm, where infants undergo olfactory classical conditioning. Amygdala neural assessment (c-Fos), as well as social behavior and forced swim tests were performed at preweaning (PN20) and adolescence (PN45). Our results show that both models of early life abuse induce deficits in social behavior, even during the preweaning period; however, depressive-like behaviors were observed only during adolescence. Adolescent depressive-like behavior corresponds with an increase in amygdala neural activity in response to forced swim test. A causal relationship between the amygdala and depressive-like behavior was suggested through amygdala temporary deactivation (muscimol infusions), which rescued the depressive-like behavior in the forced swim test. Our results indicate that social behavior deficits in infancy could serve as an early marker for later psychopathology. Moreover, the implication of the amygdala in the ontogeny of depressive-like behaviors in infant abused animals is an important step toward understanding the underlying mechanisms of later life mental disease associated with early-life abuse. PMID:22649253

Night Waking, Sleep-Wake Organization, and Self-Soothing in the First Year of Life

PubMed Central

GOODLIN-JONES, BETH L.; BURNHAM, MELISSA M.; GAYLOR, ERIKA E.; ANDERS, THOMAS F.

2005-01-01

Few objective data are available regarding infants’ night waking behaviors and the development of self-soothing during the first year of life. This cross-sectional study examined 80 infants in one of four age groups (3, 6, 9, or 12 mo) for four nights by using videosomnography to code nighttime awakenings and parent-child interactions. A large degree of variability was observed in parents’ putting the infant to bed awake or asleep and in responding to vocalizations after nighttime awakenings. Most infants woke during the night at all ages observed. Younger infants tended to require parental intervention at night to return to sleep, whereas older infants exhibited a greater proportion of self-soothing after nighttime awakenings. However, even in the 12-month-old group, 50% of infants typically required parental intervention to get back to sleep after waking. Results emphasize the individual and contextual factors that effect the development of self-soothing behavior during the first year of life. PMID:11530895

Intervention in the First Weeks of Life for Infants Born Late Preterm: A Case Series

PubMed Central

Dusing, Stacey C.; Lobo, Michele A.; Lee, Hui-Min; Galloway, James Cole

2013-01-01

Infants born late preterm (34–36 weeks of gestation) account for 350,000 US births per year, are at risk for developmental delays, and are rarely included in intervention studies. Purpose To describe a novel parent delivered movement intervention program for very young infants and outcomes following intervention and to evaluate the feasibility of using a comprehensive set of outcome measures. Summary of Key Points Two infants born late preterm received intervention from 0.5 to 2.0 months of adjusted age. Development, postural control, reaching, and object exploration assessments were completed at 3 time points. The intervention was well tolerated by the family. Improvements in developmental outcomes, postural control, and object exploration are presented. Statement of Conclusion Very early movement experience provided daily by parents may improve development. In combination, norm-referenced and behavioral measures appear sensitive to changes in infant behaviors. PMID:23542201

Parents and Infants: An Interactive Network. I. Introduction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yarrow, Leon J.

This symposium introduction outlines the first phase of an investigation of the mother-father-infant triad as an interactive system, influencing both parent attitudes and behaviors and child development. The focus of the research was on the early determinants of parental behavior. Subjects were 67 middle class, white parents and their first-born…

Iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) in infancy and mother-infant interaction during feeding

PubMed Central

Armony-Sivan, Rinat; Kaplan-Estrin, Melissa; Jacobson, Sandra W.; Lozoff, Betsy

2011-01-01

Objective This study was conducted to compare quality of mother-infant interactions during feeding in infants with or without iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Method Infants and caregivers were screened at their 9- to 10-month-old health maintenance visits at an inner-city clinic in Detroit. Those who were full-term and healthy received a venipuncture blood sample to assess iron status. Of the 77 infants who met final iron status criteria, 68 infants and mothers were videotaped during feeding interaction at the Child Development Research Laboratory. The quality of mother-infant interaction during feeding was scored on the Nursing Child Assessment Feeding Scale (NCAFS). Twenty-five infants with IDA (HB < 110 g/L and at least 2 abnormal iron measures) were compared to 43 non-anemic infants (HB ≥ 110 g/L) using ANOVA and GLM models with covariate control. Results Mothers of IDA infants responded with significantly less sensitivity to infant cues and less cognitive and social-emotional growth fostering behavior than mothers of non-anemic infants. The pattern of results was similar for scales of contingent behaviors. The magnitude of the differences in maternal ratings was large (0.8-1.0 SD after covariate adjustment). IDA infants were rated significantly lower on clarity of cues and overall (effect sizes 0.5 SD). Conclusion IDA in infancy was associated with less optimal mother-infant interactions during feeding. Future interventions might target feeding interaction and consider effects on infant iron status and developmental/behavioral outcomes among IDA infants, as well as infant feeding practices per se. PMID:20431398

Assessment and evaluation of the high risk neonate: the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale.

PubMed

Lester, Barry M; Andreozzi-Fontaine, Lynne; Tronick, Edward; Bigsby, Rosemarie

2014-08-25

There has been a long-standing interest in the assessment of the neurobehavioral integrity of the newborn infant. The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) was developed as an assessment for the at-risk infant. These are infants who are at increased risk for poor developmental outcome because of insults during prenatal development, such as substance exposure or prematurity or factors such as poverty, poor nutrition or lack of prenatal care that can have adverse effects on the intrauterine environment and affect the developing fetus. The NNNS assesses the full range of infant neurobehavioral performance including neurological integrity, behavioral functioning, and signs of stress/abstinence. The NNNS is a noninvasive neonatal assessment tool with demonstrated validity as a predictor, not only of medical outcomes such as cerebral palsy diagnosis, neurological abnormalities, and diseases with risks to the brain, but also of developmental outcomes such as mental and motor functioning, behavior problems, school readiness, and IQ. The NNNS can identify infants at high risk for abnormal developmental outcome and is an important clinical tool that enables medical researchers and health practitioners to identify these infants and develop intervention programs to optimize the development of these infants as early as possible. The video shows the NNNS procedures, shows examples of normal and abnormal performance and the various clinical populations in which the exam can be used.

Growth and development of infants with asymptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

PubMed

Shan, Ruobing; Wang, Xiaoliang; Fu, Ping

2009-10-31

To observe changes in audiology, intellectual development, behavior development, and physical growth during systematic follow-up of infants with asymptomatic congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. Fifty-two infants diagnosed with asymptomatic congenital HCMV infection from July 2003 to July 2007 served as the infection group, and 21 healthy infants served as the control group. All infants were confirmed to have HCMV infection by Fluorescent Quantative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR). In both the infection and control groups, the neonates and infants at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year of age underwent examinations. 1) 20 items of National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) scores of neonates 12-14 days after birth in 2 groups were 38.3 +/- 1.95 and 38.5 +/- 2.29, without significant differences. 2) Auditory test: 50 ears of 25 cases in the infection group showed abnormal auditory thresholds in V waves with an abnormal rate of 14%, while no abnormalities were found in 21 cases in the control group. 3) Mental and psychomotor development index scores in the control group (107.49 +/- 11.31 and 107.19 +/- 10.98) were compared with those in 41 asymptomatically infected infants at 1 year of age (107.21 +/- 9.96 and 108.31 +/- 11.25), and no statistically significant difference was noted. 1) An elevated threshold in the V wave was present in asymptomatically infected infants, but could not be detected through otoacoustic emission (OAE) screening. 2) Either in the neonatal or infant periods, asymptomatic congenital HCMV infection did not have a significant influence on nervous behavior or on physical and intellectual development.

Rich analysis and rational models: Inferring individual behavior from infant looking data

PubMed Central

Piantadosi, Steven T.; Kidd, Celeste; Aslin, Richard

2013-01-01

Studies of infant looking times over the past 50 years have provided profound insights about cognitive development, but their dependent measures and analytic techniques are quite limited. In the context of infants' attention to discrete sequential events, we show how a Bayesian data analysis approach can be combined with a rational cognitive model to create a rich data analysis framework for infant looking times. We formalize (i) a statistical learning model (ii) a parametric linking between the learning model's beliefs and infants' looking behavior, and (iii) a data analysis model that infers parameters of the cognitive model and linking function for groups and individuals. Using this approach, we show that recent findings from Kidd, Piantadosi, and Aslin (2012) of a U-shaped relationship between look-away probability and stimulus complexity even holds within infants and is not due to averaging subjects with different types of behavior. Our results indicate that individual infants prefer stimuli of intermediate complexity, reserving attention for events that are moderately predictable given their probabilistic expectations about the world. PMID:24750256

Rich analysis and rational models: inferring individual behavior from infant looking data.

PubMed

Piantadosi, Steven T; Kidd, Celeste; Aslin, Richard

2014-05-01

Studies of infant looking times over the past 50 years have provided profound insights about cognitive development, but their dependent measures and analytic techniques are quite limited. In the context of infants' attention to discrete sequential events, we show how a Bayesian data analysis approach can be combined with a rational cognitive model to create a rich data analysis framework for infant looking times. We formalize (i) a statistical learning model, (ii) a parametric linking between the learning model's beliefs and infants' looking behavior, and (iii) a data analysis approach and model that infers parameters of the cognitive model and linking function for groups and individuals. Using this approach, we show that recent findings from Kidd, Piantadosi and Aslin (iv) of a U-shaped relationship between look-away probability and stimulus complexity even holds within infants and is not due to averaging subjects with different types of behavior. Our results indicate that individual infants prefer stimuli of intermediate complexity, reserving attention for events that are moderately predictable given their probabilistic expectations about the world. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Infant Visual Attention and Object Recognition

PubMed Central

Reynolds, Greg D.

2015-01-01

This paper explores the role visual attention plays in the recognition of objects in infancy. Research and theory on the development of infant attention and recognition memory are reviewed in three major sections. The first section reviews some of the major findings and theory emerging from a rich tradition of behavioral research utilizing preferential looking tasks to examine visual attention and recognition memory in infancy. The second section examines research utilizing neural measures of attention and object recognition in infancy as well as research on brain-behavior relations in the early development of attention and recognition memory. The third section addresses potential areas of the brain involved in infant object recognition and visual attention. An integrated synthesis of some of the existing models of the development of visual attention is presented which may account for the observed changes in behavioral and neural measures of visual attention and object recognition that occur across infancy. PMID:25596333

Social and Object Mastery Play in 12-Month Olds with Depressed and Non-Depressed Mothers: Developmental Changes and Correlates.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Popper, Sally D.; And Others

As part of a longitudinal study of postpartum adjustment and infant development, this study examined whether securely attached 12-month-old infants show greater object mastery motivation and social-object mastery motivation than do insecurely attached infants. Object mastery relates to infants' goal-directed behavior that is oriented toward…

Behavior of Mothers and Infants with and without Down Syndrome during the Still-Face Procedure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Derek G.; Oates, John M.; Goodwin, Julia; Hobson, R. Peter

2008-01-01

There has been limited study of how the constitutional characteristics of infants with Down syndrome (DS) influence the patterning of their relations with caregivers. To assess natural and perturbed interactions between infants with DS and their mothers, we tested ten 6-month-old infants with DS and 20 typically developing (TD) 4-month-old of…

Birth timing and behavioral responsiveness predict individual differences in the mother-infant relationship and infant behavior during weaning and maternal breeding

PubMed Central

Vandeleest, Jessica J.; Capitanio, John P.

2012-01-01

There is a great deal of variability in mother-infant interactions and infant behavior across the first year of life in rhesus monkeys. The current paper has two specific aims: 1) to determine if birth timing predicts variability in the mother-infant relationship and infant behavior during weaning and maternal breeding, and 2) to identify predictors of infant behavior during a period of acute challenge, maternal breeding. Forty-one mother-infant pairs were observed during weaning when infants were 4.5 months old, and 33 were followed through maternal breeding. Subjective ratings of 16 adjectives reflecting qualities of maternal attitude, mother-infant interactions, and infant attitude were factor analyzed to construct factors relating to the mother-infant relationship (Relaxed and Aggressive), and infant behavior (Positive Engagement and Distress). During weaning, late born infants were more Positively Engaged than peak born infants (ANOVA, P < 0.05); however, birth timing did not affect the mother-infant relationship factors Relaxed and Aggressive or the infant attitude factor Distress. During maternal breeding early born infants had less Relaxed relationships with their mothers than peak or late born infants, higher Positive Engagement scores than peak or late born infants, and tended to have higher Distress scores than peak born infants (Repeated-measures ANOVA, P < 0.05). In addition, Distress scores were higher during maternal breeding than during the pre- and post-breeding phases. Finally, multiple regression (P < 0.05) indicated that while infant behavioral responsiveness predicted infant Positive Engagement during the acute challenge of maternal breeding, qualities of the mother-infant relationship predicted infant Distress. These data suggest that birth timing influences the patterns of mother-infant interactions during weaning and maternal breeding. Additionally, infant behavioral responsiveness and mother-infant relationship quality impact infant social engagement and affect expression, respectively. PMID:24436198

Variety Wins: Soccer-Playing Robots and Infant Walking.

PubMed

Ossmy, Ori; Hoch, Justine E; MacAlpine, Patrick; Hasan, Shohan; Stone, Peter; Adolph, Karen E

2018-01-01

Although both infancy and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers are interested in developing systems that produce adaptive, functional behavior, the two disciplines rarely capitalize on their complementary expertise. Here, we used soccer-playing robots to test a central question about the development of infant walking. During natural activity, infants' locomotor paths are immensely varied. They walk along curved, multi-directional paths with frequent starts and stops. Is the variability observed in spontaneous infant walking a "feature" or a "bug?" In other words, is variability beneficial for functional walking performance? To address this question, we trained soccer-playing robots on walking paths generated by infants during free play and tested them in simulated games of "RoboCup." In Tournament 1, we compared the functional performance of a simulated robot soccer team trained on infants' natural paths with teams trained on less varied, geometric paths-straight lines, circles, and squares. Across 1,000 head-to-head simulated soccer matches, the infant-trained team consistently beat all teams trained with less varied walking paths. In Tournament 2, we compared teams trained on different clusters of infant walking paths. The team trained with the most varied combination of path shape, step direction, number of steps, and number of starts and stops outperformed teams trained with less varied paths. This evidence indicates that variety is a crucial feature supporting functional walking performance. More generally, we propose that robotics provides a fruitful avenue for testing hypotheses about infant development; reciprocally, observations of infant behavior may inform research on artificial intelligence.

Multimodal Sex-Related Differences in Infant and in Infant-Directed Maternal Behaviors during Months Three through Twelve of Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fausto-Sterling, Anne; Crews, David; Sung, Jihyun; García-Coll, Cynthia; Seifer, Ronald

2015-01-01

Using the concepts of sensory and affective experience, this work relates the concepts of socialization and cognitive development to the embodiment of gender in the human infant. Evidence obtained from biweekly observations from 30 children and their mothers observed from age 3 months to age 12 months revealed measurable sex-related differences in…

The effects of mother's physical and emotional unavailability on emotion regulation.

PubMed

Field, T

1994-01-01

In summary, emotion dysregulation can develop from brief or more prolonged separations from the mother as well as from the more disturbing effects of her emotional unavailability, such as occurs when she is depressed. Harmonious interaction with the mother or the primary caregiver (attunement) of the mother's physical unavailability were seen in studies of separations from the mother due to her hospitalization or to her conference trips. These separations affected the infants' play behaviors and sleep patterns. Comparisons between hospitalizations and conference trips, however, suggested that the infants' behaviors were more negatively affected by the hospitalizations than the conference trips. This probably related to these being hospitalizations for the birth of another baby--the infants no longer had the special, exclusive relationship with their mothers after the arrival of the new sibling. This finding highlights the critical importance of emotional availability. The mother had returned from the hospital, but, while she was no longer physically unavailable, she was now emotionally unavailable. Emotional unavailability was investigated in an acute form by comparing two laboratory situations, the still face paradigm and the momentary leave taking. The still face had more negative effects on the infants' interaction behaviors than the physical separation. The most extreme form of emotional unavailability, mother's depression, had the most negative effects. The disorganization or emotion dysregulation in this case is more prolonged. Changes in physiology (heart rate, vagal tone, and cortisol levels), in play behavior, affect, activity level, and sleep organization as well as other regulating functions such as eating and toileting, and even in the immune system persist for the duration of the mother's depression. My colleagues and I have suggested that these changes occur because the infant is being chronically deprived of an important external regulator of stimulation (the mother) and thus fails to develop emotion regulation or organized behavioral and physiological rhythms. Finally, individual differences were discussed, including those related to maturity (e.g., prematurity) and temperament/personality (e.g., uninhibited/inhibited or externalizing/internalizing) and those deriving from degree of mother-infant mismatch, such as dissimilar temperaments. Further investigations are needed to determine how long the effects of such early dysregulation endure, how they affect the infant's long-term development, how their effect differs across individuals and across development, and whether they can be modified by early intervention. Eventually, with increasing age, developing skills, and diversity of experience, infants develop individualized regulatory styles. That process, and how it is affected by the mother's physical and emotional unavailability, also requires further investigation.

Measurement of acute pain in infants: a review of behavioral and physiological variables.

PubMed

Hatfield, Linda A; Ely, Elizabeth A

2015-01-01

The use of non-validated pain measurement tools to assess infant pain represents a serious iatrogenic threat to the developing neonatal nervous system. One partial explanation for this practice may be the contradictory empirical data from studies that use newborn pain management tools constructed for infants of different developmental stages or exposed to different environmental stressors. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the evidence regarding the physiologic and behavioral variables that accurately assess and measure acute pain response in infants. A literature search was conducted using PUBMED and CINAHL and the search terms infant, neonate/neonatal, newborn, pain, assessment, and measurement to identify peer-reviewed studies that examined the validity and reliability of behavioral and physiological variables used for investigation of infant pain. Ten articles were identified for critical review. Strong evidence supports the use of the behavioral variables of facial expressions and body movements and the physiologic variables of heart rate and oxygen saturation to assess acute pain in infants. It is incumbent upon researchers and clinical nurses to ensure the validity, reliability, and feasibility of pain measures, so that the outcomes of their investigations and interventions will be developmentally appropriate and effective pain management therapies. © The Author(s) 2014.

Fetal size in mid- and late pregnancy is related to infant alertness: the generation R study.

PubMed

Henrichs, Jens; Schenk, Jacqueline J; Schmidt, Henk G; Arends, Lidia R; Steegers, Eric A P; Hofman, Albert; Jaddoe, Vincent W V; Verhulst, Frank C; Tiemeier, Henning

2009-03-01

The vulnerability for behavioral problems is partly shaped in fetal life. Numerous studies have related indicators of intrauterine growth, for example, birth weight and body size, to behavioral development. We investigated whether fetal size in mid- and late pregnancy is related to infant irritability and alertness. In a population-based birth cohort of 4,255 singleton full-term infants ultrasound measurements of fetal head and abdominal circumference in mid- and late pregnancy were performed. Infant irritability and alertness scores were obtained by the Mother and Baby Scales at 3 months and z-standardized. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed curvilinear associations (inverted J-shape) of measures of fetal size in both mid- and late pregnancy with infant alertness. Fetal size characteristics were not associated with infant irritability. These results suggest that alterations of intrauterine growth affecting infant alertness are already detectable from mid-pregnancy onwards.

Relation of Infant Vision to Early Cognitive and Language Status.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duckman, Robert; Tulloch, Deborah

Relationships between infant visual skills and the development of object permanence and expressive language skills were examined with 31 infants in three groups: visually typical, visually atypical, and Down Syndrome. Measures used to evaluate visual status were: forced preferential looking, optokinetic nystagmus, and behavioral. Object permanence…

Prenatal Cigarette Exposure and Infant Learning Stimulation as Predictors of Cognitive Control in Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mezzacappa, Enrico; Buckner, John C.; Earls, Felton

2011-01-01

Prenatal exposures to neurotoxins and postnatal parenting practices have been shown to independently predict variations in the cognitive development and emotional-behavioral well-being of infants and children. We examined the independent contributions of prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation, as well as their…

Head-mounted eye tracking: a new method to describe infant looking.

PubMed

Franchak, John M; Kretch, Kari S; Soska, Kasey C; Adolph, Karen E

2011-01-01

Despite hundreds of studies describing infants' visual exploration of experimental stimuli, researchers know little about where infants look during everyday interactions. The current study describes the first method for studying visual behavior during natural interactions in mobile infants. Six 14-month-old infants wore a head-mounted eye-tracker that recorded gaze during free play with mothers. Results revealed that infants' visual exploration is opportunistic and depends on the availability of information and the constraints of infants' own bodies. Looks to mothers' faces were rare following infant-directed utterances but more likely if mothers were sitting at infants' eye level. Gaze toward the destination of infants' hand movements was common during manual actions and crawling, but looks toward obstacles during leg movements were less frequent. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Attention Demands Influence 10- and 12-Month-Old Infants' Perseverative Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watanabe, Hama; Forssman, Linda; Green, Dorota; Bohlin, Gunilla; von Hofsten, Claes

2012-01-01

The present study examined the role of attentional demand on infants' perseverative behavior in a noncommunicative looking version of an A-not-B task. The research aimed at clarifying age-related improvements in the attention process that presumably underlies the development of cognitive control. In a between-subjects design, forty 10-month-olds…

BABY EMPATHY: INFANT DISTRESS AND PEER PROSOCIAL RESPONSES.

PubMed

Liddle, Mitzi-Jane E; Bradley, Ben S; Mcgrath, Andrew

2015-01-01

Empathy is an important competence in our social world, a motivator of prosocial behavior, and thought to develop throughout the second year of life. The current study examined infants' responses to naturalistic peer distress to explore markers of empathy and prosocial behavior in young babies. Seventeen 8-month-old infants participated in a repeated measures design using the "babies-in-groups" paradigm, with maternal presence as the independent variable. Significant differences were found between response types: Gaze was the standard response to infant distress, followed by socially directed behaviors and affect, with self-distress rarely occurring. Maternal presence was not found to impact the nature or frequency of babies' responses to peer distress. During distress episodes, babies looked preferentially at the distressed peer, then other mothers, and least to their own mother. Data revealed that infant responses to peer distress resulted in a successful cessation of that distress episode over one third of the time. Case studies are provided to illustrate the quantitative data. The results provided evidence of empathic concern and prosocial behavior in the first year of life, and provoke a challenge to developmental theories of empathy. © 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Association of Maternal and Infant Salivary Testosterone and Cortisol and Infant Gender With Mother-Infant Interaction in Very-Low-Birthweight Infants.

PubMed

Cho, June; Su, Xiaogang; Phillips, Vivien; Holditch-Davis, Diane

2015-10-01

Male very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants are more prone than females to health and developmental problems and less positive mother-infant interactions. Because gender differences in brain development and social relationships suggest hormonal influences on quality of mother-infant interaction, the authors explored the associations of maternal and infant salivary testosterone and cortisol levels with mother-infant interactions in the sample as a whole and by gender, after controlling for covariates. Data were collected prospectively from 62 mothers and their VLBW infants through infant record review, maternal interview, biochemical measurement of both mothers and infants, and observation of mother-infant interactions at 40 weeks postmenstrual age and at three and six months corrected age. Infants' positive interactions increased and mothers' decreased from three to six months. In generalized estimating equation (GEE) analyses, after controlling for covariates, higher maternal testosterone and infant cortisol were associated with more positive and more frequent maternal interactive behaviors. In GEE analyses by infant gender, after controlling for covariates, effects of maternal and infant hormone levels became more significant, especially on infants' interactive behaviors. Based on these preliminary findings, among VLBW infants, males with high testosterone are expected to have less positive mother-infant interactions than males with low testosterone or female infants. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Diary Reports of Concerns in Mothers of Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Across the First Year of Life

PubMed Central

Talbott, Meagan R.; Nelson, Charles A.; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2015-01-01

We examined the home-based concerns reported by mothers of infant siblings of children with autism across the first year of life. At all three ages measured, mothers of high-risk infants were significantly more likely than mothers of low-risk infants to report language, social communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior concerns but were not more likely to report general, medically-based concerns. At 6 and 9 months of age, maternal concerns were poorly related to infant or family variables. At 12 months of age, there were moderate correlations between maternal concerns and infant behavior, and concerns were associated with the proband's autism symptoms and mothers’ concurrent depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the need to examine high-risk infants’ development in the family context. PMID:25703030

The Infant Microbiome: Implications for Infant Health and Neurocognitive Development

PubMed Central

Yang, Irene; Corwin, Elizabeth J.; Brennan, Patricia A.; Jordan, Sheila; Murphy, Jordan R.; Dunlop, Anne

2015-01-01

Background Beginning at birth, the microbes in the gut perform essential duties related to the digestion and metabolism of food, the development and activation of the immune system, and the production of neurotransmitters that affect behavior and cognitive function. Objectives The objectives of this review are to: (a) provide a brief overview of the microbiome and the “microbiome-gut-brain axis”; (b) discuss factors known to affect the composition of the infant microbiome: mode of delivery, antibiotic exposure, and infant feeding patterns; and (c) present research priorities for nursing science, and clinical implications for infant health and neurocognitive development. Discussion The gut microbiome influences immunological, endocrine, and neural pathways and plays an important role in infant development. Several factors influence colonization of the infant gut microbiome. Different microbial colonization patterns are associated with vaginal versus surgical birth, exposure to antibiotics, and infant feeding patterns. Because of extensive physiological influence, infant microbial colonization patterns have the potential to impact physical and neurocognitive development and life course disease risk. Understanding these influences will inform newborn care and parental education. PMID:26657483

Preventing abusive head trauma resulting from a failure of normal interaction between infants and their caregivers.

PubMed

Barr, Ronald G

2012-10-16

Head trauma from abuse, including shaken baby syndrome, is a devastating and potentially lethal form of infant physical abuse first recognized in the early 1970s. What has been less recognized is the role of the early increase in crying in otherwise normal infants in the first few months of life as a trigger for the abuse. In part, this is because infant crying, especially prolonged unsoothable crying, has been interpreted clinically as something wrong with the infant, the infant's caregiver, or the interactions between them. Here, we review an alternative developmental interpretation, namely, that the early increase in crying is a typical behavioral development in normal infants and usually does not reflect anything wrong or abnormal. We also review evidence indicating that this normal crying pattern is the most common trigger for abusive head trauma (AHT). Together, these findings point to a conceptualization of AHT as the consequence of a failure in an otherwise common, iterative, and developmentally normal infant-caregiver interaction. They also imply that there is a window of opportunity for prevention of AHT, and potentially other forms of infant abuse, through a public health primary universal prevention strategy aimed at changing knowledge and behaviors of caregivers and society in general concerning normal development of infants and the significance of early increased infant crying. If effective, there may be important implications for prevention of infant abuse nationally and internationally.

The value of vocalizing: Five-month-old infants associate their own noncry vocalizations with responses from caregivers

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Michael H.; Schwade, Jennifer A.; Bornstein, Marc H.

2014-01-01

The early noncry vocalizations of infants are salient social signals. Caregivers spontaneously respond to 30-50% of these sounds, and their responsiveness to infants' prelinguistic noncry vocalizations facilitates the development of phonology and speech. Have infants learned that their vocalizations influence the behavior of social partners? If infants have learned the contingency between their vocalizing and the social responses of others, they should show an extinction burst when the contingency is removed, increasing their rate of noncry vocalizing then decreasing. Thirty-eight 5-month-olds were tested in the still-face paradigm, during which they engaged in a 2-min still-face interaction with an unfamiliar adult. When the adult assumed a still face, infants showed an extinction burst. This pattern of infant vocalizations suggests that 5-month-olds have learned the social efficacy of their vocalizations on caregivers' behavior. Furthermore, the magnitude of 5-month infants' extinction bursts predicted their language comprehension at 13 months. PMID:19489893

Developmental Transitions as Successive Reorganizations of a Control Hierarchy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plooij, Frans X.; And Others

1990-01-01

Describes two studies involving chimpanzee mother-infant pairs in Tanzania between 1980 and 1987 that implemented control theory concepts. The first identified behavioral development in infant chimps; the second observed the growth of independence and parenting patterns. Concludes that the hierarchy of controlled variables develops consecutively…

Childhood & Adolescence: A Psychology of the Growing Person.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, L. Joseph; Church, Joseph

This textbook on the physical and psychological development of children and adolescents is organized as follows: (1) the birth of the baby--physical appearance, basic life processes, behavioral capacities, prenatal development, prenatal environmental influences, biological inheritance, the birth process; (2) the infant--landmarks in the infant's…

Parental Values and Behavior in the Outer Fiji Islands.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Mary Maxwell

1988-01-01

Observations from a 1977-78 study of children's cognitive development in Kadavu, Fiji, are discussed in terms of setting, adult work and education, medical care, marriage and residence patterns, infant birth and mortality, and, extensively, cultural values and infant care. It is argued that the observed pattern of infant care fulfills important…

Prediction of Nine Month Performance from Neonatal and Developmental Criteria.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweet, John F., Jr.; And Others

This study investigated the ability of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), in combination with neonatal histories and developmental assessments, to predict mental and motor performance of 9-month-old infants on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID). Fourteen normal, full-term infants and 10 average-for-gestational-age,…

A Psychometric Study of the Infant and Toddler Intervals of the Social Emotional Assessment Measure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Squires, Jane K.; Waddell, Misti L.; Clifford, Jantina R.; Funk, Kristin; Hoselton, Robert M.; Chen, Ching-I

2013-01-01

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Development of Behavior Problems: Contributions of Infant Temperament in Russia and U.S.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maria A. Gartstein,; Slobodskaya, Helena R.; Kirchhoff, Cornelia; Putnam, Samuel P.

2013-01-01

The present study was designed to examine cross-cultural differences in longitudinal links between infant temperament toddler behavior problems in the U.S. (N= 250) and Russia (N= 129). Profiles of risk/protective temperament factors varied across the two countries, with fewer significant temperament effects observed for the Russian, relative to…

Variety Wins: Soccer-Playing Robots and Infant Walking

PubMed Central

Ossmy, Ori; Hoch, Justine E.; MacAlpine, Patrick; Hasan, Shohan; Stone, Peter; Adolph, Karen E.

2018-01-01

Although both infancy and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers are interested in developing systems that produce adaptive, functional behavior, the two disciplines rarely capitalize on their complementary expertise. Here, we used soccer-playing robots to test a central question about the development of infant walking. During natural activity, infants' locomotor paths are immensely varied. They walk along curved, multi-directional paths with frequent starts and stops. Is the variability observed in spontaneous infant walking a “feature” or a “bug?” In other words, is variability beneficial for functional walking performance? To address this question, we trained soccer-playing robots on walking paths generated by infants during free play and tested them in simulated games of “RoboCup.” In Tournament 1, we compared the functional performance of a simulated robot soccer team trained on infants' natural paths with teams trained on less varied, geometric paths—straight lines, circles, and squares. Across 1,000 head-to-head simulated soccer matches, the infant-trained team consistently beat all teams trained with less varied walking paths. In Tournament 2, we compared teams trained on different clusters of infant walking paths. The team trained with the most varied combination of path shape, step direction, number of steps, and number of starts and stops outperformed teams trained with less varied paths. This evidence indicates that variety is a crucial feature supporting functional walking performance. More generally, we propose that robotics provides a fruitful avenue for testing hypotheses about infant development; reciprocally, observations of infant behavior may inform research on artificial intelligence. PMID:29867427

Infant motor and cognitive abilities and subsequent executive function.

PubMed

Wu, Meng; Liang, Xi; Lu, Shan; Wang, Zhengyan

2017-11-01

Although executive function (EF) is widely considered crucial to several aspects of life, the mechanisms underlying EF development remain largely unexplored, especially for infants. From a behavioral or neurodevelopmental perspective, motor and general cognitive abilities are linked with EF. EF development is a multistage process that starts with sensorimotor interactive behaviors, which become basic cognitive abilities and, in turn, mature EF. This study aims to examine how infant motor and general cognitive abilities are linked with their EF at 3 years of age. This work also aims to explore the potential processes of EF development from early movement. A longitudinal study was conducted with 96 infants (55 girls and 41 boys). The infants' motor and general cognitive abilities were assessed at 1 and 2 years of age with Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Second and Third Editions, respectively. Infants' EFs were assessed at 3 years of age with Working Memory Span task, Day-Night task, Wrapped Gift task, and modified Gift-in-Bag task. Children with higher scores for cognitive ability at 2 years of age performed better in working memory, and children with higher scores for gross motor ability at 2 years performed better in cognitive inhibitory control (IC). Motor ability at 1 year and fine/gross motor ability at 2 years indirectly affected cognitive IC via general cognitive ability at 2 years and working memory. EF development is a multistage process that originates from physical movement to simple cognitive function, and then to complex cognitive function. Infants and toddlers can undergo targeted motor training to promote EF development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Maternal posttraumatic stress disorder and infant developmental outcomes in a South African birth cohort study.

PubMed

Koen, Nastassja; Brittain, Kirsty; Donald, Kirsten A; Barnett, Whitney; Koopowitz, Sheri; Maré, Karen; Zar, Heather J; Stein, Dan J

2017-05-01

To investigate the association between maternal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and infant development in a South African birth cohort. Data from the Drakenstein Child Health Study were analyzed. Maternal psychopathology was assessed using self-report and clinician-administered interviews; and 6-month infant development using the Bayley III Scales of Infant Development. Linear regression analyses explored associations between predictor and outcome variables. Data from 111 mothers and 112 infants (1 set of twins) were included. Most mothers (72%) reported lifetime trauma exposure; the lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 20%. Maternal PTSD was significantly associated with poorer fine motor and adaptive behavior - motor development; the latter remaining significant when adjusted for site, alcohol dependence, and infant head-circumference-for-age z score at birth. Maternal PTSD may be associated with impaired infant neurodevelopment. Further work in low- and middle-income populations may improve early childhood development in this context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Infant Developmental Outcomes in a South African Birth Cohort Study

PubMed Central

Koen, Nastassja; Brittain, Kirsty; Donald, Kirsten A.; Barnett, Whitney; Koopowitz, Sheri; Maré, Karen; Zar, Heather J.; Stein, Dan J.

2017-01-01

Objective To investigate the association between maternal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and infant development in a South African birth cohort. Method Data from the Drakenstein Child Health Study were analyzed. Maternal psychopathology was assessed using self-report and clinician-administered interviews; and 6-month infant development using the Bayley III Scales of Infant Development. Linear regression analyses explored associations between predictor and outcome variables. Results Data from 111 mothers and 112 infants (1 set of twins) were included. Most mothers (72%) reported lifetime trauma exposure; the lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 20%. Maternal PTSD was significantly associated with poorer fine motor and adaptive behavior – motor development; the latter remaining significant when adjusted for site, alcohol dependence, and infant head-circumference-for-age z-score at birth. Conclusion Maternal PTSD may be associated with impaired infant neurodevelopment. Further work in low- and middle-income populations may improve early childhood development in this context. PMID:28459271

Developmental and Interprofessional Care of the Preterm Infant: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Through High-Risk Infant Follow-up.

PubMed

Lipner, Hildy S; Huron, Randye F

2018-02-01

Practices in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that reduce infant stress and respond to behavioral cues positively influence developmental outcomes. Proactive developmental surveillance and timely introduction of early intervention services improve outcomes for premature infants. A model that emphasizes infant development and a continuum of care beginning in the NICU with transition to outpatient monitoring and provision of early intervention services is hypothesized to support the most optimal outcomes for premature infants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Risky Behaviors of Mothers with Infants on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Turkey.

PubMed

Erdoğan, Çiğdem; Turan, Türkan

Sudden infant death syndrome is the most common cause of death during the post-neonatal period. Factors such as sleeping position, bed sharing, pillow use, smoking during pregnancy and the breastfeeding period constitute risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome. This study aims to identify the risky behaviors of mothers with infants that may put their children at risk for sudden infant death syndrome. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Data were collected using a questionnaire that was developed by the researchers. The questionnaire was filled out by 456 mothers who applied to the family health center between October 2014 and January 2015. The greatest risk factor is the infant's sleeping position. A total of 77.9% of the mothers put their babies in bed in a non-supine position; 65.8% used a pillow when they put their babies in bed, 52.9% used a soft mattress, and 28.5% shared their beds with their babies. Prone sleeping was more likely to occur when smoke was present in the home or a pillow was used. Nurses should notify families of the risky behaviors that can cause sudden infant death syndrome and plan appropriate nursing care. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Feeding Patterns and Emotional Care in Breastfed Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Julie P.; Ellwood, Mark

2011-01-01

A number of studies have suggested breastfed infants have improved bonding and attachment or cognitive development outcomes. However, mechanisms by which these differences might develop are poorly understood. We used maternal time use data to examine whether exclusively breastfeeding mothers spend more time in close interactive behaviors with…

Maternal attitudinal inflexibility: longitudinal relations with mother-infant disrupted interaction and childhood hostile-aggressive behavior problems.

PubMed

Najmi, Sadia; Bureau, Jean-Francois; Chen, Diyu; Lyons-Ruth, Karlen

2009-12-01

: The Personal Attitude Scale (PAS; Hooley, 2000) is a method that is under development for identifying individuals high in Expressed Emotion based on personality traits of inflexibility, intolerance, and norm-forming. In the current study, the goal was to measure the association between this maternal attitudinal inflexibility, early hostile or disrupted mother-infant interactions, and hostile-aggressive behavior problems in the child. In a prospective longitudinal study of 76 low-income mothers and their infants, it was predicted that maternal PAS scores, assessed at child age 20, would be related to difficulties in early observed mother-infant interaction and to hostile-aggressive behavioral difficulties in the child. Results indicated that maternal difficulties in interacting with the infant in the laboratory were associated with maternal PAS scores assessed 20 years later. Hostile-aggressive behavior problems in the child at age five were also predictive of PAS scores of mothers. However, contrary to prediction, these behavior problems did not mediate the association between mother-infant interaction difficulties and maternal PAS scores, indicating that the child's hostile-aggressive behavior problems did not produce the link between quality of early interaction and later maternal attitudinal inflexibility. The current results validate the PAS against observable mother-child interactions and child hostile-aggressive behavior problems and indicate the importance of future work investigating the maternal attitudes that are associated with, and may potentially precede, parent-infant interactive difficulties. These findings regarding the inflexible attitudes of mothers whose interactions with their infants are also disrupted have important clinical implications. First, once the stability of the PAS has been established, this measure may offer a valuable screening tool for the prenatal identification of parents at risk for difficult interactions with their children. Second, it suggests routes for more cognitive interventions around helping less flexible parents shift perspectives to better take account of their child's outlooks and needs.

Parent-reported Temperament Trajectories among Infant Siblings of Children with Autism

PubMed Central

del Rosario, Mithi; Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen; Johnson, Scott; Sigman, Marian; Hutman, Ted

2013-01-01

Temperament atypicalities have been documented in infancy and early development in children who develop autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The current study investigates whether there are differences in developmental trajectories of temperament between infants and toddlers with and without ASD. Parents of infant siblings of children with autism completed the Carey Temperament Scales about their child at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age. Temperament trajectories of children with ASD reflected increases over time in activity level, and decreasing adaptability and approach behaviors relative to high-risk typically developing children. This study is the first to compare temperament trajectories between high-risk typically developing infants and infants subsequently diagnosed with ASD in the developmental window when overt symptoms of ASD first emerge. PMID:23820765

A Piagetian approach to infant referential behaviors.

PubMed

Dice, Jaime L; Dove, Meghan K

2011-06-01

Near the end of the first year of life, infants begin producing referential behaviors that in adults indicate joint attention, or coordinating shared attention to an object with another person. These behaviors have been interpreted in the social cognitive literature as an indication that infants realize they are sharing attention to an object with another person. In this paper, we address theory and research on infant referential behaviors described as joint attention and offer an alternative explanation for the presence of these behaviors. Using Piaget's constructivist theory, we show how research in this area can be interpreted without assuming that infants have advanced social cognitive abilities. We argue that infants' referential behaviors are motor signifiers of thought and that infants recognize humans as particularly relevant objects for their goal-directed behaviors. Finally, we describe how the field of infant joint attention research should proceed if a comprehensive understanding of infant cognitive processes is to be desired. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Annual Meeting Symposium: Impact of Early Life Experiences on Brain and Behavioral Development

PubMed Central

Sullivan, Regina; Wilson, Donald A.; Feldon, Joram; Yee, Benjamin K.; Meyer, Urs; Richter-Levin, Gal; Avi, Avital; Michael, Tsoory; Gruss, Michael; Bock, Jörg; Helmeke, Carina; Braun, Katharina

2007-01-01

Decades of research in the area of developmental psychobiology have shown that early life experience alters behavioral and brain development, which canalizes development to suit different environments. Recent methodological advances have begun to identify the mechanisms by which early life experiences cause these diverse adult outcomes. Here we present four different research programs that demonstrate the intricacies of early environmental influences on behavioral and brain development in both pathological and normal development. First, an animal model of schizophrenia is presented that suggests prenatal immune stimulation influences the postpubertal emergence of psychosis-related behavior in mice. Second, we describe a research program on infant rats that demonstrates how early odor learning has unique characteristics due to the unique functioning of the infant limbic system. Third, we present work on the rodent Octodon degus, which shows that early paternal and/or maternal deprivation alters development of limbic system synaptic density that corresponds to heightened emotionality. Fourth, ajuvenile model of stress is presented that suggests this developmental period is important in determining adulthood emotional well being. The approach of each research program is strikingly different, yet all succeed in delineating a specific aspect of early development and its effects on infant and adult outcome that expands our understanding of the developmental impact of infant experiences on emotional and limbic system development. Together, these research programs suggest that the developing organism’s developmental trajectory is influenced by environmental factors beginning in the fetus and extending through adolescence, although the specific timing and nature of the environmental influence has unique impact on adult mental health. PMID:17016842

Infant-Mother Attachment Security and Children's Anxiety and Aggression at First Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dallaire, Danielle H.; Weinraub, Marsha

2007-01-01

With a large and diverse sample of children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the role of infant-mother attachment security as a protective factor against the development of children's anxious and aggressive behaviors at first grade was examined. When child's sex,…

Heart Activity and Autistic Behavior in Infants and Toddlers with Fragile X Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Jane E.; Tonnsen, Bridgette; Robinson, Ashley; Shinkareva, Svetlana V.

2012-01-01

The present study contrasted physiological arousal in infants and toddlers with fragile X syndrome to typically developing control participants and examined physiological predictors early in development to autism severity later in development in fragile X syndrome. Thirty-one males with fragile X syndrome (ages 8-40 months) and 25 age-matched…

Preverbal infants expect members of social groups to act alike

PubMed Central

Powell, Lindsey J.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2013-01-01

The short ontogenetic time courses of conformity and stereotyping, both evident in the preschool years, point to the possibility that a central component of human social cognition is an early developing expectation that social group members will engage in common behaviors. Across a series of experiments, we show that by 7 months of age preverbal infants differentiate between actions by individuals that are and are not consistent with the actions of their social group members. Infants responded to group-inconsistent actions only in a social context: they failed to distinguish the same behavioral differences when presented with collections of nonsocial agents or inanimate objects. These results suggest that infants expect social group membership and behavior to covary, before extensive intergroup experience or linguistic input. This expectation is consistent with the socially motivated imitation and stereotyping evident in toddlers and preschoolers, and may play a role in the early emergence of one or both of these aspects of social behavior and cognition. PMID:24062446

Taking Up an Active Role: Emerging Participation in Early Mother–Infant Interaction during Peekaboo Routines

PubMed Central

Nomikou, Iris; Leonardi, Giuseppe; Radkowska, Alicja; Rączaszek-Leonardi, Joanna; Rohlfing, Katharina J.

2017-01-01

Dynamical systems approaches to social coordination underscore how participants' local actions give rise to and maintain global interactive patterns and how, in turn, they are also shaped by them. Developmental research can deliver important insights into both processes: (1) the stabilization of ways of interacting, and (2) the gradual shaping of the agentivity of the individuals. In this article we propose that infants' agentivity develops out of participation, i.e., acting a part in an interaction system. To investigate this development this article focuses on the ways in which participation in routinized episodes may shape infant's agentivity in social events. In contrast to existing research addressing more advanced forms of participating in social routines, our goal was to assess infants' early participation as evidence of infants' agentivity. In our study, 19 Polish mother–infant dyads were filmed playing peekaboo when the infants were 4 and 6 months of age. We operationalized infants' participation in the peekaboo in terms of their use of various behaviors across modalities during specific phases of the game: We included smiles, vocalizations, and attempts to cover and uncover themselves or their mothers. We hypothesized that infants and mothers would participate actively in the routine by regulating their behavior so as to adhere to the routine format. Furthermore, we hypothesized that infants who experienced more scaffolding would be able to adopt a more active role in the routine. We operationalized scaffolding as mothers' use of specific peekaboo structures that allowed infants to anticipate when it was their turn to act. Results suggested that infants as young as 4 months of age engaged in peekaboo and took up turns in the game, and that their participation increased at 6 months of age. Crucially, our results suggest that infants' behavior was organized by the global structure of the peekaboo game, because smiles, vocalizations, and attempts to uncover occurred significantly more often during specific phases rather than being evenly distributed across the whole interaction. Furthermore, the way mothers structured the game at 4 months predicted infant participation at both 4 and 6 months of age. PMID:29066985

Maternal Gesture Use and Language Development in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Talbott, Meagan R.; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2013-01-01

Impairments in language and communication are an early-appearing feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), with delays in language and gesture evident as early as the first year of life. Research with typically developing populations highlights the importance of both infant and maternal gesture use in infants’ early language development. The current study explores the gesture production of infants at risk for autism and their mothers at 12 months of age, and the association between these early maternal and infant gestures and between these early gestures and infants’ language at 18 months. Gestures were scored from both a caregiver-infant interaction (both infants and mothers) and from a semi-structured task (infants only). Mothers of non-diagnosed high risk infant siblings gestured more frequently than mothers of low risk infants. Infant and maternal gesture use at 12 months was associated with infants’ language scores at 18 months in both low risk and non-diagnosed high risk infants. These results demonstrate the impact of risk status on maternal behavior and the importance of considering the role of social and contextual factors on the language development of infants at risk for autism. Results from the subset of infants who meet preliminary criteria for ASD are also discussed. PMID:23585026

Quantifying Motor Experience in the Infant Brain: EEG Power, Coherence, and Mu Desynchronization

PubMed Central

Gonzalez, Sandy L.; Reeb-Sutherland, Bethany C.; Nelson, Eliza L.

2016-01-01

The emergence of new motor skills, such as reaching and walking, dramatically changes how infants engage with the world socially and cognitively. Several examples of how motor experience can cascade into cognitive and social development have been documented, yet a significant knowledge gap remains in our understanding of whether these observed behavioral changes are accompanied by underlying neural changes. We propose that electroencephalography (EEG) measures such as power, coherence, and mu desynchronization are optimal tools to quantify motor experience in the infant brain. In this mini-review, we will summarize existing infant research that has separately assessed the relation between motor, cognitive, or social development with coherence, power, or mu desynchronization. We will discuss how the reviewed neural changes seen in seemingly separate developmental domains may be linked based on existing behavioral evidence. We will further propose that power, coherence, and mu desynchronization be used in research exploring the links between motor experience and cognitive and social development. PMID:26925022

Assessing the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and training needs related to infant feeding, specifically breastfeeding, of child care providers.

PubMed

Clark, Alena; Anderson, Jennifer; Adams, Elizabeth; Baker, Susan

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and training needs of child care providers on infant feeding practices, specifically breastfeeding. Needs assessment surveys for child care directors and infant room teachers were developed, tested and mailed to the 277 Colorado child care centers licensed to care for infants (< or = 12 months); 1,385 surveys were mailed. A total of 267 surveys were received for an overall response rate of 20%. The majority (79%) of infant room teachers and directors reported low knowledge on ways to adequately store breastmilk and formula. Perceived attitudes on the advantages and disadvantages of breastmilk versus formula as well as behaviors associated with offering working mothers a supportive breastfeeding environment (e.g. breast pumps available at center, offer mothers a place to breastfeed) were also examined. Directors and infant room teachers desired updated infant feeding information for themselves, co-workers and parents. They wanted English and Spanish information regarding breastfeeding, formula feeding and introducing solid foods. Eighty-six percent of directors and 67% of teachers stated they have Internet access at work. Eighty-eight percent of directors and 79% of teachers would be interested in an infant feeding website. According to the results of the needs assessment, child care directors and infant room teachers are in need of current, accessible infant feeding information. Child care directors and infant room teachers desired a website with bilingual and best practice infant feeding information specific to the needs of child care providers.

Comparing infant and juvenile behavior in bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): a preliminary study.

PubMed

De Lathouwers, Mieke; Van Elsacker, Linda

2006-10-01

The dichotomy between the two Pan species, the bonobo (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) has been strongly emphasized until very recently. Given that most studies were primarily based on adult individuals, we shifted the "continuity versus discontinuity" discussion to the infant and juvenile stage. Our aim was to test quantitatively, some conflicting statements made in literature considering species differences between immature bonobos and chimpanzees. On one hand it is suggested that infant bonobos show retardation in motor and social development when compared with chimpanzees. Additionally it is expected that the weaning process is more traumatic to chimpanzee than bonobo infants. But on the other hand the development of behaviors is expected to be very similar in both species. We observed eight mother-infant pairs of each species in several European zoos. Our preliminary research partially confirms that immature chimpanzees seem spatially more independent, spending more time at a larger distance from their mother than immature bonobos. However, the other data do not seem to support the hypothesis that bonobo infants show retardation of motor or social development. The development of solitary play, environmental exploration, social play, non-copulatory mounts and aggressive interactions do not differ between the species. Bonobo infants in general even groom other group members more than chimpanzee infants. We also found that older bonobo infants have more nipple contact than same aged chimpanzees and that the weaning process seems to end later for bonobos than for immature chimpanzee. Additionally, although immature bonobos show in general more signs of distress, our data suggest that the weaning period itself is more traumatic for chimpanzees.

The ‘like me’ framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent

PubMed Central

Meltzoff, Andrew N.

2007-01-01

Infant imitation demonstrates that the perception and production of human action are closely linked by a ‘supramodal’ representation of action. This action representation unites observation and execution into a common framework, and it has far-reaching implications for the development of social cognition. It allows infants to see the behaviors of others as commensurate with their own—as ‘like me.’ Based on the ‘like me’ perception of others, social encounters are interpretable and informative. Infants can use themselves as a framework for understanding others and can learn about the possibilities and consequences of their own potential acts by observing the behavior of others. Through social interaction with other intentional agents who are viewed as ‘like me,’ infants develop a richer social cognition. This paper explores the early manifestations and cascading developmental effects of the ‘like me’ conception. PMID:17081488

Rich Analysis and Rational Models: Inferring Individual Behavior from Infant Looking Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piantadosi, Steven T.; Kidd, Celeste; Aslin, Richard

2014-01-01

Studies of infant looking times over the past 50 years have provided profound insights about cognitive development, but their dependent measures and analytic techniques are quite limited. In the context of infants' attention to discrete sequential events, we show how a Bayesian data analysis approach can be combined with a rational cognitive…

Behavioural Development in Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and Human Newborns across the First Month of Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallock, Martha B.; And Others

1989-01-01

Reports comparisons of behaviors of nine chimpanzee and nine human newborns on a standardized human neonatal assessment scale at the ages of three days and one month. Human infants scored higher than chimpanzee infants on the orientation cluster at both ages, but were lower than chimpanzee infants in motoric maturity. (RJC)

Cortical Responses to Speech Sounds in 3- and 6-Month-Old Infants Fed Breast Milk, Milk Formula, or Soy Formula

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The influence of the three most common infant diets (breast milk, milk-based and soy-based formulas) on growth, behavioral development, and cortical responses (ERPs) to the consonant-vowel syllable /pa/, was examined in 130 healthy infants from an ongoing longitudinal study of 600 from birth through...

Infant visual attention and object recognition.

PubMed

Reynolds, Greg D

2015-05-15

This paper explores the role visual attention plays in the recognition of objects in infancy. Research and theory on the development of infant attention and recognition memory are reviewed in three major sections. The first section reviews some of the major findings and theory emerging from a rich tradition of behavioral research utilizing preferential looking tasks to examine visual attention and recognition memory in infancy. The second section examines research utilizing neural measures of attention and object recognition in infancy as well as research on brain-behavior relations in the early development of attention and recognition memory. The third section addresses potential areas of the brain involved in infant object recognition and visual attention. An integrated synthesis of some of the existing models of the development of visual attention is presented which may account for the observed changes in behavioral and neural measures of visual attention and object recognition that occur across infancy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Disorders of Behavioral and Emotional Regulation in the First Years of Life: Early Risks and Intervention in the Developing Parent-Infant Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papousek, Mechthild, Ed.; Schieche, Michael, Ed.; Wurmser, Harald, Ed.

2007-01-01

For every five healthy babies and infants, there is at least one who brings unusual stresses for its parents with behaviors such as inconsolable crying, sleep disorders, refusal to eat, chronic moodiness, incessant demands for attention, fearful clinging, or tantrums. Available for the first time in English, this influential German collection…

Oxytocin is associated with infant-care behavior and motivation in cooperatively breeding marmoset monkeys.

PubMed

Finkenwirth, Christa; Martins, Eloisa; Deschner, Tobias; Burkart, Judith M

2016-04-01

The neurohormone oxytocin (OT) is positively involved in the regulation of parenting and social bonding in mammals, and may thus also be important for the mediation of alloparental care. In cooperatively breeding marmosets, infants are raised in teamwork by parents and adult and sub-adult non-reproductive helpers (usually older siblings). Despite high intrinsic motivation, which may be mediated by hormonal priming, not all individuals are always equally able to contribute to infant-care due to competition among care-takers. Among the various care-taking behaviors, proactive food sharing may reflect motivational levels best, since it can be performed ad libitum by several individuals even if competition among surplus care-takers constrains access to infants. Our aim was to study the link between urinary OT levels and care-taking behaviors in group-living marmosets, while taking affiliation with other adults and infant age into account. Over eight reproductive cycles, 26 individuals were monitored for urinary baseline OT, care-taking behaviors (baby-licking, -grooming, -carrying, and proactive food sharing), and adult-directed affiliation. Mean OT levels were generally highest in female breeders and OT increased significantly in all individuals after birth. During early infancy, high urinary OT levels were associated with increased infant-licking but low levels of adult-affiliation, and during late infancy, with increased proactive food sharing. Our results show that, in marmoset parents and alloparents, OT is positively involved in the regulation of care-taking, thereby reflecting the changing needs during infant development. This particularly included behaviors that are more likely to reflect intrinsic care motivation, suggesting a positive link between OT and motivational regulation of infant-care. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Surrogate mobility and orientation affect the early neurobehavioral development of infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).

PubMed

Dettmer, Amanda M; Ruggiero, Angela M; Novak, Melinda A; Meyer, Jerrold S; Suomi, Stephen J

2008-05-01

A biological mother's movement appears necessary for optimal development in infant monkeys. However, nursery-reared monkeys are typically provided with inanimate surrogate mothers that move very little. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a novel, highly mobile surrogate mother on motor development, exploration, and reactions to novelty. Six infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were reared on mobile hanging surrogates (MS) and compared to six infants reared on standard stationary rocking surrogates (RS) and to 9-15 infants reared with their biological mothers (MR) for early developmental outcome. We predicted that MS infants would develop more similarly to MR infants than RS infants. In neonatal assessments conducted at Day 30, both MS and MR infants showed more highly developed motor activity than RS infants on measures of grasping (p = .009), coordination (p = .038), spontaneous crawl (p = .009), and balance (p = .003). At 2-3 months of age, both MS and MR infants displayed higher levels of exploration in the home cage than RS infants (p = .016). In a novel situation in which only MS and RS infants were tested, MS infants spent less time near their surrogates in the first five minutes of the test session than RS infants (p = .05), indicating a higher level of comfort. Collectively, these results suggest that when nursery-rearing of infant monkeys is necessary, a mobile hanging surrogate may encourage more normative development of gross motor skills and exploratory behavior and may serve as a useful alternative to stationary or rocking surrogates.

Preventing abusive head trauma resulting from a failure of normal interaction between infants and their caregivers

PubMed Central

Barr, Ronald G.

2012-01-01

Head trauma from abuse, including shaken baby syndrome, is a devastating and potentially lethal form of infant physical abuse first recognized in the early 1970s. What has been less recognized is the role of the early increase in crying in otherwise normal infants in the first few months of life as a trigger for the abuse. In part, this is because infant crying, especially prolonged unsoothable crying, has been interpreted clinically as something wrong with the infant, the infant’s caregiver, or the interactions between them. Here, we review an alternative developmental interpretation, namely, that the early increase in crying is a typical behavioral development in normal infants and usually does not reflect anything wrong or abnormal. We also review evidence indicating that this normal crying pattern is the most common trigger for abusive head trauma (AHT). Together, these findings point to a conceptualization of AHT as the consequence of a failure in an otherwise common, iterative, and developmentally normal infant–caregiver interaction. They also imply that there is a window of opportunity for prevention of AHT, and potentially other forms of infant abuse, through a public health primary universal prevention strategy aimed at changing knowledge and behaviors of caregivers and society in general concerning normal development of infants and the significance of early increased infant crying. If effective, there may be important implications for prevention of infant abuse nationally and internationally. PMID:23045677

[Developmental change in facial recognition by premature infants during infancy].

PubMed

Konishi, Yukihiko; Kusaka, Takashi; Nishida, Tomoko; Isobe, Kenichi; Itoh, Susumu

2014-09-01

Premature infants are thought to be at increased risk for developmental disorders. We evaluated facial recognition by premature infants during early infancy, as this ability has been reported to be impaired commonly in developmentally disabled children. In premature infants and full-term infants at the age of 4 months (4 corrected months for premature infants), visual behaviors while performing facial recognition tasks were determined and analyzed using an eye-tracking system (Tobii T60 manufactured by Tobii Technologics, Sweden). Both types of infants had a preference towards normal facial expressions; however, no preference towards the upper face was observed in premature infants. Our study suggests that facial recognition ability in premature infants may develop differently from that in full-term infants.

Infant Satellite Nurseries: Family Day Care with a Difference. Parent-Child Program Series, Report No. 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenfeld, Anne H.

Part of a series on early childhood demonstration programs designed to improve early parent-child relationships, stimulate positive child development, and prevent later behavior difficulties, the pamphlet describes the Infant Satellite Nursery Program, developed in Honolulu, Hawaii, to provide low-income families with subsidized, home-based care…

Development of Multisensory Spatial Integration and Perception in Humans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neil, Patricia A.; Chee-Ruiter, Christine; Scheier, Christian; Lewkowicz, David J.; Shimojo, Shinsuke

2006-01-01

Previous studies have shown that adults respond faster and more reliably to bimodal compared to unimodal localization cues. The current study investigated for the first time the development of audiovisual (A-V) integration in spatial localization behavior in infants between 1 and 10 months of age. We observed infants' head and eye movements in…

Mother-Infant Activities: The Initial Step in Language Development in the Deaf-Blind Child.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vitagliano, James; Purdy, Susan

1987-01-01

The exploratory study examined the effectiveness of the Van Dijk method of developing language skills with four deaf-blind infants and their mothers over a two-month period. Findings indicated increased expressive/elocutionary communicative output with concomitant reduction in self-stimulatory, abusive, and tantrum-like behaviors. (DB)

Audiologic Assessment of Infants and Toddlers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gravel, Judith S.

This paper provides guidelines for the audiologic assessment of infants and young children, highlighting recent technologic advances in auditory electrophysiology, acoustic immitance measure procedures, and behavioral audiometric techniques. First, audiologic assessment guidelines developed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association are…

Can typical US home visits affect infant attachment? Preliminary findings from a randomized trial of Healthy Families Durham.

PubMed

Berlin, Lisa J; Martoccio, Tiffany L; Appleyard Carmody, Karen; Goodman, W Benjamin; O'Donnell, Karen; Williams, Janis; Murphy, Robert A; Dodge, Kenneth A

2017-12-01

US government-funded early home visiting services are expanding significantly. The most widely implemented home visiting models target at-risk new mothers and their infants. Such home visiting programs typically aim to support infant-parent relationships; yet, such programs' effects on infant attachment quality per se are as yet untested. Given these programs' aims, and the crucial role of early attachments in human development, it is important to understand attachment processes in home visited families. The current, preliminary study examined 94 high-risk mother-infant dyads participating in a randomized evaluation of the Healthy Families Durham (HFD) home visiting program. We tested (a) infant attachment security and disorganization as predictors of toddler behavior problems and (b) program effects on attachment security and disorganization. We found that (a) infant attachment disorganization (but not security) predicted toddler behavior problems and (b) participation in HFD did not significantly affect infant attachment security or disorganization. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential for attachment-specific interventions to enhance the typical array of home visiting services.

Developmental care does not alter sleep and development of premature infants.

PubMed

Ariagno, R L; Thoman, E B; Boeddiker, M A; Kugener, B; Constantinou, J C; Mirmiran, M; Baldwin, R B

1997-12-01

The Neonatal Individualized Developmental Care Program (NIDCAP) for very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants has been suggested by Als et al to improve several medical outcome variables such as time on ventilator, time to nipple feed, the duration of hospital stay, better behavioral performance on Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB), and improved neurodevelopmental outcomes. We have tested the hypothesis of whether the infants who had received NIDCAP would show advanced sleep-wake pattern, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental outcome. Thirty-five VLBW infants were randomly assigned to receive NIDCAP or routine infant care. The goals for NIDCAP intervention were to enhance comfort and stability and to reduce stress and agitation for the preterm infants by: a) altering the environment by decreasing excess light and noise in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and by using covers over the incubators and cribs; b) use of positioning aids such as boundary supports, nests, and buntings to promote a balance of flexion and extension postures; c) modification of direct hands-on caregiving to maximize preparation of infants for, tolerance of, and facilitation of recovery from interventions; d) promotion of self-regulatory behaviors such as holding on, grasping, and sucking; e) attention to the readiness for and the ability to take oral feedings; and f) involving parents in the care of their infants as much as possible. The infants' sleep was recorded at 36 weeks postconceptional age (PCA) and at 3 months corrected age (CA) using the Motility Monitoring System (MMS), an automated, nonintrusive procedure for determining sleep state from movement and respiration patterns. Behavioral and developmental outcome was assessed by the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant (NAPI) at 36 weeks PCA, the APIB at 42 weeks PCA, and by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) at 4, 12, and 24 months CA. Sleep developmental measures at 3 months CA showed a clear developmental change compared with 36 weeks PCA. These include: increased amount of quiet sleep, reduced active sleep and indeterminate sleep, decreased arousal, and transitions during sleep. Longest sleep period at night showed a clear developmental effect (increased) when comparing nighttime sleep pattern of infants at 3 months with those at 36 weeks of age. Day-night rhythm of sleep-wake increased significantly from 36 weeks PCA to 3 months CA. However, neither of these sleep developmental changes showed any significant effects of NIDCAP intervention. Although all APIB measures showed better organized behavior in NIDCAP patients, neither NAPI nor Bayley showed any developmental advantages for the intervention group. The neurodevelopmental outcome measured by the Bayley at 4, 12, and 24 months CA showed 64% of the NIDCAP intervention group at the lowest possible score compared with 33% of the control group. These findings could not be explained by the occurrence of intraventricular hemorrhage or the socioeconomic status of the parents, which showed no significant group effect. The results of this study, including measures of sleep maturation and neurodevelopmental outcome up to 2 years of age did not demonstrate that the NIDCAP intervention results in increased maturity or development. Buehler et al (Pediatrics. 1995;96:923-932) have reported that premature infants (N = 12; mean gestational age 32 weeks, mean birth weight 1700 g) who received developmental care compared with a similar group of infants who received routine care showed better organized behavioral performance on an APIB assessment at 42 weeks PCA. None of the medical outcome measures were significantly different in this study. Although our APIB results are in agreement, the results of the NAPI, the Bayley and sleep measures do not show an increase in neurodevelopmental maturation. In the earlier report by Als et al (Journal of the American Medical Associatio

Associations Between Gross Motor and Communicative Development in At-Risk Infants

PubMed Central

LeBarton, Eve Sauer; Iverson, Jana M.

2016-01-01

Infants' advances in locomotion relate to advances in communicative development. However, little is known about these relations in infants at risk for delays in these domains and whether they may extend to earlier achievements in gross motor development in infancy. We examined whether advances in sitting and prone locomotion are related to communicative development in infants who have an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are at risk for motor and communication delays (heightened-risk; HR). We conducted a longitudinal study with 37 HR infants who did not receive an ASD diagnosis at 36 months. Infants were observed monthly between the ages of 5 and 14 months. We assessed gross motor development using the Alberta Infant Motor Scales (AIMS) and recorded ages of onset of verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors. Results indicated increased presence of early gross motor delay from 5 to 10 months. In addition, there were positive relations between sitting and gesture and babble onset and between prone development and gesture onset. Thus, links between gross motor development and communication extend to at-risk development and provide a starting point for future research on potential cascading consequences of motor advances on communication development. PMID:27314943

Infant titi monkey behavior in the open field test and the effect of early adversity

PubMed Central

Larke, Rebecca H.; Toubiana, Alice; Lindsay, Katrina A.; Mendoza, Sally P.; Bales, Karen L.

2017-01-01

The open field test is commonly used to measure anxiety-related behavior and exploration in rodents. Here, we used it as a standardized novel environment in which to evaluate the behavioral response of infant titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus), to determine the effect of presence of individual family members, and to assess how adverse early experience alters infant behavior. Infants were tested in the open field for 5 days at ages 4 and 6 months in four successive 5 min trials on each day. A transport cage, which was situated on one side of the open field, was either empty (non-social control) or contained the father, mother, or sibling. Infant locomotor, vocalization, and exploratory behavior were quantified. Results indicated that age, sex, social condition, and early experience all had significant effects on infant behavior. Specifically, infants were generally more exploratory at 6 months and male infants were more exploratory than females. Infants distinguished between social and non-social conditions but made few behavioral distinctions between the attachment figure and other individuals. Infants which had adverse early life experience demonstrated greater emotional and physical independence, suggesting that early adversity led to resiliency in the novel environment. PMID:28605039

Developmental Outcomes of Extremely Preterm Infants Born to Adolescent Mothers

PubMed Central

Bann, Carla; Higgins, Rosemary; Vohr, Betty

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Extremely preterm infants and infants born to adolescent mothers are at risk for adverse developmental. The objectives were to evaluate development and behavior outcomes of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants born to adolescent mothers <20 compared with adult mothers ≥20 years and to identify socioeconomic risk factors that affect outcomes. METHODS: Retrospective cohort analysis of 211 infants >27 weeks of adolescent mothers and 1723 infants of adult mothers at Neonatal Research Network centers from 2008 to 2011. Groups were compared and regression models were run to predict 18- to 22-month adverse outcomes. Primary outcomes were Bayley-III scores, neurodevelopmental impairment, and Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment problem scores (BITSEA/P) ≥75th percentile. RESULTS: Adolescent mothers were more often single, Hispanic, less educated, and had public insurance. By 18 to 22 months, their children had significantly increased rates of having lived ≥3 places (21% vs 9%), state supervision (7% vs 3%), rehospitalization (56% vs 46%), and BITSEA/P ≥75th percentile (50% vs 32%) and nonsignificant Bayley-III language scores <85 (56% vs 49%, P = .07). In regression analysis, children of adolescent mothers were more likely to have BITSEA/P ≥75th percentile (relative risk 1.50, 95% confidence interval 1.08–2.07). Living ≥3 places and nonwhite race were predictors of adverse behavior. State supervision was an independent predictor of each Bayley-III composite <70 and neurodevelopmental impairment. CONCLUSIONS: ELBW infants of adolescent mothers experience high social and environmental risks that are associated with adverse behavior outcomes. These findings inform the need for comprehensive follow-up, coordinated care services, and behavior interventions for ELBW infants of adolescent mothers. PMID:25963007

The Two-Way Street: Interaction and Development in Small-for-Gestational-Age Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watt, Jan

Because small for gestational age (SGA) infants are a heterogeneous group known to be at increased risk of learning and behavioral disorders, a study was conducted to replicate and extend findings on developmental patterns of SGA infants in the first year. The study presented, as well, an opportunity to explore the effects, found in a previous…

Effects of Symptoms of Comorbid Psychopathology on Challenging Behaviors among Atypically Developing Infants and Toddlers as Assessed with the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with Autism Traits (BISCUIT)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matson, Johnny L.; Mahan, Sara; Sipes, Megan; Kozlowski, Alison M.

2010-01-01

Comorbid psychopathology and challenging behaviors often occur among persons with developmental disabilities. However, little attention to this issue has been reported in young children. In this study, individuals 17 through 36 months of age with varying diagnoses, such as intellectual disability, developmental delay, and Down syndrome, among…

Surrogate Mobility and Orientation Affect the Early Neurobehavioral Development of Infant Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

PubMed Central

Dettmer, Amanda M.; Ruggerio, Angela M.; Novak, Melinda A.; Meyer, Jerrold S.; Suomi, Stephen J.

2008-01-01

A biological mother’s movement appears necessary for optimal development in infant monkeys. However, nursery-reared monkeys are typically provided with inanimate surrogate mothers that move very little. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a novel, highly mobile surrogate mother on motor development, exploration, and reactions to novelty. Six infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were reared on mobile hanging surrogates (MS) and compared to six infants reared on standard stationary rocking surrogates (RS) and to 9-15 infants reared with their biological mothers (MR) for early developmental outcome. We predicted that MS infants would develop more similarly to MR infants than RS infants. In neonatal assessments conducted at day 30, both MS and MR infants showed more highly developed motor activity than RS infants on measures of grasping (p=.009), coordination (p=.038), spontaneous crawl (p=.009), and balance (p=.003). At 2-3 months of age, both MS and MR infants displayed higher levels of exploration in the home cage than RS infants (p=.016). In a novel situation in which only MS and RS infants were tested, MS infants showed less of a stress response, spending less time near their surrogates in the first five minutes of the test session than RS infants (p=.05) and exhibiting a significantly lower rise in salivary cortisol after the test than RS infants (p=.018). Collectively, these results suggest that when nursery-rearing of infant monkeys is necessary, a mobile hanging surrogate may encourage more normative development of gross motor skills and exploratory behavior and may serve as a useful alternative to stationary or rocking surrogates. PMID:19810188

The missing link: mothers' neural response to infant cry related to infant attachment behaviors.

PubMed

Laurent, Heidemarie K; Ablow, Jennifer C

2012-12-01

This study addresses a gap in the attachment literature by investigating maternal neural response to cry related to infant attachment classifications and behaviors. Twenty-two primiparous mothers and their 18-month old infants completed the Strange Situation (SS) procedure to elicit attachment behaviors. During a separate functional MRI session, mothers were exposed to their own infant's cry sound, as well as an unfamiliar infant's cry and control sound. Maternal neural response to own infant cry related to both overall attachment security and specific infant behaviors. Mothers of less secure infants maintained greater activation to their cry in left parahippocampal and amygdala regions and the right posterior insula consistent with a negative schematic response bias. Mothers of infants exhibiting more avoidant or contact maintaining behaviors during the SS showed diminished response across left prefrontal, parietal, and cerebellar areas involved in attentional processing and cognitive control. Mothers of infants exhibiting more disorganized behavior showed reduced response in bilateral temporal and subcallosal areas relevant to social cognition and emotion regulation. No differences by attachment classification were found. Implications for attachment transmission models are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB): Furthering the Understanding and Measurement of Neurodevelopmental Competence in Preterm and Full-Term Infants

PubMed Central

Als, Heidelise; Butler, Samantha; Kosta, Sandra; McAnulty, Gloria

2014-01-01

The Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB) is a newborn neurobehavioral assessment appropriate for preterm, at risk, and full-term newborns, from birth to 1 month after expected due date. The APIB is based in ethological–evolutionary thought and focuses on the assessment of mutually interacting behavioral subsystems in simultaneous interaction with the environment. The subsystems of functioning assessed include the autonomic (respiration, digestion, color), motor (tone, movement, postures), state organization (range, robustness, transition patterns), attention (robustness, transitions), and self-regulation (effort, success) systems as well as the degree of facilitation required to support reorganization and subsystem balance. The environment is represented by a sequence of distal, proximal, tactile, and vestibular challenges, derived from the BNBAS. The APIB conceptualizes infant competence as the degree of differentiation of subsystem function and degree of modulation of subsystem balance at any stage in infant development. Infants are understood as actively seeking their next differentiation, while counting on good enough environments to assure progressing developmental competence. In the case of interference such as premature birth, the mismatch of expectation and actual experience causes misalignment, which may become developmentally costly. The assessment is a finely tuned dialogue between examiner and infant, which requires training, skill and self-knowledge. The APIB has well established inter-rater-reliability, concurrent and construct validity, and is clinically relevant for behavioral intervention and individually appropriate and supportive care. PMID:15856436

Maternal behavior and infant physiology during feeding in premature and term infants over the first year of life.

PubMed

Weber, Ashley M; Harrison, Tondi M

2014-12-01

Little is known about the relationship between maternal behavior and the stability of premature infants' physiologic responses during feeding. In a secondary data analysis, we examined relationships between quality of maternal behavior and cardiorespiratory physiology during feeding in 61 premature and 53 term infants at four times over the first year of life. Measures included heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), and oxygen saturation; Child Feeding Skills Checklist; and Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment. Birthweight, gestational age, and neurodevelopmental risk were covariates. Quality of maternal behavior did not predict infants' physiologic response to feeding. However, birthweight was related to infant feeding physiology among all infants over the first year of life. Stress during fetal life, which may lead to impaired intrauterine growth and low birthweight, may have longitudinal effects on cardiorespiratory functioning of premature infants. Research is needed to further investigate the biological pathways by which maternal-infant interaction supports behavioral and physiologic feeding outcomes of premature infants. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Examination of the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model: assessments of neurodevelopment, learning, and social behavior.

PubMed

Curtis, Britni; Liberato, Noelle; Rulien, Megan; Morrisroe, Kelly; Kenney, Caroline; Yutuc, Vernon; Ferrier, Clayton; Marti, C Nathan; Mandell, Dorothy; Burbacher, Thomas M; Sackett, Gene P; Hewitson, Laura

2015-06-01

In the 1990s, the mercury-based preservative thimerosal was used in most pediatric vaccines. Although there are currently only two thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) recommended for pediatric use, parental perceptions that vaccines pose safety concerns are affecting vaccination rates, particularly in light of the much expanded and more complex schedule in place today. The objective of this study was to examine the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model. We administered vaccines to six groups of infant male rhesus macaques (n = 12-16/group) using a standardized thimerosal dose where appropriate. Study groups included the recommended 1990s Pediatric vaccine schedule, an accelerated 1990s Primate schedule with or without the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, the MMR vaccine only, and the expanded 2008 schedule. We administered saline injections to age-matched control animals (n = 16). Infant development was assessed from birth to 12 months of age by examining the acquisition of neonatal reflexes, the development of object concept permanence (OCP), computerized tests of discrimination learning, and infant social behavior. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance, multilevel modeling, and survival analyses, where appropriate. We observed no group differences in the acquisition of OCP. During discrimination learning, animals receiving TCVs had improved performance on reversal testing, although some of these same animals showed poorer performance in subsequent learning-set testing. Analysis of social and nonsocial behaviors identified few instances of negative behaviors across the entire infancy period. Although some group differences in specific behaviors were reported at 2 months of age, by 12 months all infants, irrespective of vaccination status, had developed the typical repertoire of macaque behaviors. This comprehensive 5-year case-control study, which closely examined the effects of pediatric vaccines on early primate development, provided no consistent evidence of neurodevelopmental deficits or aberrant behavior in vaccinated animals.

The relationship of prenatal maternal depression or anxiety to maternal caregiving behavior and infant behavior self-regulation during infant heel lance: an ethological time-based study of behavior.

PubMed

Warnock, Fay F; Craig, Kenneth D; Bakeman, Roger; Castral, Thaila; Mirlashari, Jila

2016-09-07

Sensitive and responsive maternal caregiving behavior strengthens infant self-regulatory capacities (HL), but this regulatory role may be diminished in some mothers with second-trimester prenatal exposure to depression and/ or anxiety (MDA). This study examined maternal and infant behavior during infant heel lance (HL) when mothers had or did not have MDA. Ethological methods and micro-analytic approaches capable of distinguishing and comparing time-based patterning in maternal and infant behavior were used to clarify biological mechanisms, such as MDA, that may underlie observed behavior. Aims were to examine group differences in caregiving behavior between mothers with and without MDA 5 min Pre-HL and 5 min Post-H, and relationships between MDA, maternal caregiving behavior and infant pain behavior self-regulation, concurrently. At second trimester, mothers were assessed for symptoms of mild-severe depression or anxiety. Mothers whose scores exceeded predetermined cut-off scores on one or more of the mental health measures were allocated to the MDA-exposure group, those below to the non-MDA-exposure group. Reliable observers, blinded to MDA status and study phases, coded video records of the caregiving behavior of each study mother for the full duration of the 5 min Pre-HL and 5 min Post-HL study phases. Group differences and associations between mean measures of maternal mental health scores, time-based measures of maternal behavior, and time-based measures of infant pain behavior regulation (previously coded) were concurrently analyzed using comparative and correlational statistics. MDA-exposed mothers spent significantly more time not embracing, engaging or responding to infant cues than maternal controls Pre-HL and Post-HL. MDA was associated with atypical maternal caregiving behavior, which in turn was related to atypical infant pain behavior self-regulation during and after the HL. Our findings have implication for practice. We recommend inclusion of mothers with MDA and their infants in interventions that strengthen the early mother-infant interaction and mother's regulatory caregiving role. MDA and maternal caregiving behavior must be considered in future infant pain studies to examine if they confound effectiveness of mother driven caregiving interventions for neonatal pain. We highlight the importance of examining maternal mental health throughout the perinatal and postnatal trajectory, and particularly the newborn period.

Limited fine motor and grasping skills in 6-month-old infants at high risk for autism.

PubMed

Libertus, Klaus; Sheperd, Kelly A; Ross, Samuel W; Landa, Rebecca J

2014-01-01

Atypical motor behaviors are common among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, little is known about onset and functional implications of differences in early motor development among infants later diagnosed with ASD. Two prospective experiments were conducted to investigate motor skills among 6-month-olds at increased risk (high risk) for ASD (N1  = 129; N2  = 46). Infants were assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and during toy play. Across both experiments, high-risk infants exhibited less mature object manipulation in a highly structured (MSEL) context and reduced grasping activity in an unstructured (free-play) context than infants with no family history of ASD. Longitudinal assessments suggest that between 6 and 10 months, grasping activity increases in high-risk infants. © 2014 The Authors. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Behavioral Parent Training on Infant Language Production

PubMed Central

Bagner, Daniel M.; Garcia, Dainelys; Hill, Ryan

2016-01-01

Given the strong association between early behavior problems and language impairment, we examined the effect of a brief home-based adaptation of Parent–child Interaction Therapy on infant language production. Sixty infants (55% male; mean age 13.47 ± 1.31 months) were recruited at a large urban primary care clinic and were included if their scores exceeded the 75th percentile on a brief screener of early behavior problems. Families were randomly assigned to receive the home-based parenting intervention or standard pediatric primary care. The observed number of infant total (i.e., token) and different (i.e., type) utterances spoken during an observation of an infant-led play and a parent-report measure of infant externalizing behavior problems were examined at pre- and post-intervention and at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Infants receiving the intervention demonstrated a significantly higher number of observed different and total utterances at the 6-month follow-up compared to infants in standard care. Furthermore, there was an indirect effect of the intervention on infant language production, such that the intervention led to decreases in infant externalizing behavior problems from pre- to post-intervention, which, in turn, led to increases in infant different utterances at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups and total utterances at the 6-month follow-up. Results provide initial evidence for the effect of this brief and home-based intervention on infant language production, including the indirect effect of the intervention on infant language through improvements in infant behavior, highlighting the importance of targeting behavior problems in early intervention. PMID:26956651

Gender imbalance in infant mortality: a cross-national study of social structure and female infanticide.

PubMed

Fuse, Kana; Crenshaw, Edward M

2006-01-01

Sex differentials in infant mortality vary widely across nations. Because newborn girls are biologically advantaged in surviving to their first birthday, sex differentials in infant mortality typically arise from genetic factors that result in higher male infant mortality rates. Nonetheless, there are cases where mortality differentials arise from social or behavioral factors reflecting deliberate discrimination by adults in favor of boys over girls, resulting in atypical male to female infant mortality ratios. This cross-national study of 93 developed and developing countries uses such macro-social theories as modernization theory, gender perspectives, human ecology, and sociobiology/evolutionary psychology to predict gender differentials in infant mortality. We find strong evidence for modernization theory, human ecology, and the evolutionary psychology of group process, but mixed evidence for gender perspectives.

Your Eyes Say "No," but Your Heart Says "Yes": Behavioral and Psychophysiological Indices in Infant Quantitative Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brez, Caitlin C.; Colombo, John

2012-01-01

Behavioral indices (e.g., infant looking) are predominantly used in studies of infant cognition, but psychophysiological measures have been increasingly integrated into common infant paradigms. The current study reports a result in which behavioral measures and physiological measures were both incorporated in a task designed to study infant number…

Functional neuroimaging of high-risk 6-month-old infants predicts a diagnosis of autism at 24 months of age

PubMed Central

Emerson, Robert W.; Adams, Chloe; Nishino, Tomoyuki; Hazlett, Heather Cody; Wolff, Jason J.; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Constantino, John N.; Shen, Mark D.; Swanson, Meghan R.; Elison, Jed T.; Kandala, Sridhar; Estes, Annette M.; Botteron, Kelly N.; Collins, Louis; Dager, Stephen R.; Evans, Alan C.; Gerig, Guido; Gu, Hongbin; McKinstry, Robert C.; Paterson, Sarah; Schultz, Robert T.; Styner, Martin; Network, IBIS; Schlaggar, Bradley L.; Pruett, John R.; Piven, Joseph

2018-01-01

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social deficits and repetitive behaviors that typically emerge by 24 months of age. To develop effective early interventions that can potentially ameliorate the defining deficits of ASD and improve long-term outcomes, early detection is essential. Using prospective neuroimaging of 59 6-month-old infants with a high familial risk for ASD, we show that functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging correctly identified which individual children would receive a research clinical best-estimate diagnosis of ASD at 24 months of age. Functional brain connections were defined in 6-month-old infants that correlated with 24-month scores on measures of social behavior, language, motor development, and repetitive behavior, which are all features common to the diagnosis of ASD. A fully cross-validated machine learning algorithm applied at age 6 months had a positive predictive value of 100% [95% confidence interval (CI), 62.9 to 100], correctly predicting 9 of 11 infants who received a diagnosis of ASD at 24 months (sensitivity, 81.8%; 95% CI, 47.8 to 96.8). All 48 6-month-old infants who were not diagnosed with ASD were correctly classified [specificity, 100% (95% CI, 90.8 to 100); negative predictive value, 96.0% (95% CI, 85.1 to 99.3)]. These findings have clinical implications for early risk assessment and the feasibility of developing early preventative interventions for ASD. PMID:28592562

Embodied intersubjective engagement in mother-infant tactile communication: a cross-cultural study of Japanese and Scottish mother-infant behaviors during infant pick-up.

PubMed

Negayama, Koichi; Delafield-Butt, Jonathan T; Momose, Keiko; Ishijima, Konomi; Kawahara, Noriko; Lux, Erin J; Murphy, Andrew; Kaliarntas, Konstantinos

2015-01-01

This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied, and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and ten Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of the mothers' approach to their infants, as well as their infants' collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up, and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in the Scottish mothers' approach, but not in the Japanese mothers' approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick-up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of the torso than Scottish mothers, who bent at the waist with larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mothers' hands to their infants' heads revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by the Scottish mothers than by the Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers' body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at 6 months than at 9 months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. Thus, this paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of everyday interaction.

Mapping White Matter Microstructure in the One Month Human Brain.

PubMed

Dean, D C; Planalp, E M; Wooten, W; Adluru, N; Kecskemeti, S R; Frye, C; Schmidt, C K; Schmidt, N L; Styner, M A; Goldsmith, H H; Davidson, R J; Alexander, A L

2017-08-29

White matter microstructure, essential for efficient and coordinated transmission of neural communications, undergoes pronounced development during the first years of life, while deviations to this neurodevelopmental trajectory likely result in alterations of brain connectivity relevant to behavior. Hence, systematic evaluation of white matter microstructure in the normative brain is critical for a neuroscientific approach to both typical and atypical early behavioral development. However, few studies have examined the infant brain in detail, particularly in infants under 3 months of age. Here, we utilize quantitative techniques of diffusion tensor imaging and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging to investigate neonatal white matter microstructure in 104 infants. An optimized multiple b-value diffusion protocol was developed to allow for successful acquisition during non-sedated sleep. Associations between white matter microstructure measures and gestation corrected age, regional asymmetries, infant sex, as well as newborn growth measures were assessed. Results highlight changes of white matter microstructure during the earliest periods of development and demonstrate differential timing of developing regions and regional asymmetries. Our results contribute to a growing body of research investigating the neurobiological changes associated with neurodevelopment and suggest that characteristics of white matter microstructure are already underway in the weeks immediately following birth.

Early autism symptoms in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex.

PubMed

McDonald, Nicole M; Varcin, Kandice J; Bhatt, Rujuta; Wu, Joyce Y; Sahin, Mustafa; Nelson, Charles A; Jeste, Shafali S

2017-12-01

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare, autosomal dominant genetic syndrome that confers significantly increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with 50-60% of infants with TSC meeting criteria for ASD by 3 years of age. In a previous study of the current longitudinal cohort, we found that infants with TSC who develop ASD (TSC/ASD) evidence decreased cognitive abilities that diverge from infants with TSC and no ASD (TSC/no ASD). We extended this work by asking whether TSC/ASD infants (n = 13) differed from TSC/no ASD infants (n = 10) and infants with low developmental risk and no ASD (LR; n = 21) in their social communication functioning during the first year of life. We measured early ASD symptoms with the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) at 9 and 12 months of age. At both ages, infants in the TSC/ASD group had significantly higher AOSI total scores than infants in the TSC/no ASD and LR groups, which were not fully explained by differences in cognitive abilities. Several items on the AOSI at both ages were predictive of ASD outcome, particularly those representing core social communication deficits (e.g., social referencing). Our findings signal the need for further study of this population within the first year and provide strong justification for early identification and early intervention targeting social communication skills in infants with TSC. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1981-1990. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. We examined early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), approximately 50% of whom will meet criteria for ASD by age 3. Infants with TSC and ASD showed deficits in social communication behaviors by 9 months of age that were clearly distinguishable from behaviors in infants with TSC who do not develop ASD and low risk infants. Results support the importance of early ASD screening and intervention for infants with TSC. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Attention to the Mouth and Gaze Following in Infancy Predict Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tenenbaum, Elena J.; Sobel, David M.; Sheinkpof, Stephen J.; Malle, Bertram F.; Morgan, James L.

2015-01-01

We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the…

Pressuring and restrictive feeding styles influence infant feeding and size among a low-income African-American sample.

PubMed

Thompson, Amanda L; Adair, Linda S; Bentley, Margaret E

2013-03-01

The prevalence of overweight among infants and toddlers has increased dramatically in the past three decades, highlighting the importance of identifying factors contributing to early excess weight gain, particularly in high-risk groups. Parental feeding styles and the attitudes and behaviors that characterize parental approaches to maintaining or modifying children's eating behavior are an important behavioral component shaping early obesity risk. Using longitudinal data from the Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study, a cohort study of 217 African-American mother-infant pairs with feeding styles, dietary recalls, and anthropometry collected from 3 to 18 months of infant age, we examined the relationship between feeding styles, infant diet, and weight-for-age and sum of skinfolds. Longitudinal mixed models indicated that higher pressuring and indulgent feeding style scores were positively associated with greater infant energy intake, reduced odds of breastfeeding, and higher levels of age-inappropriate feeding of liquids and solids, whereas restrictive feeding styles were associated with lower energy intake, higher odds of breastfeeding, and reduced odds of inappropriate feeding. Pressuring and restriction were also oppositely related to infant size with pressuring associated with lower infant weight-for-age and restriction with higher weight-for-age and sum of skinfolds. Infant size also predicted maternal feeding styles in subsequent visits indicating that the relationship between size and feeding styles is likely bidirectional. Our results suggest that the degree to which parents are pressuring or restrictive during feeding shapes the early feeding environment and, consequently, may be an important environmental factor in the development of obesity. Copyright © 2012 The Obesity Society.

Pressuring and restrictive feeding styles influence infant feeding and size among a low-income African-American sample

PubMed Central

Thompson, Amanda L; Adair, Linda S; Bentley, Margaret E

2012-01-01

The prevalence of overweight among infants and toddlers has increased dramatically in the past three decades, highlighting the importance of identifying factors contributing to early excess weight gain, particularly in high-risk groups. Parental feeding styles, the attitudes and behaviors that characterize parental approaches to maintaining or modifying children’s eating behavior, are an important behavioral component shaping early obesity risk. Using longitudinal data from the Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study, a cohort study of 217 African-American mother-infant pairs with feeding styles, dietary recalls and anthropometry collected from 3-18 months of infant age, we examined the relationship between feeding styles, infant diet and weight–for-age and sum of skinfolds. Longitudinal mixed models indicated that higher pressuring and indulgent feeding style scores were positively associated with greater infant energy intake, reduced odds of breastfeeding and higher levels of age-inappropriate feeding of liquids and solids while restrictive feeding styles were associated with lower energy intake, higher odds of breastfeeding and reduced odds of inappropriate feeding. Pressuring and restriction were also oppositely related to infant size with pressuring associated with lower infant weight-for-age and restriction with higher weight-for-age and sum of skinfolds. Infant size also predicted maternal feeding styles in subsequent visits indicating that the relationship between size and feeding styles is likely bidirectional. Our results suggest that the degree to which parents are pressuring or restrictive during feeding shapes the early feeding environment and, consequently, may be an important environmental factor in the development of obesity. PMID:23592664

Postnatal colonization with human "infant-type" Bifidobacterium species alters behavior of adult gnotobiotic mice.

PubMed

Luk, Berkley; Veeraragavan, Surabi; Engevik, Melinda; Balderas, Miriam; Major, Angela; Runge, Jessica; Luna, Ruth Ann; Versalovic, James

2018-01-01

Accumulating studies have defined a role for the intestinal microbiota in modulation of host behavior. Research using gnotobiotic mice emphasizes that early microbial colonization with a complex microbiota (conventionalization) can rescue some of the behavioral abnormalities observed in mice that grow to adulthood completely devoid of bacteria (germ-free mice). However, the human infant and adult microbiomes vary greatly, and effects of the neonatal microbiome on neurodevelopment are currently not well understood. Microbe-mediated modulation of neural circuit patterning in the brain during neurodevelopment may have significant long-term implications that we are only beginning to appreciate. Modulation of the host central nervous system by the early-life microbiota is predicted to have pervasive and lasting effects on brain function and behavior. We sought to replicate this early microbe-host interaction by colonizing gnotobiotic mice at the neonatal stage with a simplified model of the human infant gut microbiota. This model consortium consisted of four "infant-type" Bifidobacterium species known to be commensal members of the human infant microbiota present in high abundance during postnatal development. Germ-free mice and mice neonatally-colonized with a complex, conventional murine microbiota were used for comparison. Motor and non-motor behaviors of the mice were tested at 6-7 weeks of age, and colonization patterns were characterized by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. Adult germ-free mice were observed to have abnormal memory, sociability, anxiety-like behaviors, and motor performance. Conventionalization at the neonatal stage rescued these behavioral abnormalities, and mice colonized with Bifidobacterium spp. also exhibited important behavioral differences relative to the germ-free controls. The ability of Bifidobacterium spp. to improve the recognition memory of both male and female germ-free mice was a prominent finding. Together, these data demonstrate that the early-life gut microbiome, and human "infant-type" Bifidobacterium species, affect adult behavior in a strongly sex-dependent manner, and can selectively recapitulate the results observed when mice are colonized with a complex microbiota.

[Prosocial Development of Very Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pawl, Jeree, Ed.

1992-01-01

This newsletter presents five articles focusing on the social development of infants and very young children. The first article, "Sympathetic Behavior in Very Young Children," by Lois Barclay Murphy, gives examples of early sympathetic behavior, traces the development of sympathy, identifies individual patterns of sympathetic response,…

Infant titi monkey behavior in the open field test and the effect of early adversity.

PubMed

Larke, Rebecca H; Toubiana, Alice; Lindsay, Katrina A; Mendoza, Sally P; Bales, Karen L

2017-09-01

The open field test is commonly used to measure anxiety-related behavior and exploration in rodents. Here, we used it as a standardized novel environment in which to evaluate the behavioral response of infant titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus), to determine the effect of presence of individual family members, and to assess how adverse early experience alters infant behavior. Infants were tested in the open field for 5 days at ages 4 and 6 months in four successive 5 min trials on each day. A transport cage, which was situated on one side of the open field, was either empty (non-social control) or contained the father, mother, or sibling. Infant locomotor, vocalization, and exploratory behavior were quantified. Results indicated that age, sex, social condition, and early experience all had significant effects on infant behavior. Specifically, infants were generally more exploratory at 6 months and male infants were more exploratory than females. Infants distinguished between social and non-social conditions but made few behavioral distinctions between the attachment figure and other individuals. Infants which had adverse early life experience demonstrated greater emotional and physical independence, suggesting that early adversity led to resiliency in the novel environment. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Infant categorization.

PubMed

Rakison, David H; Yermolayeva, Yevdokiya

2010-11-01

In this article, we review the principal findings on infant categorization from the last 30 years. The review focuses on behaviorally based experiments with visual preference, habituation, object examining, sequential touching, and inductive generalization procedures. We propose that although this research has helped to elucidate the 'what' and 'when' of infant categorization, it has failed to clarify the mechanisms that underpin this behavior and the development of concepts. We outline a number of reasons for why the field has failed in this regard, most notably because of the context-specific nature of infant categorization and a lack of ground rules in interpreting data. We conclude by suggesting that one remedy for this issue is for infant categorization researchers to adopt more of an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating imaging and computational methods into their current methodological arsenal. WIREs Cogn Sci 2010 1 894-905 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The missing link: Mothers’ neural response to infant cry related to infant attachment behaviors

PubMed Central

Laurent, Heidemarie K.; Ablow, Jennifer C.

2012-01-01

This study addresses a gap in the attachment literature by investigating maternal neural response to cry related to infant attachment classifications and behaviors. Twenty-two primiparous mothers and their 18-month old infants completed the Strange Situation Procedure (SS) to elicit attachment behaviors. During a separate functional MRI session, mothers were exposed to their own infant’s cry sound, as well as an unfamiliar infant’s cry and control sound. Maternal neural response to own infant cry related to both overall attachment security and specific infant behaviors. Mothers of less secure infants maintained greater activation to their cry in left parahippocampal and amygdala regions and the right posterior insula. consistent with a negative schematic response bias. Mothers of infants exhibiting more avoidant or contact maintaining behaviors during the SS showed diminished response across left prefrontal, parietal, and cerebellar areas involved in attentional processing and cognitive control. Mothers of infants exhibiting more disorganized behavior showed reduced response in bilateral temporal and subcallosal areas relevant to social cognition and emotion regulation. No differences by attachment classification were found. Implications for attachment transmission models are discussed. PMID:22982277

Do infant behaviors following immunization predict attachment? An exploratory study.

PubMed

Horton, Rachel; Pillai Riddell, Rebecca; Moran, Greg; Lisi, Diana

2016-01-01

The relationship between infant behaviors during routine immunization, pre- and post-needle, and infant attachment was explored. A total of 130 parent-infant dyads were recruited from a larger longitudinal study and videotaped during routine immunization at 12 months and the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) at 14 months. Six infant behaviors were coded for 1-minute pre-needle and 3-minutes post-needle. Attachment was operationalized according to the secure/avoidant/resistant/disorganized categories. As expected, none of the pre-needle behaviors predicted attachment. Proximity-seeking post-needle significantly discriminated attachment categorizations. Secure infants were more likely to seek proximity to caregivers post-needle in comparison with avoidant and disorganized infants. Proximity-seeking following immunization was positively correlated with proximity-seeking during the SSP and negatively correlated with avoidance and disorganization during the SSP. Infant proximity-seeking during immunization is associated with attachment security and parallels behaviors observed during the SSP. More research is needed to identify behavioral markers of disorganization.

Maternal Characteristics and Perception of Temperament Associated With Infant TV Exposure

PubMed Central

Adair, Linda S.; Bentley, Margaret E.

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the development of television (TV) behaviors across the first 18 months of life and identifies maternal and infant predictors of infant TV exposure. METHODS: We used longitudinal TV exposure, maternal sociodemographic, and infant temperament data from 217 African-American mother-infant pairs participating in the Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study. Longitudinal logistic models and ordered regression models with clustering for repeated measures across subjects adjusted for infant gender and visit were used to assess maternal and infant predictors of TV exposure and to test whether infants with both maternal and infant risk factors had higher odds of more detrimental TV exposure. RESULTS: Infants as young as 3 months old were exposed to an average of 2.6 hours of TV and/or videos daily, and nearly 40% of infants were exposed to >3 hours of TV daily by 12 months of age. Maternal TV viewing and maternal obesity and infant activity, fussiness, and crying were associated with greater infant TV exposure, whereas maternal education and infant activity were associated with having the TV on during most meals. Infants perceived as being more active or fussier had higher TV exposure, particularly if their mothers also had risk factors for higher TV exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the characteristics that shape TV exposure and its biological and behavioral sequelae is critical for early intervention. Maternal perception of infant temperament dimensions is related to TV exposure, suggesting that infant temperament measures should be included in interventions aimed at limiting early TV. PMID:23296440

Maternal depression and anxiety, social synchrony, and infant regulation of negative and positive emotions.

PubMed

Granat, Adi; Gadassi, Reuma; Gilboa-Schechtman, Eva; Feldman, Ruth

2017-02-01

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) exerts long-term negative effects on infants; yet the mechanisms by which PPD disrupts emotional development are not fully clear. Utilizing an extreme-case design, 971 women reported symptoms of depression and anxiety following childbirth and 215 high and low on depressive symptomatology reported again at 6 months. Of these, mothers diagnosed with major depressive disorder (n = 22), anxiety disorders (n = 19), and controls (n = 59) were visited at 9 months. Mother-infant interaction was microcoded for maternal and infant's social behavior and synchrony. Infant negative and positive emotional expression and self-regulation were tested in 4 emotion-eliciting paradigms: anger with mother, anger with stranger, joy with mother, and joy with stranger. Infants of depressed mothers displayed less social gaze and more gaze aversion. Gaze and touch synchrony were lowest for depressed mothers, highest for anxious mothers, and midlevel among controls. Infants of control and anxious mothers expressed less negative affect with mother compared with stranger; however, maternal presence failed to buffer negative affect in the depressed group. Maternal depression chronicity predicted increased self-regulatory behavior during joy episodes, and touch synchrony moderated the effects of PPD on infant self-regulation. Findings describe subtle microlevel processes by which maternal depression across the postpartum year disrupts the development of infant emotion regulation and suggest that diminished social synchrony, low differentiation of attachment and nonattachment contexts, and increased self-regulation during positive moments may chart pathways for the cross-generational transfer of emotional maladjustment from depressed mothers to their infants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

EARLY POSTPARTUM PARENTAL PREOCCUPATION AND POSITIVE PARENTING THOUGHTS: RELATIONSHIP WITH PARENT-INFANT INTERACTION.

PubMed

Kim, Pilyoung; Mayes, Linda; Feldman, Ruth; Leckman, James F; Swain, James E

2013-01-01

Parenting behaviors and parent-infant emotional bonding during the early postpartum months play a critical role in infant development. However, the nature and progression of parental thoughts and their relationship with interactive behaviors have received less research. The current study investigated the trajectory of parental thoughts and behaviors among primiparous mothers ( n = 18) and fathers ( n = 15) and multiparous mothers ( n = 13) and fathers ( n = 13), which were measured at the first and third postpartum month. At the third postpartum month, the relationship between parental thoughts and parental interactive behaviors also was tested. Mothers and fathers showed high levels of preoccupations and caregiving thoughts during the first postpartum month that significantly declined by the third postpartum month. In contrast, positive thoughts about parenting and the infant increased over the same time interval. Mothers presented higher levels of preoccupations and positive thoughts than did fathers, and first-time parents reported more intense preoccupations than did experienced parents. Although maternal sensitivity was inversely related to maternal anxious thoughts, paternal sensitivity was predicted by higher levels of anxious as well as caregiving and positive thoughts.

Prenatal stress exposure alters postnatal behavioral expression under conditions of novelty challenge in rhesus monkey infants.

PubMed

Schneider, M L

1992-11-01

This prospective study investigated whether mild maternal stress during pregnancy could alter the behavioral and affective responses in rhesus monkey infants in a complex, novel environment. Twenty-four rhesus monkey infants were tested on three occasions at 6 months of age in a novel environment. Twelve infants were derived from mothers exposed to a daily 10-min mild stressor from Day 90 to Day 145 postconception, while 12 were derived from mothers undisturbed during pregnancy. Prenatally stressed infants demonstrated more disturbance behavior, and lower levels of gross motor/exploratory behavior. Moreover, half of the prenatally stressed infants showed an abnormal response, falling asleep, while none of the control infants displayed this behavior. Males exhibited more clinging to surrogates, while females spent more time in gross motor/exploratory behaviors, with prenatally stressed males tending to spend the least time in gross motor/exploratory activity.

The Interplay Between Language, Gesture, and Affect During Communicative Transition: A Dynamic Systems Approach

PubMed Central

Parladé, Meaghan V.; Iverson, Jana M.

2012-01-01

From a dynamic systems perspective, transition points in development are times of increased instability, during which behavioral patterns are susceptible to temporary decoupling. This study investigated the impact of the vocabulary spurt on existing patterns of communicative coordination. Eighteen typically developing infants were videotaped at home 1 month before, at, and after the vocabulary spurt. Infants were identified as spurters if they underwent a discrete phase transition in vocabulary development (marked by an inflection point), and compared with a group of nonspurters whose word-learning rates followed a trajectory of continuous change. Relative to surrounding sessions, there were significant reductions in overall coordination of communicative behaviors and in words produced in coordination at the vocabulary spurt session for infants who experienced more dramatic vocabulary growth. In contrast, nonspurters demonstrated little change across sessions. Findings underscore the importance of transitions as opportunities for observing processes of developmental change. PMID:21219063

Direct and Indirect Effects of Behavioral Parent Training on Infant Language Production.

PubMed

Bagner, Daniel M; Garcia, Dainelys; Hill, Ryan

2016-03-01

Given the strong association between early behavior problems and language impairment, we examined the effect of a brief home-based adaptation of Parent-child Interaction Therapy on infant language production. Sixty infants (55% male; mean age 13.47±1.31 months) were recruited at a large urban primary care clinic and were included if their scores exceeded the 75th percentile on a brief screener of early behavior problems. Families were randomly assigned to receive the home-based parenting intervention or standard pediatric primary care. The observed number of infant total (i.e., token) and different (i.e., type) utterances spoken during an observation of an infant-led play and a parent-report measure of infant externalizing behavior problems were examined at pre- and post-intervention and at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Infants receiving the intervention demonstrated a significantly higher number of observed different and total utterances at the 6-month follow-up compared to infants in standard care. Furthermore, there was an indirect effect of the intervention on infant language production, such that the intervention led to decreases in infant externalizing behavior problems from pre- to post-intervention, which, in turn, led to increases in infant different utterances at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups and total utterances at the 6-month follow-up. Results provide initial evidence for the effect of this brief and home-based intervention on infant language production, including the indirect effect of the intervention on infant language through improvements in infant behavior, highlighting the importance of targeting behavior problems in early intervention. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

First-time rhesus monkey mothers, and mothers of sons, preferentially engage in face-to-face interactions with their infants.

PubMed

Dettmer, Amanda M; Kaburu, Stefano S K; Byers, Kristen L; Murphy, Ashley M; Soneson, Emma; Wooddell, Lauren J; Suomi, Stephen J

2016-02-01

Face-to-face interactions between mothers and infants occur in both human and non-human primates, but there is large variability in the occurrence of these behaviors and the reason for this variability remains largely unexplored. Other types of maternal investment have been shown to be dependent on infant sex (e.g. milk production and maternal responsiveness) and maternal experience (e.g. symmetrical communication). Thus, we sought to determine whether variability in face-to-face interactions, that is, mutual gazing (MG), which are hypothesized to be important for later socio-cognitive development, could be explained by these variables. We studied 28 semi-free ranging rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) mother-infant dyads (6 primiparous; 12 male infants) born and reared at the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology field station at the NIH Animal Center in Poolesville, MD, across the first 90 postnatal days. Infant sex (i.e. male) was a significant predictor of maternal grooming (β ± SE = 0.359 ± 0.164, Z = 2.19, P = 0.029) whereas both parity (i.e. first time mothers) and infant sex (i.e. male) significantly predicted MG (parity: β ± SE = -0.735 ± 0.223, Z = -3.30, P < 0.001; infant sex: β ± SE = 0.436 ± 0.201, Z = 2.17, P = 0.029). Separation from the mother (outside of arm's reach) was not influenced by parity or infant sex. Together with existing literature, these findings point toward differential maternal investment for sons versus daughters. Mothers may be investing differentially in sons, behaviorally, to ensure their future social competence and thus later reproductive success. Collectively, our findings add to the literature that is beginning to identify early life experiences that may lead to sex differences in neurological and behavioral development. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The development of emotion perception in face and voice during infancy.

PubMed

Grossmann, Tobias

2010-01-01

Interacting with others by reading their emotional expressions is an essential social skill in humans. How this ability develops during infancy and what brain processes underpin infants' perception of emotion in different modalities are the questions dealt with in this paper. Literature review. The first part provides a systematic review of behavioral findings on infants' developing emotion-reading abilities. The second part presents a set of new electrophysiological studies that provide insights into the brain processes underlying infants' developing abilities. Throughout, evidence from unimodal (face or voice) and multimodal (face and voice) processing of emotion is considered. The implications of the reviewed findings for our understanding of developmental models of emotion processing are discussed. The reviewed infant data suggest that (a) early in development, emotion enhances the sensory processing of faces and voices, (b) infants' ability to allocate increased attentional resources to negative emotional information develops earlier in the vocal domain than in the facial domain, and (c) at least by the age of 7 months, infants reliably match and recognize emotional information across face and voice.

Infant fMRI: A Model System for Cognitive Neuroscience.

PubMed

Ellis, Cameron T; Turk-Browne, Nicholas B

2018-05-01

Our understanding of the typical human brain has benefitted greatly from studying different kinds of brains and their associated behavioral repertoires, including animal models and neuropsychological patients. This same comparative perspective can be applied to early development - the environment, behavior, and brains of infants provide a model system for understanding how the mature brain works. This approach requires noninvasive methods for measuring brain function in awake, behaving infants. fMRI is becoming increasingly viable for this purpose, with the unique ability to precisely measure the entire brain, including both cortical and subcortical structures. Here we discuss potential lessons from infant fMRI for several domains of adult cognition and consider the challenges of conducting such research and how they might be mitigated. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of oral motor behavior related to the skill assisted spoon feeding.

PubMed

van den Engel-Hoek, Lenie; van Hulst, Karen C M; van Gerven, Marjo H J C; van Haaften, Leenke; de Groot, Sandra A F

2014-05-01

Milestones in the typical development of eating skills are considered to be nippling (breast or bottle), eating from a spoon, drinking from a cup, biting and chewing. The purpose of this research was to study the development and consolidation of oral motor behavior related to the skill assisted spoon feeding in young infants. The present study longitudinally investigated the development of this skill in 39 healthy children from the start of spoon feeding until the skill was acquired. The Observation List Spoon Feeding with 7 observation items for oral motor behavior and 6 items for abnormal behavior was used. Results showed that infants between 4 and 8 months of age needed 5.7 weeks (SD 2.1), with a range of 8 weeks (from 2 to 10 weeks) to acquire this skill. No significant correlation (p=.109) between age at start spoon feeding and weeks needed to develop the skill was found. During this period oral motor behavior consolidated and abnormal behavior diminished. With this study it is shown that the period in weeks needed to acquire the oral motor behavior for the skill assisted spoon feeding is important in case of feeding problems. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parent relationship quality and infant-mother attachment.

PubMed

Finger, Brent; Hans, Sydney L; Bernstein, Victor J; Cox, Suzanne M

2009-05-01

This project examined interrelations between father-mother conflict, father support of mother, maternal behavior, and infant-mother attachment within a sample of 79 African American families living in a highly stressed urban community. Father support of mother was not related to maternal parenting behavior or infant attachment. Conflicted mother-father relationships were associated with problematic maternal behavior, low maternal sensitivity, infant attachment insecurity, and infant attachment disorganization. The associations between parental conflict and both infant attachment disorganization and insecurity were buffered in families in which fathers co-resided with the mother. Consistent with theory and prior research, links were also observed between maternal sensitive-responsiveness and infant attachment security and between problematic maternal parenting and infant attachment disorganization. However, maternal parenting behavior did not mediate the relation between parental conflict and infant attachment. Results are discussed with respect to whether and under what circumstances child exposure to parent conflict can have a direct effect on infant-mother attachment that is not mediated through dyadic infant-mother interaction.

Infants' Behavioral and Physiological Profile and Mother-Infant Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costa, Raquel; Figueiredo, Barbara

2012-01-01

This study aims to (a) identify and profile groups of infants according to their behavioral and physiological characteristics, considering their neurobehavioral organization, social withdrawal behavior, and endocrine reactivity to stress, and to (b) analyze group differences in the quality of mother-infant interaction. Ninety-seven 8-week-old…

ATTACHMENT IN INFANTS WITH CLEFT LIP AND/OR PALATE: MARGINAL SECURITY AND ITS CHANGES OVER TIME.

PubMed

Borghini, Ayala; Despars, Josée; Habersaat, Stéphanie; Turpin, Hélène; Monnier, Maryline; Ansermet, François; Hohlfeld, Judith; Muller-Nix, Carole

2018-03-01

This study examines the attachment quality and how this changed over time among infants who had cleft lip and palate (CLP), by conducting a prospective longitudinal study addressing the effects of this type of perinatal event on the parent-infant relationship and the emotional development of the infants. At 12 months of age, the Strange Situation Paradigm (SSP; M. Ainsworth, M.C. Blehar, E. Waters, & T. Wall, 1978) was administered to a sample of 38 CLP infants (born between 2003 and 2010) and 17 healthy controls. At 4 years of age, the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT; I. Bretherton, D. Ridgeway, & J. Cassidy, 1990) was administered to 32 individuals from the CLP sample and 14 from the control group. As reported in the literature, CLP infants display secure attachment behaviors as frequently as do control infants (55%). However, a more detailed analysis of the attachment scales revealed that CLP infants show more avoidance and less proximity seeking. In addition, a closer examination of the subcategories of attachment styles revealed that most CLP infants (71%) displayed distal attachment strategies such as the B1/B2 or A1/A2 subcategories. At 4 years old, CLP infants clearly displayed more deactivation and less security than did the control sample. Moreover, when detailing the evolution of attachment individually, almost 60% of the CLP children showing distal strategies at 12 months became deactivated or disorganized when they reached 4 years. Indeed, subtle differences in attachment behaviors at 12 months old-which can be considered marginally secure at that age-may reveal attachment vulnerabilities, which seem to be more apparent over the course of development. © 2018 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Measuring infant attachment security in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): adaptation of the attachment Q-set.

PubMed

Warfield, James J; Kondo-Ikemura, Kiyomi; Waters, Everett

2011-02-01

John Bowlby defined offspring-parent attachment as a relationship in which an infant or child uses one or a few preferred adults as a secure base from which to explore and as a haven of safety. He defined attachment security in terms of confidence in the adult's availability and responsiveness and the smooth organization of exploration and proximity seeking. Developmental psychologists have found this perspective productive in both observational and laboratory research. At the same time, they emphasize that such a construct cannot be operationalized in terms of one or a few behaviors. Instead, naturalistic observations of human infant attachment typically employ the Q-sort method to develop the Attachment q-set (AQS), 90 behaviorally descriptive items sorted in terms of how characteristic each item is of the infant's typical behavior. Meta-analyses of research using the AQS attest to its reliability and validity. This article reports an adaptation of the AQS to the task of assessing infant attachment security in nonhuman primates and illustrates its use. The availability of comparable measures of attachment security will contribute to an expanded understanding of patterns of attachment behavior in nonhuman primate societies and will facilitate interaction between comparative and developmental psychologists. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Associations between gross motor and communicative development in at-risk infants.

PubMed

LeBarton, Eve Sauer; Iverson, Jana M

2016-08-01

Infants' advances in locomotion relate to advances in communicative development. However, little is known about these relations in infants at risk for delays in these domains and whether they may extend to earlier achievements in gross motor development in infancy. We examined whether advances in sitting and prone locomotion are related to communicative development in infants who have an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are at risk for motor and communication delays (heightened-risk; HR). We conducted a longitudinal study with 37 HR infants who did not receive an ASD diagnosis at 36 months. Infants were observed monthly between the ages of 5 and 14 months. We assessed gross motor development using the Alberta Infant Motor Scales (AIMS) and recorded ages of onset of verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors. Results indicated increased presence of early gross motor delay from 5 to 10 months. In addition, there were positive relations between sitting and gesture and babble onset and between prone development and gesture onset. Thus, links between gross motor development and communication extend to at-risk development and provide a starting point for future research on potential cascading consequences of motor advances on communication development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Caregiver Behaviors and Adaptive Behavior Development of Very Young Children in Home Care and Daycare.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altman, Jennifer Schroer; Mills, Belen Collantes

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of home-mother care and day care caregiver behaviors on the adaptive behavior development of infants between 18 and 24 months of age. Other variables under investigation included two indices of socioeconomic status: occupation and education of parents. The sample consisted of 72 children.…

Brain responses and looking behavior during audiovisual speech integration in infants predict auditory speech comprehension in the second year of life

PubMed Central

Kushnerenko, Elena; Tomalski, Przemyslaw; Ballieux, Haiko; Potton, Anita; Birtles, Deidre; Frostick, Caroline; Moore, Derek G.

2013-01-01

The use of visual cues during the processing of audiovisual (AV) speech is known to be less efficient in children and adults with language difficulties and difficulties are known to be more prevalent in children from low-income populations. In the present study, we followed an economically diverse group of thirty-seven infants longitudinally from 6–9 months to 14–16 months of age. We used eye-tracking to examine whether individual differences in visual attention during AV processing of speech in 6–9 month old infants, particularly when processing congruent and incongruent auditory and visual speech cues, might be indicative of their later language development. Twenty-two of these 6–9 month old infants also participated in an event-related potential (ERP) AV task within the same experimental session. Language development was then followed-up at the age of 14–16 months, using two measures of language development, the Preschool Language Scale and the Oxford Communicative Development Inventory. The results show that those infants who were less efficient in auditory speech processing at the age of 6–9 months had lower receptive language scores at 14–16 months. A correlational analysis revealed that the pattern of face scanning and ERP responses to audiovisually incongruent stimuli at 6–9 months were both significantly associated with language development at 14–16 months. These findings add to the understanding of individual differences in neural signatures of AV processing and associated looking behavior in infants. PMID:23882240

Infant differential behavioral responding to discrete emotions.

PubMed

Walle, Eric A; Reschke, Peter J; Camras, Linda A; Campos, Joseph J

2017-10-01

Emotional communication regulates the behaviors of social partners. Research on individuals' responding to others' emotions typically compares responses to a single negative emotion compared with responses to a neutral or positive emotion. Furthermore, coding of such responses routinely measure surface level features of the behavior (e.g., approach vs. avoidance) rather than its underlying function (e.g., the goal of the approach or avoidant behavior). This investigation examined infants' responding to others' emotional displays across 5 discrete emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust. Specifically, 16-, 19-, and 24-month-old infants observed an adult communicate a discrete emotion toward a stimulus during a naturalistic interaction. Infants' responses were coded to capture the function of their behaviors (e.g., exploration, prosocial behavior, and security seeking). The results revealed a number of instances indicating that infants use different functional behaviors in response to discrete emotions. Differences in behaviors across emotions were clearest in the 24-month-old infants, though younger infants also demonstrated some differential use of behaviors in response to discrete emotions. This is the first comprehensive study to identify differences in how infants respond with goal-directed behaviors to discrete emotions. Additionally, the inclusion of a function-based coding scheme and interpersonal paradigms may be informative for future emotion research with children and adults. Possible developmental accounts for the observed behaviors and the benefits of coding techniques emphasizing the function of social behavior over their form are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

[A new method of investigation of "child's" behavior (infant-mother attachment) of newborn rats].

PubMed

Stovolosov, I S; Dubynin, V A; Kamenskiĭ, A A

2010-01-01

A new method of studying "child's" (maternal bonding) behavior of newborn rats was developed. The efficiency of the method was proved in estimation of dopaminergic control of the infant-mother attachment. Selective D2-antagonist clebopride applied in subthreshold for motor activity doses caused a decrease in aspiration of pups to be in contact with a dam. On the basis of features analyzed (latent periods and expression of various behavioral components), the integrated criterion for the estimation of "child's" reactions was suggested. Application of this criterion made it possible to neutralize high individual variability of the behavior typical of newborns.

Transitions in sensitive period attachment learning in infancy: the role of corticosterone.

PubMed

Sullivan, Regina M; Holman, Parker J

2010-05-01

Survival of altricial infants, including humans and rats, depends on attachment to the caregiver - a process that requires infants to recognize, learn, and remember their attachment figure. The demands of a dynamic environment combined with a maturing organism require frequent neurobehavioral reorganization. This restructuring of behavior and its supporting neural circuitry can be viewed through the unique lens of attachment learning in rats in which preference learning is enhanced and aversion learning is attenuated. Behavioral restructuring is well adapted to securing the crucial infant-caregiver relationship regardless of the quality of care. With maturation and the end of the infant-caregiver attachment learning period, the complex interplay of neural structures, hormones, and social behavior coordinates the developing rat's eventual transition to life outside of the nest. Nevertheless, early-life environmental and physiological stressors can alter the resilient nature of this system, particularly with respect to the amygdala, and these changes may provide important clues to understanding the lasting effects of early stress. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Motor origins of tool use.

PubMed

Kahrs, Björn A; Jung, Wendy P; Lockman, Jeffrey J

2013-01-01

The current study examines the developmental trajectory of banging movements and its implications for tool use development. Twenty (6- to 15-month-old) infants wore reflective markers while banging a handled cube; movements were recorded at 240 Hz. Results indicated that through the second half-year, banging movements undergo developmental changes making them ideally suited for instrumental hammering and pounding. Younger infants were inefficient and variable when banging the object: Their hands followed circuitous paths of great lengths at high velocities. By 1 year, infants showed consistent and efficient straight up-down hand trajectories of smaller magnitude and velocity, allowing for precise aiming and delivering dependable levels of force. The findings suggest that tool use develops gradually from infants' existing manual behaviors. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Ethiopian adolescents' attitudes and expectations deviate from current infant and young child feeding recommendations.

PubMed

Hadley, Craig; Lindstrom, David; Belachew, Tefera; Tessema, Fasil

2008-09-01

Suboptimal infant and child feeding practices are highly prevalent in many developing countries for reasons that are not entirely understood. Taking an anthropological perspective, we assessed whether nulliparous youth have formulated attitudes and expectations in the domain of infant and child feeding behaviors, the extent to which these varied by location and gender, and the extent to which they deviated from current international recommendations. A population-based sample of 2077 adolescent girls and boys (13-17 years) in southwest Ethiopia answered a questionnaire on infant and young child feeding behaviors. Results indicate high levels of agreement among adolescents on items relating to infant and young child feeding behaviors. Attitudes and intentions deviated widely from current international recommendations. Youth overwhelmingly endorsed items related to early introduction of nonbreast milk liquids and foods. For girls, fewer than 11% agreed that a 5-month infant should be exclusively breastfed and only 26% agreed that a 6-month infant should be consuming some animal source foods. Few sex differences emerged and youth responses matched larger community patterns. The results indicate that attitudes and expectations deviate widely from current international child feeding guidelines among soon to be parents. To the extent that youth models are directive, these findings suggest that youth enter into parenthood with suboptimal information about infant and child feeding. Such information will reproduce poor health across generations as the largest cohort of adolescents ever become parents. These results suggest specific points of entry for adolescent nutrition education interventions.

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Vocal Production in Infant Siblings of Children with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paul, Rhea; Fuerst, Yael; Ramsay, Gordon; Chawarska, Kasia; Klin, Ami

2011-01-01

Background: Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at higher risk for acquiring these disorders than the general population. Language development is usually delayed in children with ASD. The present study examines the development of pre-speech vocal behavior in infants at risk for ASD due to the presence of an older…

Infant behavioral responses to infant-directed singing and other maternal interactions.

PubMed

de l'Etoile, Shannon K

2006-07-01

Seventy, 6-9-month-old infants were videotaped during six interactions: mother sings assigned song, "stranger" sings assigned song, mother sings song of choice, mother reads book, mother plays with toy, and mother and infant listen to recorded music. Infant-directed (ID) singing conditions elicited moderately positive cognitive behavior, low levels of positive physical behavior and minimal amounts of vocal behaviors, mostly negative. Across all conditions, cognitive scores remained positive at low to moderate levels. Physical responses were most positive during book and toy, most negative during recorded music, and differed by gender, especially during ID singing. Vocally, infants responded positively to toy, and 8-month-old infants vocalized more than younger infants, particularly during ID singing conditions. ID singing appears just as effective as book reading or toy play in sustaining infant attention and far more effective than listening to recorded music, while interactions involving objects may provide opportunity for shared attention.

Adaptation of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised for use in Ethiopia: Expanding cross-cultural investigation of temperament development.

PubMed

Gartstein, Maria A; Bogale, Wolayte; Meehan, Courtney L

2016-11-01

Cross-cultural differences in temperament were evaluated for Ethiopian (N=109) and U.S. (N=109) samples of infants. We anticipated that the Sidama version of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R; Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) developed for use in Ethiopia would demonstrate satisfactory psychometric properties, and hypothesized significant cross-cultural differences in levels of fine-grained temperament characteristics. Interactions between culture, infant age, and sex were also considered. Internal consistency was satisfactory for 13 of the 14 IBQ-R scales (with a somewhat low estimate observed for Duration of Orienting), and an examination of the structure indicated patterns similar to those observed in the US, and elsewhere. Differences between Ethiopia and the US were noted for Activity Level, Distress to Limitations, Fear, Smiling/Laughter, Falling Reactivity, Cuddliness/Affiliation, Sadness, Approach, and Vocal Reactivity. Parents of infants in the US reported higher levels of attributes associated with Surgency/Positive Affectivity (Activity, Smiling/Laughter, Approach Vocal Reactivity), whereas Ethiopian infants' scores were higher for Distress to Limitations and Fear, linked with the over-arching temperament factor of Negative Emotionality; however, US infants received higher ratings on Sadness, also associated with this factor. Higher Falling Reactivity, a regulation-related attribute, was reported for Ethiopian infants, with US babies receiving higher Cuddliness/Affiliation scores. Significant culture*age interactions were observed for Activity and Fear, along with a significant culture*age*sex interaction for Distress to Limitations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Breastfeeding, Brain Activation to Own Infant Cry, and Maternal Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Pilyoung; Feldman, Ruth; Mayes, Linda C.; Eicher, Virginia; Thompson, Nancy; Leckman, James F.; Swain, James E.

2011-01-01

Background: Research points to the importance of breastfeeding for promoting close mother-infant contact and social-emotional development. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified brain regions related to maternal behaviors. However, little research has addressed the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the…

45 CFR Appendix A to Part 1355 - Foster Care Data Elements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Abuse (Child)—Child's compulsive use of or need for alcohol. This element should include infants... include infants addicted at birth. Child's Disability—Clinical diagnosis by a qualified professional of..., growth, and moral development. These may include adjudicated or nonadjudicated child behavior problems...

45 CFR Appendix A to Part 1355 - Foster Care Data Elements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Abuse (Child)—Child's compulsive use of or need for alcohol. This element should include infants... include infants addicted at birth. Child's Disability—Clinical diagnosis by a qualified professional of..., growth, and moral development. These may include adjudicated or nonadjudicated child behavior problems...

Infant and toddler crying, sleeping and feeding problems and trajectories of dysregulated behavior across childhood.

PubMed

Winsper, Catherine; Wolke, Dieter

2014-01-01

Infant and toddler regulatory problems (RPs) including crying, sleeping and feeding, are a frequent concern for parents and have been associated with negative behavioral outcomes in early and middle childhood. Uncertain is whether infant and toddler RPs predict stable, trait-like dysregulated behavior across childhood. We addressed this gap in the literature using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). RPs at 6, 15-18, & 24-30 months and childhood dysregulated behavior at 4, 7, 8, & 9.5 years were assessed using mother report. Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) indicated that trajectories of childhood dysregulated behavior were stable over time. All single RPs (i.e., crying, sleeping & feeding problems) were significantly associated with childhood dysregulated behavior. For example, crying problems at 6 months after controlling for confounders (Odds Ratios; 95% Confidence Intervals): Moderate dysregulated behavior: OR = 1.50, 95% CI [1.09 to 2.06], high dysregulated behavior: OR = 2.13, 95% CI [1.49 to 3.05] and very high dysregulated behavior: OR = 2.85, 95% CI [1.64 to 4.94]. Multiple RPs were especially strongly associated with dysregulated behavior. For example, the RP composite at 15-18 months: 1 RP, very high dysregulated behavior: OR = 2.79, 95% CI [2.17 to 3.57], 2 RPs, very high dysregulated behavior: OR = 3.46, 95% CI [2.38 to 5.01], 3 RPs, very high dysregulated behavior: OR = 12.57, 95% CI [6.38 to 24.74]. These findings suggest that RPs in infants and toddlers predict stable dysregulated behavior trajectories across childhood. Interventions for early RPs could help prevent the development of chronic, highly dysregulated behavior.

The Development of Infant Detection of Inauthentic Emotion

PubMed Central

Walle, Eric A.; Campos, Joseph J.

2014-01-01

Appreciating authentic and inauthentic emotional communication is central to the formation of trusting and intimate interpersonal relationships. However, when infants are able to discriminate and respond to inauthentic emotion has not been investigated. The present set of studies was designed to investigate infant sensitivity to three specific cues of inauthenticity: the contextual congruency of the emotion, the degree of exaggeration of the emotion, and the clarity with which the emotion is communicated. In each experiment, 16- and 19-month-old infants were presented with an emotional communication in which an inauthentic cue was present or absent. Infant behavioral responding to the emotional context was observed and coded. In all three experiments, 19-month-old infants, but not 16-month-old infants, detected inauthentic emotional communication and differentially responded to the environment accordingly. These findings demonstrate that infants do not simply take all emotional communication at face value and are sensitive to features of emotional contexts beyond what is expressively communicated by the adult. Possible developmental mechanisms that may account for the observed developmental shift in infant emotional development are proposed, and implications for the present findings on future research in emotion and emotional development are highlighted. PMID:24512249

Observations of a daytime birthing event in wild titi monkeys (Callicebus oenanthe): implications of the male parental role.

PubMed

Deluycker, Anneke M

2014-01-01

Behaviors displayed during birth events, including prenatal, parturition, and postpartum periods, can give insight into caretaking roles in species in which the offspring is cared for by individuals other than the mother. Titi monkeys, genus Callicebus, exhibit a pair-bonded social system along with intense male care of offspring. Here, I report the first case of a birth seen in the wild in a group of Callicebus oenanthe, a little-known species in northern Peru, and describe infant care and development during the first few months after birth. Detailed behavior during the birth sequence as well as ad libitum data postpartum were recorded on nursing and infant care behaviors, including infant carrying, infant grooming, anogenital cleaning, protection, playing, and food sharing. In the 3 h preceding and during parturition, the male remained in contact with or in close proximity to the female (<1 m). The male licked and examined the newborn 3 min after parturition, carried the infant within 24 h after birth, was the main carrier of the infant, and was the predominant manual groomer of the infant during the first 4 months after birth. I argue that the male plays an integral role during the birth in order to establish his bond with the infant as well as reinforce infant care duties to the female and in predator vigilance. In light of various explanations for the exhibition of intense paternal care, I suggest that the male titi monkey provides infant care to release the female of these duties in order that she may spend more time foraging, thus potentially increasing the pair's overall reproductive output.

Heart Activity and Autistic Behavior in Infants and Toddlers with Fragile X Syndrome

PubMed Central

Roberts, Jane E.; Tonnsen, Bridgette; Robinson, Ashley; Shinkareva, Svetlana V.

2014-01-01

The present study contrasted physiological arousal in infants and toddlers with fragile X syndrome to typically developing control participants and examined physiological predictors early in development to autism severity later in development in fragile X syndrome. Thirty-one males with fragile X syndrome (ages 8–40 months) and 25 age-matched control participants were included. The group with fragile X syndrome showed shorter interbeat intervals (IBIs), lower vagal tone (VT), and less modulation of IBI. Data suggested a nonlinear effect with IBI and autistic behavior; however, a linear effect with VT and autistic behavior emerged. These findings suggest that atypical physiological arousal emerges within the first year and predicts severity of autistic behavior in fragile X syndrome. These relationships are complex and dynamic, likely reflecting endogenous factors assumed to reflect atypical brain function secondary to reduced fragile X mental retardation protein. This research has important implications for the early identification and treatment of autistic behaviors in young children with fragile X syndrome. PMID:22515825

Caregiver Soothing Behaviors After Immunization and Infant Attachment: A Longitudinal Analysis.

PubMed

Hillgrove-Stuart, Jessica; Pillai Riddell, Rebecca; Flora, David B; Greenberg, Saul; Garfield, Hartley

2015-01-01

There were 2 primary objectives to the current study: (1) to relate caregiver behavior trajectories across immunization appointments over the first year of life to subsequent infant attachment and (2) to relate caregiver behavior trajectories within each immunization appointment over the first year of life to subsequent infant attachment. A subsample of 130 caregivers and their infants were recruited from a sample of 760 caregivers who were part of an ongoing longitudinal cohort that videotaped infants' 2-, 4-, 6-, and 12-month immunization appointments. This subsample of caregivers and their infants (n = 130) were invited to participate in an assessment of attachment when infants were between 12 and 18 months of age at the local children's hospital. Caregiver proximal soothing behaviors were the only caregiver behaviors postimmunization that were related to subsequent infant attachment. Higher frequencies of caregiver proximal soothing at 12 months were related to infants' organized attachment, whereas steeper decreases in proximal soothing across the first year were associated with disorganized infant attachment. In addition, when caregivers engaged in proximal soothing for longer after their 12 month olds' immunizations, these infants were more likely to be secure or organized in their attachment. These results provide empirical support for the ecological validity of studying infant attachment in a pediatric pain context. The pediatric "well-baby" visit may provide a potential opportunity to feasibly integrate brief infant mental health screening and intervention.

Family Nurture Intervention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit improves social-relatedness, attention, and neurodevelopment of preterm infants at 18 months in a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Welch, Martha G; Firestein, Morgan R; Austin, Judy; Hane, Amie A; Stark, Raymond I; Hofer, Myron A; Garland, Marianne; Glickstein, Sara B; Brunelli, Susan A; Ludwig, Robert J; Myers, Michael M

2015-11-01

Preterm infants are at high risk for adverse neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes. Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is designed to counteract adverse effects of separation of mothers and their preterm infants. Here, we evaluate effects of FNI on neurobehavioral outcomes. Data were collected at 18 months corrected age from preterm infants. Infants were assigned at birth to FNI or standard care (SC). Bayley Scales of Infant Development III (Bayley-III) were assessed for 76 infants (SC, n = 31; FNI, n = 45); the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for 57 infants (SC, n = 31; FNI, n = 26); and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) was obtained for 59 infants (SC, n = 33; FNI, n = 26). Family Nurture Intervention significantly improved Bayley-III cognitive (p = .039) and language (p = .008) scores for infants whose scores were greater than 85. FNI infants had fewer attention problems on the CBCL (p < .02). FNI improved total M-CHAT scores (p < .02). Seventy-six percent of SC infants failed at least one of the M-CHAT items, compared to 27% of FNI infants (p < .001). In addition, 36% of SC infants versus 0% of FNI infants failed at least one social-relatedness M-CHAT item (p < .001). Family Nurture Intervention is the first NICU intervention to show significant improvements in preterm infants across multiple domains of neurodevelopment, social-relatedness, and attention problems. These gains suggest that an intervention that facilitates emotional interactions between mothers and infants in the NICU may be key to altering developmental trajectories of preterm infants. © 2015 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Development of a questionnaire to assess the impact on parents of their infant’s bronchiolitis hospitalization

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Bronchiolitis is a distressing respiratory condition and the most common cause of hospitalization during the first year of life. The hospitalization of an infant is a stressful event for parents and deserves careful consideration. The objective of this work was to develop and validate a self-administered instrument that comprehensively assesses the impact on parents of the hospitalization of their infant for bronchiolitis. Methods The Impact of Bronchiolitis Hospitalization Questionnaire (IBHQ©) was developed using a literature review and pre-study interviews with both parents and clinicians. For finalization and psychometric validation, it was included in a multicenter, longitudinal, observational study conducted in France. Parents of infants under the age of 1 year and hospitalized for bronchiolitis were asked to complete the questionnaire at hospital discharge, and 3 months after. Results Seven hundred and seven questionnaires were completed by the parents of the 463 eligible infants. After finalization, based on principal component analyses, the IBHQ included 30 core items allowing the calculation of 7 dimension core scores (Worries and distress; Fear for future; Guilt; Impact on daily organization; Physical impact; Impact on behavior with hospitalized infant; Financial impact), as well as 16 optional items, allowing the calculation of 5 optional dimension scores (Disturbed breastfeeding; Physical reaction of hospitalized infant; Impact on feeding; Impact on behavior with other infants; Siblings’ reaction). Internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the IBHQ were satisfactory. The highest impact was observed for “Worries and distress”, “Fear for future” and “Impact on daily organization” scores. Conclusions The IBHQ is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the multifaceted impact on parents of the hospitalization of their infant for bronchiolitis. PMID:23849687

Development of upper body coordination during sitting in typically developing infants

PubMed Central

KYVELIDOU, ANASTASIA; STUBERG, WAYNE A.; HARBOURNE, REGINA T.; DEFFEYES, JOAN E.; BLANKE, DANIEL; STERGIOU, NICHOLAS

2009-01-01

Pediatric Research Articles Ahead of Print contains articles in unedited manuscript form that have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. As a service to our readers, we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final definitive form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered, which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Our goal was to determine how the actions of the thorax and the pelvis are organized and coordinated to achieve independent sitting posture in typically developing infants. The participants were ten typically developing infants that were evaluated longitudinally from first onset of sitting until sitting independence. Each infant underwent nine testing sessions. The first session included motor evaluation with the Peabody test. The other eight sessions occurred over a period of four months where sitting behavior was evaluated by angular kinematics of the thorax and the pelvis. A physical therapist evaluated sitting behavior in each session and categorized it according to five stages. The phasing relationship of the thorax and the pelvis was calculated and evaluated longitudinally using a one-way ANOVA. With development, the infants progressed from an in-phase (moving in the same direction) to an out-of-phase (moving in an opposite direction) coordinative relationship between the thorax and the pelvis segments. This change was significant for both the sagittal and frontal planes of motion. Clinically, this relationship is important because it provides a method to quantify infant sitting postural development, and can be used to assess efficacy of early interventions for pediatric populations with developmental motor delays. PMID:19190546

Maternal physiological dysregulation while parenting poses risk for infant attachment disorganization and behavior problems.

PubMed

Leerkes, Esther M; Su, Jinni; Calkins, Susan D; O'Brien, Marion; Supple, Andrew J

2017-02-01

The extent to which indices of maternal physiological arousal (skin conductance augmentation) and regulation (vagal withdrawal) while parenting predict infant attachment disorganization and behavior problems directly or indirectly via maternal sensitivity was examined in a sample of 259 mothers and their infants. Two covariates, maternal self-reported emotional risk and Adult Attachment Interview attachment coherence were assessed prenatally. Mothers' physiological arousal and regulation were measured during parenting tasks when infants were 6 months old. Maternal sensitivity was observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were 6 and 14 months old, and an average sensitivity score was calculated. Attachment disorganization was observed during the Strange Situation when infants were 14 months old, and mothers reported on infants' behavior problems when infants were 27 months old. Over and above covariates, mothers' arousal and regulation while parenting interacted to predict infant attachment disorganization and behavior problems such that maternal arousal was associated with higher attachment disorganization and behavior problems when maternal regulation was low but not when maternal regulation was high. This effect was direct and not explained by maternal sensitivity. The results suggest that maternal physiological dysregulation while parenting places infants at risk for psychopathology.

Embodied intersubjective engagement in mother–infant tactile communication: a cross-cultural study of Japanese and Scottish mother–infant behaviors during infant pick-up

PubMed Central

Negayama, Koichi; Delafield-Butt, Jonathan T.; Momose, Keiko; Ishijima, Konomi; Kawahara, Noriko; Lux, Erin J.; Murphy, Andrew; Kaliarntas, Konstantinos

2015-01-01

This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied, and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and ten Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of the mothers’ approach to their infants, as well as their infants’ collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up, and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in the Scottish mothers’ approach, but not in the Japanese mothers’ approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick-up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of the torso than Scottish mothers, who bent at the waist with larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mothers’ hands to their infants’ heads revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by the Scottish mothers than by the Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers’ body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at 6 months than at 9 months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. Thus, this paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of everyday interaction. PMID:25774139

Brain Basis of Early Parent-Infant Interactions: Psychology, Physiology, and "in vivo" Functional Neuroimaging Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swain, James E.; Lorberbaum, Jeffrey P.; Kose, Samet; Strathearn, Lane

2007-01-01

Parenting behavior critically shapes human infants' current and future behavior. The parent-infant relationship provides infants with their first social experiences, forming templates of what they can expect from others and how to best meet others' expectations. In this review, we focus on the neurobiology of parenting behavior, including our own…

45 CFR Appendix A to Part 1355 - Foster Care Data Elements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... behavior manifested during the development period that adversely affect a child's/youth's socialization and... need for alcohol. This element should include infants addicted at birth. Drug Abuse (Child)—Child's compulsive use of or need for narcotics. This element should include infants addicted at birth. Child's...

45 CFR Appendix A to Part 1355 - Foster Care Data Elements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... behavior manifested during the development period that adversely affect a child's/youth's socialization and... need for alcohol. This element should include infants addicted at birth. Drug Abuse (Child)—Child's compulsive use of or need for narcotics. This element should include infants addicted at birth. Child's...

45 CFR Appendix A to Part 1355 - Foster Care Data Elements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... behavior manifested during the development period that adversely affect a child's/youth's socialization and... need for alcohol. This element should include infants addicted at birth. Drug Abuse (Child)—Child's compulsive use of or need for narcotics. This element should include infants addicted at birth. Child's...

The Influence of Interactive Context on Prelinguistic Vocalizations and Maternal Responses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gros-Louis, Julie; West, Meredith J.; King, Andrew P.

2016-01-01

Many studies have documented influences of maternal responsiveness on cognitive and language development. Given the bidirectionality of interactions in caregiver-infant dyads, it is important to understand how infant behavior elicits variable responses. Prior studies have shown that mothers respond differentially to features of prelinguistic…

Looking Compensates for the Distance between Mother and Infant Chimpanzee

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okamoto-Barth, Sanae; Tanaka, Masayuki; Kawai, Nobuyuki; Tomonaga, Masaki

2007-01-01

The development of visual interaction between mother and infant has received much attention in developmental psychology, not only in humans, but also in non-human primates. Recently, comparative developmental approaches have investigated whether the mechanisms that underlie these behaviors are common in primates. In the present study, we focused…

The Effect of Sex Labels on Adults' Knowledge of Infant Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paludi, Michele, A.; Gullo, Dominic F.

1987-01-01

Adults indicated on questionnaires the age at which they believed infants were first able to perform various developmental skills. Some questionnaires asked about "boys," some about "girls," and some about "babies." Contrary to previous findings, sex labels did not affect adults' rating of behaviors. (Author/LHW)

"Tangible as tissue": Arnold Gesell, infant behavior, and film analysis.

PubMed

Curtis, Scott

2011-09-01

From 1924 to 1948, developmental psychologist Arnold Gesell regularly used photographic and motion picture technologies to collect data on infant behavior. The film camera, he said, records behavior "in such coherent, authentic and measurable detail that ... the reaction patterns of infant and child become almost as tangible as tissue." This essay places his faith in the fidelity and tangibility of film, as well as his use of film as evidence, in the context of developmental psychology's professed need for legitimately scientific observational techniques. It also examines his use of these same films as educational material to promote his brand of scientific child rearing. But his analytic techniques - his methods of extracting data from the film frames - are the key to understanding the complex relationship between his theories of development and his chosen research technology.

How infants and toddlers react to antisocial others

PubMed Central

Hamlin, J. Kiley; Wynn, Karen; Bloom, Paul; Mahajan, Neha

2011-01-01

Although adults generally prefer helpful behaviors and those who perform them, there are situations (in particular, when the target of an action is disliked) in which overt antisocial acts are seen as appropriate, and those who perform them are viewed positively. The current studies explore the developmental origins of this capacity for selective social evaluation. We find that although 5-mo-old infants uniformly prefer individuals who act positively toward others regardless of the status of the target, 8-mo-old infants selectively prefer characters who act positively toward prosocial individuals and characters who act negatively toward antisocial individuals. Additionally, young toddlers direct positive behaviors toward prosocial others and negative behaviors toward antisocial others. These findings constitute evidence that the nuanced social judgments and actions readily observable in human adults have their foundations in early developing cognitive mechanisms. PMID:22123953

A Descriptive Study of Mothers’ Experiences Feeding Their Preterm Infants After Discharge

PubMed Central

Reyna, Barbara A.; Pickler, Rita H.; Thompson, Alison

2013-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore mothers’ perceptions of their experiences in feeding their preterm infants in the early weeks after hospital discharge. Subjects Twenty-seven mothers whose preterm infants were part of a larger study of feeding readiness participated. Design A qualitative, descriptive approach was used to explore mothers’ experiences in feeding their preterm infants after hospital discharge. Methods A convenience sample of mothers of preterm infants were interviewed 2 to 3 weeks after hospital discharge. Data were generated by semi-structured interview and analyzed by searching for thematic patterns in the data. Mothers were asked to describe their experiences feeding their infants, their perceptions of how their infants’ feeding ability had changed since discharge, and the meanings they gave to these changes. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Agreement of themes between the investigators was achieved. Main Outcome Measures Three themes emerged from the interviews: interpreting infant behaviors, managing the feeding process, and realizing knowledge gaps. Principal Results Mothers struggle with infant feeding in the first few weeks after discharge and experience a period of transition before comfort develops. Conclusions Nursing interventions should include anticipatory guidance to mothers about feeding their infants after discharge and more concrete information regarding infant cues of hunger and satiation. Follow-up visits after discharge should include a review of the current feeding regimen, information regarding feeding progression, and reinforcement about changing infant behaviors as the preterm infant approaches 40 weeks postmenstrual age. PMID:17208164

Attachment behaviors in mothers of premature infants: a descriptive study in Thai mothers.

PubMed

Tilokskulchai, Fongcum; Phatthanasiriwethin, Sopida; Vichitsukon, Kannikar; Serisathien, Yaowalak

2002-12-01

Prematurity and the associated maternal-infant separation after birth can affect the attachment process. The role of nurses in facilitating the process of attachment should be based on an understanding of these behaviors. This descriptive study explored the attachment behaviors demonstrated by mothers during their first visit with their premature infant in the neonatal care unit. The results revealed that all mothers demonstrated most attachment behaviors (ie, inspection, facial expression, touching, verbal expression, and eye-to-eye contact) except holding during their first visit. However, some mothers spent little time with their infant. The findings suggest that nurses should encourage mothers to interact with their infants in order to enhance maternal-infant attachment.

Parental and Infant Gender Factors in Parent-Infant Interaction: State-Space Dynamic Analysis.

PubMed

Cerezo, M Angeles; Sierra-García, Purificación; Pons-Salvador, Gemma; Trenado, Rosa M

2017-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the influence of parental gender on their interaction with their infants, considering, as well, the role of the infant's gender. The State Space Grid (SSG) method, a graphical tool based on the non-linear dynamic system (NDS) approach was used to analyze the interaction, in Free-Play setting, of 52 infants, aged 6 to 10 months, divided into two groups: half of the infants interacted with their fathers and half with their mothers. There were 50% boys in each group. MANOVA results showed no differential parenting of boys and girls. Additionally, mothers and fathers showed no differences in the Diversity of behavioral dyadic states nor in Predictability. However, differences associated with parent's gender were found in that the paternal dyads were more "active" than the maternal dyads: they were faster in the rates per second of behavioral events and transitions or change of state. In contrast, maternal dyads were more repetitive because, once they visited a certain dyadic state, they tend to be involved in more events. Results showed a significant discriminant function on the parental groups, fathers and mothers. Specifically, the content analyses carried out for the three NDS variables, that previously showed differences between groups, showed particular dyadic behavioral states associated with the rate of Transitions and the Events per Visit ratio. Thus, the transitions involving 'in-out' of 'Child Social Approach neutral - Sensitive Approach neutral' state and the repetitions of events in the dyadic state 'Child Play-Sensitive Approach neutral' distinguished fathers from mothers. The classification of dyads (with fathers and mothers) based on this discriminant function identified 73.10% (19/26) of the father-infant dyads and 88.5% (23/26) of the mother-infant dyads. The study of father-infant interaction using the SSG approach offers interesting possibilities because it characterizes and quantifies the actual moment-to-moment flow of parent-infant interactive dynamics. Our findings showed how observational methods applied to natural contexts offer new facets in father vs. mother interactive behavior with their infants that can inform further developments in this field.

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure and Infant Cortisol Reactivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eiden, Rina D.; Veira, Yvette; Granger, Douglas A.

2009-01-01

This study examined the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and reactivity at 7 months of infant age. Participants were 168 caregiver-infant dyads (87 cocaine exposed, 81 not cocaine exposed; 47% boys). Maternal behavior, caregiving instability, and infant growth and behavior were assessed,…

Independent development of the Reach and the Grasp in spontaneous self-touching by human infants in the first 6 months.

PubMed

Thomas, Brittany L; Karl, Jenni M; Whishaw, Ian Q

2014-01-01

The Dual Visuomotor Channel Theory proposes that visually guided reaching is a composite of two movements, a Reach that advances the hand to contact the target and a Grasp that shapes the digits for target purchase. The theory is supported by biometric analyses of adult reaching, evolutionary contrasts, and differential developmental patterns for the Reach and the Grasp in visually guided reaching in human infants. The present ethological study asked whether there is evidence for a dissociated development for the Reach and the Grasp in nonvisual hand use in very early infancy. The study documents a rich array of spontaneous self-touching behavior in infants during the first 6 months of life and subjected the Reach movements to an analysis in relation to body target, contact type, and Grasp. Video recordings were made of resting alert infants biweekly from birth to 6 months. In younger infants, self-touching targets included the head and trunk. As infants aged, targets became more caudal and included the hips, then legs, and eventually the feet. In younger infants hand contact was mainly made with the dorsum of the hand, but as infants aged, contacts included palmar contacts and eventually grasp and manipulation contacts with the body and clothes. The relative incidence of caudal contacts and palmar contacts increased concurrently and were significantly correlated throughout the period of study. Developmental increases in self-grasping contacts occurred a few weeks after the increase in caudal and palmar contacts. The behavioral and temporal pattern of these spontaneous self-touching movements suggest that the Reach, in which the hand extends to make a palmar self-contact, and the Grasp, in which the digits close and make manipulatory movements, have partially independent developmental profiles. The results additionally suggest that self-touching behavior is an important developmental phase that allows the coordination of the Reach and the Grasp prior to and concurrent with their use under visual guidance.

Development of Using Experimenter-Given Cues in Infant Chimpanzees: Longitudinal Changes in Behavior and Cognitive Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okamoto-Barth, Sanae; Tomonaga, Masaki; Tanaka, Masayuki; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro

2008-01-01

The use of gaze shifts as social cues has various evolutionary advantages. To investigate the developmental processes of this ability, we conducted an object-choice task by using longitudinal methods with infant chimpanzees tested from 8 months old until 3 years old. The experimenter used one of six gestures towards a cup concealing food; tapping,…

Socioeconomic position, health behaviors, and racial disparities in cause-specific infant mortality in Michigan, USA

PubMed Central

El-Sayed, Abdulrahman M.; Finkton, Darryl W.; Paczkowski, Magdalena; Keyes, Katherine M.; Galea, Sandro

2015-01-01

Objectives Studies about racial disparities in infant mortality suggest that racial differences in socioeconomic position (SEP) and maternal risk behaviors explain some, but not all, excess infant mortality among Blacks relative to non-Hispanic Whites. We examined the contribution of these to disparities in specific causes of infant mortality. Methods We analyzed data about 2,087,191 mother–child dyads in Michigan between 1989 and 2005. First, we calculated crude Black–White infant mortality ratios independently and by specific cause of death. Second, we fit multivariable Poisson regression models of infant mortality, overall and by cause, adjusting for SEP and maternal risk behaviors. Third, Crude Black–White mortality ratios were compared to adjusted predicted probability ratios, overall and by specific cause. Results SEP and maternal risk behaviors explained nearly a third of the disparity in infant mortality overall, and over 25% of disparities in several specific causes including homicide, accident, sudden infant death syndrome, and respiratory distress syndrome. However, SEP and maternal risk behaviors had little influence on disparities in other specific causes, such as septicemia and congenital anomalies. Conclusions These findings help focus policy attention toward disparities in those specific causes of infant mortality most amenable to social and behavioral intervention, as well as research attention to disparities in specific causes unexplained by SEP and behavioral differences. PMID:25849882

Socioeconomic position, health behaviors, and racial disparities in cause-specific infant mortality in Michigan, USA.

PubMed

El-Sayed, Abdulrahman M; Finkton, Darryl W; Paczkowski, Magdalena; Keyes, Katherine M; Galea, Sandro

2015-07-01

Studies about racial disparities in infant mortality suggest that racial differences in socioeconomic position (SEP) and maternal risk behaviors explain some, but not all, excess infant mortality among Blacks relative to non-Hispanic Whites. We examined the contribution of these to disparities in specific causes of infant mortality. We analyzed data about 2,087,191 mother-child dyads in Michigan between 1989 and 2005. First, we calculated crude Black-White infant mortality ratios independently and by specific cause of death. Second, we fit multivariable Poisson regression models of infant mortality, overall and by cause, adjusting for SEP and maternal risk behaviors. Third, Crude Black-White mortality ratios were compared to adjusted predicted probability ratios, overall and by specific cause. SEP and maternal risk behaviors explained nearly a third of the disparity in infant mortality overall, and over 25% of disparities in several specific causes including homicide, accident, sudden infant death syndrome, and respiratory distress syndrome. However, SEP and maternal risk behaviors had little influence on disparities in other specific causes, such as septicemia and congenital anomalies. These findings help focus policy attention toward disparities in those specific causes of infant mortality most amenable to social and behavioral intervention, as well as research attention to disparities in specific causes unexplained by SEP and behavioral differences. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Psycho-Cognitive Intervention for ASD from Cross-Species Behavioral Analyses of Infants, Chicks and Common Marmosets.

PubMed

Koshiba, Mamiko; Karino, Genta; Mimura, Koki; Nakamura, Shun; Yui, Kunio; Kunikata, Tetsuya; Yamanouchi, Hideo

2016-01-01

Educational treatment to support social development of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an important topic in developmental psychiatry. However, it remains difficult to objectively quantify the socio-emotional development of ASD children. To address this problem, we developed a novel analytical method that assesses subjects' complex behaviors using multivariate analysis, 'Behavior Output analysis for Quantitative Emotional State Translation' (BOUQUET). Here, we examine the potential for psycho-cognitive ASD therapy based on comparative evaluations of clinical (human) and experimental (animal) models. Our observations of ASD children (vs. their normally developing siblings) and the domestic chick in socio-sensory deprivation models show the importance of unimodal sensory stimulation, particularly important for tactile- and auditory-biased socialization. Identifying psycho-cognitive elements in early neural development, human newborn infants in neonatal intensive care unit as well as a New World monkey, the common marmoset, also prompted us to focus on the development of voluntary movement against gravity. In summary, striking behavioral similarities between children with ASD and domestic chicks' socio-sensory deprivation models support the role of multimodal sensory-motor integration as a prerequisite step for normal development of socio-emotional and psycho-cognitive functions. Data obtained in the common marmoset model also suggest that switching from primitive anti-gravity reflexes to complex voluntary movement may be a critical milestone for psycho-cognitive development. Combining clinical findings with these animal models, and using multivariate integrative analyses may facilitate the development of effective interventions to improve social functions in infants and in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Mothers and Fathers with Binge Eating Disorder and Their 18-36 Months Old Children: A Longitudinal Study on Parent-Infant Interactions and Offspring's Emotional-Behavioral Profiles.

PubMed

Cimino, Silvia; Cerniglia, Luca; Porreca, Alessio; Simonelli, Alessandra; Ronconi, Lucia; Ballarotto, Giulia

2016-01-01

Maternal Binge Eating Disorder (BED) has been suggested to be associated with poor parent-infant interactions during feeding and with children's emotional and behavioral problems during infancy (Blissett and Haycraft, 2011). The role of fathers has received increasing consideration in recent years, yet the research has not focused on interactional patterns between fathers with BED and their children. The present study aimed to longitudinally investigate the influence of BED diagnosis, in one or both parents, on parent-infant feeding interactions and on children's emotional-behavioral functioning. 612 subjects (408 parents; 204 children), recruited in mental health services and pre-schools in Central Italy, were divided into four groups: Group 1 included families with both parents diagnosed with BED, Group 2 and 3 included families with one parent diagnosed with BED, Group 0 was a healthy control. The assessment took place at T1 (18 months of age of children) and T2 (36 months of age of children): feeding interactions were assessed through the Scale for the Assessment of Feeding Interactions (SVIA) while child emotional-behavioral functioning was evaluated with the Child Behavior Check-List (CBCL). When compared to healthy controls, the groups with one or both parents diagnosed with BED showed higher scores on the SVIA and on the CBCL internalizing and externalizing scales, indicating poorer adult-child feeding interactions and higher emotional-behavioral difficulties. A direct influence of parental psychiatric diagnosis on the quality of mother-infant and father-infant interactions was also found, both at T1 and T2. Moreover, dyadic feeding interactions mediated the influence of parental diagnosis on children's psychological functioning. The presence of BED diagnosis in one or both parents seems to influence the severity of maladaptive parent-infant exchanges during feeding and offspring's emotional-behavioral problems over time, consequently affecting different areas of children's psychological functioning. This is the first study to demonstrate the specific effects of maternal and paternal BED on infant development. These results could inform prevention and intervention programs in families with one or both parents diagnosed with BED.

Behavioral and developmental effects of preventing iron-deficiency anemia in healthy full-term infants.

PubMed

Lozoff, Betsy; De Andraca, Isidora; Castillo, Marcela; Smith, Julia B; Walter, Tomas; Pino, Paulina

2003-10-01

To determine the behavioral and developmental effects of preventing iron-deficiency anemia in infancy. Healthy full-term Chilean infants who were free of iron-deficiency anemia at 6 months were assigned to high- or low-iron groups or to high- or no-added-iron groups. Behavioral/developmental outcomes at 12 months of age included overall mental and motor test scores and specific measures of motor functioning, cognitive processing, and behavior. There were no differences between high- and low-iron groups in the prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia or behavioral/developmental outcome, and they were combined to form an iron-supplemented group (n = 1123) for comparison with the no-added-iron group (n = 534). At 12 months, iron-deficiency anemia was present in 3.1% and 22.6% of the supplemented and unsupplemented groups, respectively. The groups differed in specific behavioral/developmental outcomes but not on global test scores. Infants who did not receive supplemental iron processed information slower. They were less likely to show positive affect, interact socially, or check their caregivers' reactions. A smaller proportion of them resisted giving up toys and test materials, and more could not be soothed by words or objects when upset. They crawled somewhat later and were more likely to be tremulous. The results suggest that unsupplemented infants responded less positively to the physical and social environment. The observed differences seem to be congruent with current understanding of the effects of iron deficiency on the developing brain. The study shows that healthy full-term infants may receive developmental and behavioral benefits from iron supplementation in the first year of life.

Depressed mothers' infants are less responsive to faces and voices.

PubMed

Field, Tiffany; Diego, Miguel; Hernandez-Reif, Maria

2009-06-01

A review of our recent research suggests that infants of depressed mothers appeared to be less responsive to faces and voices as early as the neonatal period. At that time they have shown less orienting to the live face/voice stimulus of the Brazelton scale examiner and to their own and other infants' cry sounds. This lesser responsiveness has been attributed to higher arousal, less attentiveness and less "empathy." Their delayed heart rate decelerations to instrumental and vocal music sounds have also been ascribed to their delayed attention and/or slower processing. Later at 3-6 months they showed less negative responding to their mothers' non-contingent and still-face behavior, suggesting that they were more accustomed to this behavior in their mothers. The less responsive behavior of the depressed mothers was further compounded by their comorbid mood states of anger and anxiety and their difficult interaction styles including withdrawn or intrusive interaction styles and their later authoritarian parenting style. Pregnancy massage was effectively used to reduce prenatal depression and facilitate more optimal neonatal behavior. Interaction coaching was used during the postnatal period to help these dyads with their interactions and ultimately facilitate the infants' development.

Gaze Synchrony between Mothers with Mood Disorders and Their Infants: Maternal Emotion Dysregulation Matters.

PubMed

Lotzin, Annett; Romer, Georg; Schiborr, Julia; Noga, Berit; Schulte-Markwort, Michael; Ramsauer, Brigitte

2015-01-01

A lowered and heightened synchrony between the mother's and infant's nonverbal behavior predicts adverse infant development. We know that maternal depressive symptoms predict lowered and heightened mother-infant gaze synchrony, but it is unclear whether maternal emotion dysregulation is related to mother-infant gaze synchrony. This cross-sectional study examined whether maternal emotion dysregulation in mothers with mood disorders is significantly related to mother-infant gaze synchrony. We also tested whether maternal emotion dysregulation is relatively more important than maternal depressive symptoms in predicting mother-infant gaze synchrony, and whether maternal emotion dysregulation mediates the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant gaze synchrony. We observed 68 mothers and their 4- to 9-month-old infants in the Still-Face paradigm during two play interactions, before and after social stress was induced. The mothers' and infants' gaze behaviors were coded using microanalysis with the Maternal Regulatory Scoring System and Infant Regulatory Scoring System, respectively. The degree of mother-infant gaze synchrony was computed using time-series analysis. Maternal emotion dysregulation was measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory. Greater maternal emotion dysregulation was significantly related to heightened mother-infant gaze synchrony. The overall effect of maternal emotion dysregulation on mother-infant gaze synchrony was relatively more important than the effect of maternal depressive symptoms in the five tested models. Maternal emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant gaze synchrony. Our findings suggest that the effect of the mother's depressive symptoms on the mother-infant gaze synchrony may be mediated by the mother's emotion dysregulation.

Parental Reflective Functioning Moderates the Relationship between Difficult Temperament in Infancy and Behavior Problems in Toddlerhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Kristyn; Stacks, Ann M.; Rosenblum, Katherine L.; Muzik, Maria

2017-01-01

This study assessed the links between infant negative affect, parental reflective functioning (RF), and toddler behavior problems in a sample of 84 women and their infants. Mothers provided self-report demographic data and completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised during a home visit when the infant was 7 months old. They also completed…

Focused Attention, Heart Rate Deceleration, and Cognitive Development in Preterm and Full-Term Infants

PubMed Central

Petrie Thomas, Julianne H.; Whitfield, Michael F.; Oberlander, Tim F.; Synnes, Anne R.; Grunau, Ruth E.

2012-01-01

The majority of children who are born very preterm escape major impairment, yet more subtle cognitive and attention problems are very common in this population. Previous research has linked infant focused attention during exploratory play to later cognition in children born full-term and preterm. Infant focused attention can be indexed by sustained decreases in heart rate (HR). However there are no preterm studies that have jointly examined infant behavioral attention and concurrent HR response during exploratory play in relation to developing cognition. We recruited preterm infants free from neonatal conditions associated with major adverse outcomes, and further excluded infants with developmental delay (Bayley Mental Development Index [MDI < 70]) at 8 months corrected age (CA). During infant exploratory play at 8 months CA, focused attention and concurrent HR response were compared in 83 preterm infants (born 23–32 weeks gestational age [GA]) who escaped major impairment to 46 full-term infants. Focused attention and HR response were then examined in relation to Bayley MDI, after adjusting for neonatal risk. MDI did not differ by group, yet full-term infants displayed higher global focused attention ratings. Among the extremely preterm infants born <29 weeks, fewer days on mechanical ventilation, mean longest focus, and greater HR deceleration during focused attention episodes, accounted for 49% of adjusted variance in predicting concurrent MDI. There were no significant associations for later-born gestational age (29–32 weeks) or full-term infants. Among extremely preterm infants who escape major impairment, our findings suggest unique relationships between focused attention, HR deceleration, and developing cognition. PMID:22487941

Ethiopia Adolescents’ Attitudes and Expectations Deviate from Current Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations4

PubMed Central

Hadley, Craig; Lindstrom, David; Belachew, Tefera; Tessema, Fasil

2008-01-01

Purpose Sub-optimal infant and child feeding practices are highly prevalent in many developing countries for reasons that are not entirely understood. Taking an anthropological perspective, we assess whether nulliparous youth have formulated attitudes and expectations in the domain of infant and child feeding behaviors, the extent to which these varied by location and gender, and the extent to which they deviated from current international recommendations. Methods A population-based sample of 2077 adolescent girls and boys (13–17 years) in southwest Ethiopia answered a questionnaire on infant and young child feeding behaviors. Results Results indicate high levels of agreement among adolescents on items relating to infant and young child feeding behaviors. Attitudes and intentions deviated widely from current international recommendations. Youth overwhelmingly endorsed items related to early introduction of non-breast milk liquids and foods. For girls, fewer than 11% agreed that a 5 month infant should be exclusively breastfed and only 26% agreed that a 6 month infant should be consuming some animal source foods. Few sex differences emerged and youth responses matched larger community patterns. Conclusions The results indicate that attitudes and expectations deviate widely from current international child feeding guidelines among soon to be parents. To the extent that youth models are directive, these findings suggest that youth enter into parenthood with suboptimal information about infant and child feeding. Such information will reproduce poor health across generations as the largest cohort of adolescents ever become parents. These results suggest specific points of entry for adolescent nutrition education interventions. PMID:18710680

Adult separation anxiety and unsettled infant behavior: Associations with adverse parenting during childhood and insecure adult attachment.

PubMed

Kohlhoff, Jane; Barnett, Bryanne; Eapen, Valsamma

2015-08-01

This study examined the prevalence and correlates of Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD) and Adult Separation Anxiety (ASA) symptoms in a sample of first-time mothers with an unsettled infant during the first postpartum year. Eighty-three primiparous women admitted to a residential parent-infant program participated in a structured clinical interview for DSM-IV diagnosis and questionnaires assessing ASA symptoms, adult attachment and childhood parenting experiences. Nurses recorded infant behavior using 24-hour charts. The prevalence of ASAD in this sample was 19.3% and women with ASAD were, on average, more likely to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders, report aversive parenting experiences during childhood and show adult attachment style insecurity. Both ASAD and ASA symptoms were predicted by adult attachment anxiety, and ASAD was associated with unsettled infant behavior. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance mediated relations between parental over-control and ASAD diagnosis, and between parental abuse and ASAD diagnosis. Attachment anxiety mediated the relation between parental over-control and ASA symptoms, and attachment avoidance mediated the relations of parental over-control and parental abuse with ASA symptoms. This study highlights the prevalence of ASAD among first time mothers experiencing early parenting difficulties and the roles of childhood parenting experiences and adult attachment style in the development of the disorder. This points to the importance of introducing universal screening for ASAD in postnatal settings, and for the development of targeted interventions. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parent and Clinician Perspectives on Sustained Behavior Change after a Prenatal Obesity Program: A Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Gregory, Emily F; Goldshore, Matthew A; Showell, Nakiya N; Genies, Marquita C; Harding, Mariel E; Henderson, Janice L

2017-04-01

Infants of obese women are at a high risk for development of obesity. Prenatal interventions targeting gestational weight gain among obese women have not demonstrated consistent benefits for infant growth trajectories. To better understand why such programs may not influence infant growth, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 mothers who participated in a prenatal nutrition intervention for women with BMI 30 kg/m 2 or greater, and with 19 clinicians (13 pediatric, 6 obstetrical). Interviews were transcribed and coded with themes emerging inductively from the data, using a grounded theory approach. Mothers were interviewed a mean of 18 months postpartum and reported successful postnatal maintenance of behaviors that were relevant to the family food environment (Theme 1). Ambivalence around the importance of postnatal behavior maintenance (Theme 2) and enhanced postnatal healthcare (Theme 3) emerged as explanations for the failure of prenatal interventions to influence child growth. Mothers acknowledged their importance as role models for their children's behavior, but they often believed that body habitus was beyond their control. Though mothers attributed prenatal behavior change, in part, to additional support during pregnancy, clinicians had hesitations about providing children of obese parents with additional services postnatally. Both mothers and clinicians perceived a lack of interest or concern about infant growth during pediatric visits (Theme 4). Prenatal interventions may better influence childhood growth if paired with improved communication regarding long-term modifiable risks for children. The healthcare community should clarify a package of enhanced preventive services for children with increased risk of developing obesity.

Infant activity and sleep behaviors in a maternal and infant home visiting project among rural, Southern, African American women

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Background: Physical inactivity and inadequate amounts of sleep are two potential causes for excessive weight gain in infancy. Thus, parents and caregivers of infants need to be educated about decreasing infant sedentary behavior, increasing infant unrestrained floor time, as well as age specific r...

Wearable sensor systems for infants.

PubMed

Zhu, Zhihua; Liu, Tao; Li, Guangyi; Li, Tong; Inoue, Yoshio

2015-02-05

Continuous health status monitoring of infants is achieved with the development and fusion of wearable sensing technologies, wireless communication techniques and a low energy-consumption microprocessor with high performance data processing algorithms. As a clinical tool applied in the constant monitoring of physiological parameters of infants, wearable sensor systems for infants are able to transmit the information obtained inside an infant's body to clinicians or parents. Moreover, such systems with integrated sensors can perceive external threats such as falling or drowning and warn parents immediately. Firstly, the paper reviews some available wearable sensor systems for infants; secondly, we introduce the different modules of the framework in the sensor systems; lastly, the methods and techniques applied in the wearable sensor systems are summarized and discussed. The latest research and achievements have been highlighted in this paper and the meaningful applications in healthcare and behavior analysis are also presented. Moreover, we give a lucid perspective of the development of wearable sensor systems for infants in the future.

Wearable Sensor Systems for Infants

PubMed Central

Zhu, Zhihua; Liu, Tao; Li, Guangyi; Li, Tong; Inoue, Yoshio

2015-01-01

Continuous health status monitoring of infants is achieved with the development and fusion of wearable sensing technologies, wireless communication techniques and a low energy-consumption microprocessor with high performance data processing algorithms. As a clinical tool applied in the constant monitoring of physiological parameters of infants, wearable sensor systems for infants are able to transmit the information obtained inside an infant's body to clinicians or parents. Moreover, such systems with integrated sensors can perceive external threats such as falling or drowning and warn parents immediately. Firstly, the paper reviews some available wearable sensor systems for infants; secondly, we introduce the different modules of the framework in the sensor systems; lastly, the methods and techniques applied in the wearable sensor systems are summarized and discussed. The latest research and achievements have been highlighted in this paper and the meaningful applications in healthcare and behavior analysis are also presented. Moreover, we give a lucid perspective of the development of wearable sensor systems for infants in the future. PMID:25664432

Effectiveness of skin-to-skin contact versus care-as-usual in mothers and their full-term infants: study protocol for a parallel-group randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Cooijmans, Kelly H M; Beijers, Roseriet; Rovers, Anne C; de Weerth, Carolina

2017-07-06

Twenty-to-forty percent of women experience postpartum depressive symptoms, which can affect both the mother and infant. In preterm infants, daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between the mother and her infant has been shown to decrease maternal postpartum depressive symptoms. In full-term infants, only two studies investigated SSC effects on maternal depressive symptoms and found similar results. Research in preterm infants also showed that SSC improves other mental and physical health outcomes of the mother and the infant, and improves the quality of mother-infant relationship. This randomized controlled trial will investigate the effects of a SSC intervention on maternal postpartum depressive symptoms and additional outcomes in mothers and their full-term infants. Moreover, two potential underlying mechanisms for the relation between SSC and the maternal and infant outcomes will be examined, namely maternal oxytocin concentrations and infant intestinal microbiota. Design: A parallel-group randomized controlled trial. 116 mothers and their full-term infants. Mothers in the SSC condition will be requested to provide daily at least one continuous hour of SSC to their infant. The intervention starts immediately after birth and lasts for 5 weeks. Mothers in the control condition will not be requested to provide SSC. Maternal and infant outcomes will be measured at 2 weeks, 5 weeks, 12 weeks and 1 year after birth. maternal postpartum depressive symptoms. Secondary maternal outcomes: mental health (anxiety, stress, traumatic stress following child birth, sleep quality), physical health (physical recovery from the delivery, health, breastfeeding, physiological stress), mother-infant relationship (mother-infant bond, quality of maternal caregiving behavior). Secondary infant outcomes: behavior (fussing and crying, sleep quality), physical health (growth and health, physiological stress), general development (regulation capacities, social-emotional capacities, language, cognitive and motor capacities). Secondary underlying mechanisms: maternal oxytocin concentrations, infant intestinal microbiota. As a simple and cost-effective intervention, SSC may benefit both the mother and her full-term infant in the short-and long-term. Additionally, if SSC is shown to be effective in low-risk mother-infant dyads, then thought could be given to developing programs in high-risk samples and using SSC in a preventive manner. NTR5697 ; Registered on March 13, 2016.

Related visual impairment to mother-infant interaction and development in infants with bilateral retinoblastoma.

PubMed

Nagayoshi, Michie; Hirose, Taiko; Toju, Kyoko; Suzuki, Shigenobu; Okamitsu, Motoko; Teramoto, Taeko; Omori, Takahide; Kawamura, Aki; Takeo, Naoko

2017-06-01

This study was conducted with infants diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma (RB) and their mothers. It explored characteristics of the mother-infant interaction, the infants' developmental characteristics and related risk factors. Cross-sectional statistical analysis was performed with 18 dyads of one-year-old infants with bilateral RB and their mothers. Using the Japanese Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale (JNCATS) results showed that infants with RB had significantly lower scores compared to normative Japanese scores on all of the infants' subscales and "Child's contingency" (p < 0.01). Five infants with visual impairment at high risk of developmental problems had a pass rate of 0% on six JNCATS items. There were positive correlations between Developmental quotients (DQ) and JNCATS score of "Responsiveness to caregiver" (ρ = 0.50, p < 0.05) and DQ and "Child's contingency" (ρ = 0.47, p < 0.05). Infants with visual impairment were characterized by high likelihood of developmental delays and problematic behaviors; they tended not to turn their face or eyes toward their mothers, smile in response to their mothers' talking to them or the latter's changing body language or facial expressions, or react in a contingent manner in their interactions. These infant behaviors noted by their mothers shared similarities with developmental characteristics of children with visual impairments. These findings indicated a need to provide support promoting mother-infant interactions consistent with the developmental characteristics of RB infants with visual impairment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Maternal Physiological Dysregulation While Parenting Poses Risk for Infant Attachment Disorganization and Behavior Problems

PubMed Central

Leerkes, Esther M.; Su, Jinni; Calkins, Susan D.; O’Brien, Marion; Supple, Andrew J.

2017-01-01

The extent to which indices of maternal physiological arousal (skin conductance augmentation) and regulation (vagal withdrawal) while parenting predict infant attachment disorganization and behavior problems directly or indirectly via maternal sensitivity was examined in a sample of 259 mothers and their infants. Two covariates, maternal self-reported emotional risk and AAI attachment coherence were assessed prenatally. Mothers’ physiological arousal and regulation were measured during parenting tasks when infants were 6 months old. Maternal sensitivity was observed during distress-eliciting tasks when infants were 6 and 14 months old, and an average sensitivity score was calculated. Attachment disorganization was observed during the Strange Situation when infants were 14 months old and mothers reported on infants’ behavior problems when infants were 27 months old. Over and above covariates, mothers’ arousal and regulation while parenting interacted to predict infant attachment disorganization and behavior problems such that maternal arousal was associated with higher attachment disorganization and behavior problems when maternal regulation was low but not when maternal regulation was high. This effect was direct and not explained by maternal sensitivity. Results suggest that maternal physiological dysregulation while parenting places infants at risk for psychopathology. PMID:26902983

A Psychoneuroimmunologic Examination of Cumulative Perinatal Steroid Exposures and Preterm Infant Behavioral Follow-Up

PubMed Central

Purdy, Isabell B.; Smith, Lynne; Wiley, Dorothy; Badr, Lina

2014-01-01

Purpose This study’s aim was to explore relationships between preterm infant behavioral outcomes and maternal/infant glucocorticoid (dexamethasone [DEX]) treatments using a psychoneuroimmunologic approach. Research questions were (a) do relationships exist between infant cumulative perinatal steroid (PNS) exposure and child behavioral problems? and (b) do maternal/infant characteristics (e.g., immune markers and biophysiologic stressors) influence these relationships? Methods The convenience sample comprised 45 mother–child dyads in which the children (mean age 8 years ± 2.3) had been born at a mean postconceptional age of 28 weeks (± 4.2). We used the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to assess behavior, the Clinical Risk Index for Babies (CRIB) to score stress at birth, and retrospective record review to identify additional perinatal factors (PNS dosage, sepsis, and maternal and infant complete blood counts near delivery). Results Children were dichotomized into high (> 0.2mg/kg; n = 20) versus low–no (≤ 0.2 mg/kg; n = 25) PNS exposure groups. Significant relationships existed between CBCL Total Problems score and sepsis, PNS exposure, timing of initial PNS, and infant length percentile at discharge. Competence problems were significantly associated with PNS, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) infant length percentile, CRIB score, sepsis, retinopathy of prematurity, hearing deficit, and immunity markers (i.e., maternal lymphocyte percentage and infant band/seg ratio). Children in the higher PNS group exhibited more behavioral problems (e.g., withdrawn, attention, conduct, social, and rule breaking problems), but there were no significant differences. The findings are reassuring regarding long-term effects of this PNS dose on preterm infant behavioral outcomes. PMID:21900308

The effect of postnatal depression on mother-infant interaction, infant response to the Still-face perturbation, and performance on an Instrumental Learning task.

PubMed

Stanley, Charles; Murray, Lynne; Stein, Alan

2004-01-01

A representative community sample of primiparous depressed women and a nondepressed control group were assessed while in interaction with their infants at 2 months postpartum. At 3 months, infants were assessed on the Still-face perturbation of face to face interaction, and a subsample completed an Instrumental Learning paradigm. Compared to nondepressed women, depressed mothers' interactions were both less contingent and less affectively attuned to infant behavior. Postnatal depression did not adversely affect the infant's performance in either the Still-face perturbation or the Instrumental Learning assessment. Maternal responsiveness in interactions at 2 months predicted the infant's performance in the Instrumental Learning assessment but not in the Still-face perturbation. The implications of these findings for theories of infant cognitive and emotional development are discussed.

Maternal Employment Effects on Families and Preterm Infants at 18 Months

PubMed Central

YOUNGBLUT, JoANNE M.; LOVELAND-CHERRY, CAROL J.; HORAN, MARY

1994-01-01

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of maternal employment, maternal employment attitude/behavior consistency, and degree of choice and satisfaction with the employment decision on family functioning and preterm infant development and to describe changes in family functioning over time. Data were collected in the family’s home (N = 79) when the infant was 3, 9, and 18 months old. Parents in nonemployed-mother families were more satisfied with their families at 18 months than parents in employed-mother families. Decreases in family cohesion and/or adaptability from 9 to 18 months were seen for fathers in employed-mother families, for mothers in nonemployed-mother families, and for mothers in families where the mother’s employment attitudes and behaviors were consistent. Degree of choice was positively related to the child’s mental development, mother’s perception of family cohesion, and mother’s and father’s satisfaction with family. PMID:7971296

Attachment in the Making: Mother and Father Sensitivity and Infants’ Responses during the Still-Face Paradigm

PubMed Central

Braungart-Rieker, Julia M.; Zentall, Shannon; Lickenbrock, Diane M.; Ekas, Naomi V.; Oshio, Toko; Planalp, Elizabeth

2014-01-01

This study examined the extent to which infant and parent response trajectories during the Still-Face-Paradigm (SFP) in early infancy predicted later infant-mother and infant-father attachment. Families (n = 135) participated in the SFP when infants were 3, 5, and 7 months and the Strange Situation when infants were 12 (mothers) and 14 months (fathers). Multilevel models showed that parent sensitivity assessed during the SFP was related to infants’ affective and behavioral response trajectories during the SFP, and that sensitivity and infant response trajectories predicted attachment. Results from the present study support the notion that parent and infant responses in the SFP with mothers and fathers during Bowlby’s Attachment in the Making phase provide insight into the developing parent-child attachment relationship. PMID:24833270

The effect of music-reinforced nonnutritive sucking on state of preterm, low birthweight infants experiencing heelstick.

PubMed

Whipple, Jennifer

2008-01-01

This study examined the physiologic and behavioral effects of music-reinforced nonnutritive sucking (NNS) for preterm, low birthweight (LBW) infants experiencing heelstick. Subjects were 60 infants, age 32 to 37 weeks post conceptional age in a neonatal intensive care unit. Infants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: pacifier-activated lullaby (PAL), pacifier-only, and no-contact. Experimental infants were provided the Sondrex PAL System, which plays music contingent on infant sucking. Pacifier-only infants did not receive music reinforcement for sucking, and no-contact infants were not provided a pacifier or music at any point during the procedure. Stress level and behavior state were assessed continuously and heart, respiratory, and oxygen saturation rates were recorded at 15-second intervals for all infants. Most physiologic data results were inconclusive. However, analysis of behavior state and stress level revealed the following significant differences for the PAL and pacifier-only groups compared to the no-contact group, all of which were greatest between the PAL and no-contact groups: lower during-heelstick behavior state means, less time in undesirable behavior states, lower during- and post-heelstick stress level means, and smaller behavior state and stress level differences between intervals. In addition, the PAL group had a significantly lower pre-heelstick stress level mean than the no-contact group. Behavior state and stress level were also more stable across time for the PAL group than the other groups, and patterns of changes in oxygen saturation, behavior state, and stress level indicate that music-reinforced NNS may facilitate return to homeostasis.

Toddlers' Differential Susceptibility to the Effects of Coparenting on Social-Emotional Adjustment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altenburger, Lauren E.; Lang, Sarah N.; Schoppe-Sullivan, Sarah J.; Kamp Dush, Claire M.; Johnson, Susan

2017-01-01

The paper reports on a study which tested whether infants high in negative affectivity are differentially susceptible to observed coparenting behavior in relation to their subsequent social-emotional development. Data came from a longitudinal study of 182 US dual-earner, primiparous couples and their infant children. At nine-months postpartum,…

Magnetic Resonance Imaging--Insights into Brain Injury and Outcomes in Premature Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathur, Amit; Inder, Terrie

2009-01-01

Preterm birth is a major public-health issue because of its increasing incidence combined with the frequent occurrence of subsequent behavioral, neurological, and psychiatric challenges faced by surviving infants. Approximately 10-15% of very preterm children (born less than 30 weeks gestational age) develop cerebral palsy, and 30-60% of them…

Neural Correlates of Human and Monkey Face Processing in 9-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Lisa S.; Shannon, Robert W.; Nelson, Charles A.

2006-01-01

Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence suggests a gradual, experience-dependent specialization of cortical face processing systems that takes place largely in the 1st year of life. To further investigate these findings, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected from typically developing 9-month-old infants presented with pictures of…

Family Connections Early Start, No. 1-10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AEL, Inc., Charleston, WV.

This series of 10 booklets provides information to new parents on their infants' behavior and development. The topics covered in the four-page booklets are: (1) "Welcome to the World of Babies," including information on infants' communication, baby books, and developmental milestones from birth to 9 months; (2) "Language: All about Communication,"…

Continuity and Change in the Measurement of Infant Attachment: Comment on Fraley and Spieker (2003).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cassidy, Jude

2003-01-01

Highlights usefulness of the categorical approach to measuring infant attachment by reviewing some major advances in the field that have been fostered by that approach. Advances include identification of the disorganized attachment group, development of the concept of conditional behavior strategies, creation of systems for coding attachment…

Studying Cross-Cultural Differences in Temperament in the First Year of Life: United States and Italy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montirosso, Rosario; Cozzi, Patrizia; Putnam, Samuel P.; Gartstein, Maria A.; Borgatti, Renato

2011-01-01

An Italian translation of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) was developed and evaluated with 110 infants, demonstrating satisfactory internal consistency, discriminant validity, and construct validity in the form of gender and age differences, as well as factorial integrity. Cross-cultural differences were subsequently evaluated…

Work Characteristics and Fathers' Vocabulary to Infants in African American Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pancsofar, Nadya; Vernon-Feagans, Lynne; Odom, Erika C.

2013-01-01

Fathers' vocabulary to infants has been linked in the literature to early child language development, however, little is known about the variability in fathers' language behavior. This study considered associations between fathers' work characteristics and fathers' vocabulary among a sample of employed African American fathers of 6-month-old…

Infants' and Mothers' Vagal Reactivity in Response to Anger

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Ginger A.

2009-01-01

Background: Exposure to anger in the family is a risk factor for disruptive behavior disorders characterized by ineffective vagal regulation. Effects of anger on developing vagal regulation may be due to direct exposure or to effects on parents' regulation of emotion as parents support infants' regulation. Little is known about the impact of anger…

A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants.

PubMed

Cruz-Garza, Jesus G; Hernandez, Zachery R; Tse, Teresa; Caducoy, Eunice; Abibullaev, Berdakh; Contreras-Vidal, Jose L

2015-10-04

Understanding typical and atypical development remains one of the fundamental questions in developmental human neuroscience. Traditionally, experimental paradigms and analysis tools have been limited to constrained laboratory tasks and contexts due to technical limitations imposed by the available set of measuring and analysis techniques and the age of the subjects. These limitations severely limit the study of developmental neural dynamics and associated neural networks engaged in cognition, perception and action in infants performing "in action and in context". This protocol presents a novel approach to study infants and young children as they freely organize their own behavior, and its consequences in a complex, partly unpredictable and highly dynamic environment. The proposed methodology integrates synchronized high-density active scalp electroencephalography (EEG), inertial measurement units (IMUs), video recording and behavioral analysis to capture brain activity and movement non-invasively in freely-behaving infants. This setup allows for the study of neural network dynamics in the developing brain, in action and context, as these networks are recruited during goal-oriented, exploration and social interaction tasks.

Longitudinal relations among maternal depressive symptoms, maternal mind-mindedness, and infant attachment behavior.

PubMed

Bigelow, Ann E; Beebe, Beatrice; Power, Michelle; Stafford, Anna-Lee; Ewing, Julie; Egleson, Anna; Kaminer, Tammy

2018-05-01

The relations among maternal depression risk, maternal mind-mindedness, and infants' attachment behavior were longitudinally examined in a community sample of mother-infant dyads. Maternal self-reported depression risk was measured at the infant ages of 6 weeks, 4 months, and 12 months. Maternal mind-mindedness, assessed from mothers' comments about infants' mental states (e.g., infants' thoughts, desires, or emotions), was measured during mother-infant interactions when infants were 4 months. Infants' attachment behavior was assessed at one year. Mothers' depression risk decreased over the infants' first year, with the sharpest decline between 6 weeks and 4 months. Mothers at risk for depression when infants were 6 weeks showed less appropriate mind-mindedness at 4 months. Mind-mindedness was not related to maternal depression risk at the infant age of 4 months or 12 months. Infants' degree of disorganized attachment behavior at one year was positively associated with maternal depression risk at 6 weeks and negatively associated with maternal appropriate mind-mindedness at 4 months. Mothers who are at risk for depression in their infants' early lives may be hampered in their capacity to respond appropriately to their infants' mental states. Infants with mothers who have difficulty responding appropriately to their mental states, as suggested by low appropriate mind-mindedness, may feel less known and recognized by their mothers, a key theme in the origins of disorganized attachment. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Vibration-Induced Motor Responses of Infants With and Without Myelomeningocele

PubMed Central

Teulier, Caroline; Smith, Beth A.; Kim, Byungji; Beutler, Benjamin D.; Martin, Bernard J.; Ulrich, Beverly D.

2012-01-01

Background The severity of myelomeningocele (MMC) stems both from a loss of neurons due to neural tube defect and a loss of function in viable neurons due to reduced movement experience during the first year after birth. In young infants with MMC, the challenge is to reinforce excitability and voluntary control of all available neurons. Muscle vibration paired with voluntary movement may increase motoneuron excitability and contribute to improvements in neural organization, responsiveness, and control. Objectives This study examined whether infants with or without MMC respond to vibration by altering their step or stance behavior when supported upright on a treadmill. Design This was a cross-sectional study. Methods Twenty-four 2- to 10-month-old infants, 12 with typical development (TD) and 12 with MMC (lumbar and sacral lesions), were tested. Infants were supported upright with their feet in contact with a stationary or moving treadmill during 30-second trials. Rhythmic alternating vibrations were applied to the right and left rectus femoris muscles, the lateral gastrocnemius muscle, or the sole of the foot. Two cameras and behavior coding were used to determine step count, step type, and motor response to vibration onset. Results Step count decreased and swing duration increased in infants with TD during vibration of the sole of the foot on a moving treadmill (FT-M trials). Across all groups the percentage of single steps increased during vibration of the lateral gastrocnemius muscle on a moving treadmill. Infants with MMC and younger infants with TD responded to onset of vibration with leg straightening during rectus femoris muscle stimulation and by stepping during FT-M trials more often than older infants with TD. Conclusions Vibration seems a viable option for increasing motor responsiveness in infants with MMC. Follow-up studies are needed to identify optimal methods of administering vibration to maximize step and stance behavior in infants. PMID:22228610

Effects of Maternal Anxiety Disorders on Infant Self-Comforting Behaviors: The Role of Maternal Bonding, Infant Gender and Age.

PubMed

Müller, Mitho; Tronick, Ed; Zietlow, Anna-Lena; Nonnenmacher, Nora; Verschoor, Stephan; Träuble, Birgit

We investigated the links between maternal bonding, maternal anxiety disorders, and infant self-comforting behaviors. Furthermore, we looked at the moderating roles of infant gender and age. Our sample (n = 69) comprised 28 mothers with an anxiety disorder (according to DSM-IV criteria) and 41 controls, each with their 2.5- to 8-month-old infant (41 females and 28 males). Infant behaviors were recorded during the Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm. Maternal bonding was assessed by the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire. Conditional process analyses revealed that lower maternal bonding partially mediated between maternal anxiety disorders and increased self-comforting behaviors but only in older female infants (over 5.5 months of age). However, considering maternal anxiety disorders without the influence of bonding, older female infants (over 5.5 months of age) showed decreased rates of self-comforting behaviors, while younger male infants (under 3 months of age) showed increased rates in the case of maternal anxiety disorder. The results suggest that older female infants (over 5.5 months of age) are more sensitive to lower maternal bonding in the context of maternal anxiety disorders. Furthermore, results suggest a different use of self-directed regulation strategies for male and female infants of mothers with anxiety disorders and low bonding, depending on infant age. The results are discussed in the light of gender-specific developmental trajectories. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Interactive Behaviors of Ethnic Minority Mothers and their Premature Infants

PubMed Central

Brooks, Jada L.; Holditch-Davis, Diane; Landerman, Lawrence R.

2013-01-01

Objective To compare the interactive behaviors of American Indian mothers and their premature infants with those of African American mothers and their premature infants. Design Descriptive, comparative study. Setting Three neonatal intensive care units and two pediatric clinics in the southeast. Participants Seventy-seven mother-infant dyads: 17 American Indian mother-infant dyads and 60 African American mother-infant dyads. Methods Videotapes of mother-infant interactions and the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) were used to assess the interactions of the mothers and their premature infants at six months corrected age. Results American Indian mothers looked more, gestured more, and were more often the primary caregivers to their infants than the African American mothers. American Indian infants expressed more positive affect and gestured more to their mothers, whereas African American infants engaged in more non-negative vocalization toward their mothers. African American mothers scored higher on the HOME subscales of provision of appropriate play materials and parental involvement with the infant. American Indian mothers scored higher on the opportunities for variety in daily living subscale. Conclusion Although many of the interactive behaviors of American Indian and African American mother-infant dyads were similar, some differences did occur. Clinicians need to be aware of the cultural differences in mother-infant interactions. To optimize child developmental outcomes, nurses need to support mothers in their continuation or adoption of positive interactive behaviors. PMID:23682698

Gentle Human Touch and Yakson: The Effect on Preterm's Behavioral Reactions

PubMed Central

Bahman Bijari, Bahare; Iranmanesh, Sedigheh; Eshghi, Fateme; Baneshi, Mohammad Reza

2012-01-01

Objective. Touch is one of the first strong positive senses that develop in neonate. Therapeutic touch could be considered as a complementary treatment in Neonate intensive care units (NICU). Methods. This quasi-experimental study was conducted to compare the effect of Yakson and GHT on behavioral reaction of preterm infants hospitalized in NICU in south-east of Iran. 90 preterm infants participated in this study. They are randomly divided into 3 groups: (1) Yakson group, n = 30, (2) GHT group, n = 30, (3) control group, n = 30. Each infant received the GHT and Yakson interventions twice a day for 5 days. Each session lasted 15 minutes. The control group received routine nursing care. Results. In interventional group, an increase was found in sleep state score after the Yakson and GHT intervention. Their awake and fussy states' scores decreased after both interventions. No significant difference was found between Yakson and GHT group in their behavioral state scores. Conclusion. The findings suggest that Yakson and GHT had soothing and calming effect on preterm infants and could be beneficial in nursing interventions. PMID:22792482

Dyssynchrony and perinatal psychopathology impact of child disease on parents-child interactions, the paradigm of Prader Willi syndrom.

PubMed

Viaux-Savelon, Sylvie; Rosenblum, Ouriel; Guedeney, Antoine; Diene, Gwenaelle; Çabal-Berthoumieu, Sophie; Fichaux-Bourin, Pascale; Molinas, Catherine; Faye, Sandy; Valette, Marion; Bascoul, Céline; Cohen, David; Tauber, Maïthé

2016-11-01

Infant-mother interaction is a set of bidirectional processes, where the baby is not only affected by the influences of his caregiver, but is also at the origin of considerable modifications. The recent discovery of biological correlates of synchrony during interaction validated its crucial value during child development. Here, we focus on the paradigmatic case of Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) where early endocrinal dysfunction is associated with severe hypotonia and early feeding disorder. As a consequence, parent-infant interaction is impaired. In a recent study (Tauber et al., 2017), OXT intranasal infusion was able to partially reverse the feeding phenotype, infant's behavior and brain connectivity. This article details the interaction profile found during feeding in these dyads and their improvement after OXT treatment. Eighteen infants (≤6months) with PWS were recruited and hospitalized 9days in a French reference center for PWS where they were treated with a short course of intranasal OXT. Social withdrawal behavior and mother-infant interaction were assessed on videos of feeding before and after treatment using the Alarm Distress Baby (ADBB) Scale and the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) Scale. Raters were blind to treatment status. At baseline, infants with PWS showed hypotonia, low expressiveness of affects, fatigability and poor involvement in the relationship with severe withdrawal. Parents tended to adapt to their child difficulties, but the interaction was perturbed, tense, restricted and frequently intrusive with a forcing component during the feeding situation. After OXT treatment, infants were more alert, less fatigable, more expressive, and had less social withdrawal. They initiated mutual activities and were more engaged in relationships through gaze, behavior, and vocalizations. They had a better global tonicity with better handling. These modifications helped the parents to be more sensitive and the synchrony of the dyad was in a positive transactional spiral. Dys-synchrony can be induced by children's pathology as well as parental pathology with emotional and developmental impact in the both cases. The PWS paradigm shows us the necessity to sustain early parents-child relationship to avoid establishment of a negative transactional pattern of interaction that can impact child's development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An analysis of attitude toward infant sleep safety and SIDS risk reduction behavior among caregivers of newborns and infants.

PubMed

Varghese, S; Gasalberti, D; Ahern, K; Chang, J C

2015-11-01

To explore beliefs and attitude toward infant sleep safety and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) risk reduction behaviors among caregivers of newborns and infants. A convenience sample comprised of 121 caregivers of newborns at Staten Island University Hospital completed a questionnaire. Despite an overall favorable attitude toward safe sleep practices, a majority disagreed with use of pacifiers (53%) and believed that swaddling (62%) as well as the use of home monitors (59%) are acceptable practices. The caregivers who recalled being taught about safe sleep had higher perception of infant vulnerability (P<0.001), more confidence in their ability to implement safe sleep behaviors (P<0.0006) and stronger belief that safe sleep behaviors are effective (P<0.01). Active caregiver education may result in more effective demonstration of safe sleep and SIDS risk reduction behaviors. Further study is needed to assess if favorable attitudes toward safe sleep practices correlate with actual demonstrated behaviors.

Promoting mother-infant interaction and infant mental health in low-income Korean families: attachment-based cognitive behavioral approach.

PubMed

Lee, Gyungjoo; McCreary, Linda; Breitmayer, Bonnie; Kim, Mi Ja; Yang, Soo

2013-10-01

This study evaluated the attachment-based cognitive behavioral approach (ACBA) to enhance mother-infant interaction and infant mental health. This quasi-experimental study used a pre-posttest control group design. Participants were 40 low-income, mother-infant (infant ages 12-36 months) dyads, 20 dyads per group. The ACBA group received 10 weekly 90-min sessions. Dependent variables were changes in mother-infant interaction and infant mental health. Additionally, we explored changes in mothers' attachment security. The groups differed significantly in changes in mother-infant interaction, infant mental health problems, and mothers' attachment security. ACBA may enhance mother-infant interaction and infants' mental health. © 2013, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Perceived Maternal Behavioral Control, Infant Behavior, and Milk Supply: A Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Peacock-Chambers, Elizabeth; Dicks, Kaitlin; Sarathy, Leela; Brown, Allison A; Boynton-Jarrett, Renée

Disparities persist in breastfeeding exclusivity and duration despite increases in breastfeeding initiation. The objective of this study was to examine factors that influence maternal decision making surrounding infant feeding practices over time in a diverse inner-city population. We conducted a prospective qualitative study with 20 mothers recruited from 2 urban primary care clinics. Participants completed open-ended interviews and demographic questionnaires in English or Spanish administered at approximately 2 weeks and 6 months postpartum. Transcripts were analyzed using a combined technique of inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior) thematic analysis using 3 independent coders and iterative discussion to reach consensus. All women initiated breastfeeding, and 65% reported perceived insufficient milk (PIM). An association between PIM and behavioral control emerged as the overarching theme impacting early breastfeeding cessation and evolved over time. Early postpartum, PIM evoked maternal distress-strong emotional responses to infant crying and need to control infant behaviors. Later, mothers accepted a perceived lack of control over milk supply with minimal distress or as a natural process. Decisions to stop breastfeeding occurred through an iterative process, informed by trials of various strategies and observations of subsequent changes in infant behavior, strongly influenced by competing psychosocial demands. Infant feeding decisions evolve over time and are influenced by perceptions of control over infant behavior and milk supply. Tailored anticipatory guidance is needed to provide time-sensitive strategies to cope with challenging infant behaviors and promote maternal agency over breastfeeding in low-income populations.

Gaze Synchrony between Mothers with Mood Disorders and Their Infants: Maternal Emotion Dysregulation Matters

PubMed Central

Lotzin, Annett; Romer, Georg; Schiborr, Julia; Noga, Berit; Schulte-Markwort, Michael; Ramsauer, Brigitte

2015-01-01

A lowered and heightened synchrony between the mother’s and infant’s nonverbal behavior predicts adverse infant development. We know that maternal depressive symptoms predict lowered and heightened mother-infant gaze synchrony, but it is unclear whether maternal emotion dysregulation is related to mother-infant gaze synchrony. This cross-sectional study examined whether maternal emotion dysregulation in mothers with mood disorders is significantly related to mother-infant gaze synchrony. We also tested whether maternal emotion dysregulation is relatively more important than maternal depressive symptoms in predicting mother-infant gaze synchrony, and whether maternal emotion dysregulation mediates the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant gaze synchrony. We observed 68 mothers and their 4- to 9-month-old infants in the Still-Face paradigm during two play interactions, before and after social stress was induced. The mothers’ and infants’ gaze behaviors were coded using microanalysis with the Maternal Regulatory Scoring System and Infant Regulatory Scoring System, respectively. The degree of mother-infant gaze synchrony was computed using time-series analysis. Maternal emotion dysregulation was measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory. Greater maternal emotion dysregulation was significantly related to heightened mother-infant gaze synchrony. The overall effect of maternal emotion dysregulation on mother-infant gaze synchrony was relatively more important than the effect of maternal depressive symptoms in the five tested models. Maternal emotion dysregulation fully mediated the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant gaze synchrony. Our findings suggest that the effect of the mother’s depressive symptoms on the mother-infant gaze synchrony may be mediated by the mother’s emotion dysregulation. PMID:26657941

Five-year follow-up of harms and benefits of behavioral infant sleep intervention: randomized trial.

PubMed

Price, Anna M H; Wake, Melissa; Ukoumunne, Obioha C; Hiscock, Harriet

2012-10-01

Randomized trials have demonstrated the short- to medium-term effectiveness of behavioral infant sleep interventions. However, concerns persist that they may harm children's emotional development and subsequent mental health. This study aimed to determine long-term harms and/or benefits of an infant behavioral sleep program at age 6 years on (1) child, (2) child-parent, and (3) maternal outcomes. Three hundred twenty-six children (173 intervention) with parent-reported sleep problems at age 7 months were selected from a population sample of 692 infants recruited from well-child centers. The study was a 5-year follow-up of a population-based cluster-randomized trial. Allocation was concealed and researchers (but not parents) were blinded to group allocation. Behavioral techniques were delivered over 1 to 3 individual nurse consultations at infant age 8 to 10 months, versus usual care. The main outcomes measured were (1) child mental health, sleep, psychosocial functioning, stress regulation; (2) child-parent relationship; and (3) maternal mental health and parenting styles. Two hundred twenty-five families (69%) participated. There was no evidence of differences between intervention and control families for any outcome, including (1) children's emotional (P = .8) and conduct behavior scores (P = .6), sleep problems (9% vs 7%, P = .2), sleep habits score (P = .4), parent- (P = .7) and child-reported (P = .8) psychosocial functioning, chronic stress (29% vs 22%, P = .4); (2) child-parent closeness (P = .1) and conflict (P = .4), global relationship (P = .9), disinhibited attachment (P = .3); and (3) parent depression, anxiety, and stress scores (P = .9) or authoritative parenting (63% vs 59%, P = .5). Behavioral sleep techniques have no marked long-lasting effects (positive or negative). Parents and health professionals can confidently use these techniques to reduce the short- to medium-term burden of infant sleep problems and maternal depression.

Consistency in infants’ behavioral signaling of satiation during bottle-feeding

PubMed Central

Ventura, Alison K.; Inamdar, Loma B.; Mennella, Julie A.

2014-01-01

Objectives Understanding the dynamics of feeding is essential for preventing accelerated weight gain during infancy, a risk factor for obesity. Because infants satiate on larger volumes of cow milk formula (CMF) than CMF enriched with the free amino acid glutamate (CMF+glu), we used this model system to determine whether infants displayed consistent behaviors despite satiating on lower volumes. Methods In this laboratory-based, within-subject experimental study of ≤4-month-old infants (N=41) and their mothers, infants were videotaped while feeding to satiation CMF on one test day and CMF+glu on the other, in counterbalanced order. Each video-recording was analyzed frame-by-frame for frequency and timing of behaviors. Results Infants’ behaviors were consistent in types and frequency but were displayed sooner when feeding CMF+glu compared with CMF. The less responsive the mother’s feeding style, the less consistently the infant displayed behaviors across the two formula meals (p=0.05). Infants who spat up (a possible sign of overfeeding) consumed more formula (p=0.01) and had less responsive mothers (p=0.04) compared with the other infants. Conclusions Infants are consistent in their behavioral displays during feeding at this developmental age. Regulation of intake and signaling of satiation during bottle-feeding are associated with formula composition and maternal feeding style. PMID:24990443

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females.

PubMed

Yin, Lijun; Fan, Mingxia; Lin, Lijia; Sun, Delin; Wang, Zhaoxin

2017-01-01

Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, the efforts invested in nurturing offspring. The underlying neural mechanisms of processing unknown infant faces provide hints for understanding behavioral differences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study recruited 32 unmarried adult (16 females and 16 males) participants to view unfamiliar infant faces and rate the attractiveness. Adult faces were also included. Behaviorally, despite that females and males showed no differences in attractiveness ratings of infant faces, a positive correlation was found between female's (but not male's) subjective liking for infants and attractiveness ratings of the infant faces. Functionally, brain activations to infant faces were modulated by attractiveness differently in males and females. Specifically, in female participants, activities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum/Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) were positively modulated by infant facial attractiveness, and the modulation coefficients of these two regions were positively correlated. In male participants, infant facial attractiveness negatively modulated the activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Our findings reveal that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of infant faces, which might lead to observed behavioral differences between males and females towards the baby.

Attractiveness Modulates Neural Processing of Infant Faces Differently in Males and Females

PubMed Central

Yin, Lijun; Fan, Mingxia; Lin, Lijia; Sun, Delin; Wang, Zhaoxin

2017-01-01

Consistent attention and proper processing of infant faces by adults are essential for infant survival. Previous behavioral studies showed gender differences in processing infant cues (e.g., crying, laughing or facial attractiveness) and more importantly, the efforts invested in nurturing offspring. The underlying neural mechanisms of processing unknown infant faces provide hints for understanding behavioral differences. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study recruited 32 unmarried adult (16 females and 16 males) participants to view unfamiliar infant faces and rate the attractiveness. Adult faces were also included. Behaviorally, despite that females and males showed no differences in attractiveness ratings of infant faces, a positive correlation was found between female’s (but not male’s) subjective liking for infants and attractiveness ratings of the infant faces. Functionally, brain activations to infant faces were modulated by attractiveness differently in males and females. Specifically, in female participants, activities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum/Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) were positively modulated by infant facial attractiveness, and the modulation coefficients of these two regions were positively correlated. In male participants, infant facial attractiveness negatively modulated the activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Our findings reveal that different neural mechanisms are involved in the processing of infant faces, which might lead to observed behavioral differences between males and females towards the baby. PMID:29184490

Siblings and the Development of Prosocial Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunn, Judy; Munn, Penny

1986-01-01

Examines the capability and motivation of 18- and 24-month-old infants to share, help, comfort, and cooperate with their older siblings; the frequency of such prosocial behavior by both siblings; and the children's response to sibling distress. The relationship between prosocial and conflict behavior was also studied. (HOD)

Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Behavioral Stability and Change in Children 6-36 months of Age Using Louisville Twin Study Data.

PubMed

Davis, Deborah Winders; Finkel, Deborah; Turkheimer, Eric; Dickens, William

2015-11-01

The Infant Behavior Record (IBR) from the Bayley Scales of Infant Development has been used to study behavioral development since the 1960s. Matheny (1983) examined behavioral development at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months from the Louisville Twin Study (LTS). The extracted temperament scales included Task Orientation, Affect-Extraversion, and Activity. He concluded that monozygotic twins were more similar than same-sex dizygotic twins on these dimensions. Since this seminal work was published, a larger LTS sample and more advanced analytical methods are available. In the current analyses, Choleksy decomposition was applied to behavioral data (n = 1231) from twins 6-36 months. Different patterns of genetic continuity vs genetic innovations were identified for each IBR scale. Single common genetic and shared environmental factors explained cross-age twin similarity in the Activity scale. Multiple shared environmental factors and a single genetic factor coming on line at age 18 months contributed to Affect-Extraversion. A single shared environmental factor and multiple genetic factors explained cross-age twin similarity in Task Orientation.

Relationship of early infant state measures to behavior over the first year of life in the tufted capuchin monkey (Cebus apella).

PubMed

Byrne, G; Suomi, S J

1998-01-01

Data on activity states were collected from 29 group-housed capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) infants for 3 h each week from birth to 11 weeks of age. The amounts of time spent in sleeping/drowsy, alert-quiet, and alert-active states were measured in these subjects. Videotaped observations of these infants were recorded 3 times/week in the home cage over the first year of life and were scored for a number of social and exploratory behaviors. The extent to which early infant activity state scores predicted later behavior in the home cage was examined. Infant state measures correlated significantly with home cage behavior during months 2-6 in that infants that had been more active in early infancy spent more time alone, with other animals, and in exploration and play and less time with mothers than did quieter infants. Early state measures were less successful in predicting home cage scores beyond 8 months of age, whereas differences in behavior attributable to housing variables became more salient in the latter part of the first year. There was also a negative correlation between mother and infant activity in months 2 and 3, in that more sedentary mothers tended to have more active infants.

Modalities of Infant-Mother Interaction in Japanese, Japanese American Immigrant, and European American Dyads

PubMed Central

Bornstein, Marc H.; Cote, Linda R.; Haynes, O. Maurice; Suwalsky, Joan T. D.; Bakeman, Roger

2011-01-01

Cultural variation in relations and moment-to-moment contingencies of infant-mother person-oriented and object-oriented interactions were examined and compared in 118 Japanese, Japanese American immigrant, and European American dyads with 5.5-month-olds. Infant and mother person-oriented behaviors were positively related in all cultural groups, but infant and mother object-oriented behaviors were positively related only among European Americans. In all groups, infant and mother behaviors within each modality were mutually contingent. Culture moderated lead-lag relations: Japanese infants were more likely than their mothers to respond in object-oriented interactions, European American mothers were more likely than their infants to respond in person-oriented interactions. Japanese American dyads behaved more like European American dyads. Interaction, infant effects, and parent socialization findings are set in cultural and accultural models of transactions between young infants and their mothers. PMID:22860874

[Risk factors for iron deficiency anemia in infants aged 6 to 12 months and its effects on neuropsychological development].

PubMed

Xu, Kang; Zhang, Cui-Mei; Huang, Lian-Hong; Fu, Si-Mao; Liu, Yu-Ling; Chen, Ang; Ou, Jun-Bin

2015-08-01

To study the risk factors for moderate and severe iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in infants aged 6-12 months, and to preliminarily investigate the effects of IDA on the neuromotor development and temperament characteristics of infants. A total of 326 infants aged 6-12 months with IDA were classified into three groups: mild IDA (n=176), moderate IDA (n=111), and severe IDA (n=39) according to the severity of anemia. The risk factors for moderate or severe IDA were investigated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Three hundred and forty-six infants without IDA who showed matched age, sex, and other backgrounds were selected as the control group. The Gesell Development Diagnosis Scale was used to evaluate children's mental development. The Temperament Scale for infants was used for evaluating children's temperament. The univariate analysis showed that the severity of IDA was associated with sex, birth weight, gestational age, multiple birth, maternal anemia during pregnancy, and mother's lack of knowledge about IDA (P<0.05). Setting the mild IDA group as control, the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that multiple birth, premature birth, low birth weight (<2500 g), maternal anemia during pregnancy, breast feeding, and mother's lack of knowledge about IDA were the risk factors for severe IDA (OR>1; P<0.05); premature birth, breast feeding, and mixed feeding were the risk factors for moderate IDA (OR>1; P<0.05). The IDA group had significantly lower scores in Gesell general development quotient, gross motor, adaptive behavior, and fine motor than the control group (P<0.05). The IDA group had higher percentages of children with difficulty and intermediate difficulty temperaments than the control group (P<0.05). The IDA group had significantly higher scores in activity level, rhythmicity, adaptability, and perseverance than the control group (P<0.05). The severity of IDA is associated with premature birth, multiple birth, low birth weight, feeding pattern, maternal anemia during pregnancy and mother's lack of knowledge about IDA in infants aged 6-12 months. Infants with IDA have delayed neuromotor development and most of them have negative temperaments. More attention should be paid to mental and behavior problems for the infants. It is necessary to provide guidance for their parents in feeding and education.

Maternal Behavior and Physiological Stress Levels in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).

PubMed

Stanton, Margaret A; Heintz, Matthew R; Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V; Santymire, Rachel M; Lipende, Iddi; Murray, Carson M

2015-06-01

Individual differences in maternal behavior toward, and investment in, offspring can have lasting consequences, particularly among primate taxa characterized by prolonged periods of development over which mothers can exert substantial influence. Given the role of the neuroendocrine system in the expression of behavior, researchers are increasingly interested in understanding the hormonal correlates of maternal behavior. Here, we examined the relationship between maternal behavior and physiological stress levels, as quantified by fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations, in lactating chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii , at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. After accounting for temporal variation in FGM concentrations, we found that mothers interacted socially (groomed and played) with and nursed their infants more on days when FGM concentrations were elevated compared to days when FGM concentrations were within the range expected given the time of year. However, the proportion of time mothers and infants spent in contact did not differ based on FGM concentrations. These results generally agree with the suggestion that elevated GC concentrations are related to maternal motivation and responsivity to infant cues and are the first evidence of a hormonal correlate of maternal behavior in a wild great ape.

Maternal Type A behavior during pregnancy, neonatal crying, and early infant temperament: do type A women have type A babies?

PubMed

Parker, S J; Barrett, D E

1992-03-01

It was hypothesized that type A behavior in pregnant women would be associated with increased neonatal crying and differential reports of infant temperament at 3 months. Type A behaviors during pregnancy were measured in a self-selected cohort of 72 healthy, primiparous, middle-class women. Their newborns were assessed at 48 hours of age and the women completed an infant temperament questionnaire at 3 months. Women who were classified as type A on the Job Involvement scale of the Jenkins Activity Survey had infants who cried more during a standardized neurobehavioral assessment compared with infants of women who were type B on the same scale. Women who were type A for Job Involvement rated their 3-month-old infants as more intense and less predictable in their responses to the environment. They were also more likely to be breast-feeding their infants at 3 months. This is the first study to examine the prevalence and nature of maternal type A behaviors during pregnancy and to show their relationship to neonatal crying behavior, to maternal report of early infant temperament, and to maternal breast-feeding.

Examination of the Safety of Pediatric Vaccine Schedules in a Non-Human Primate Model: Assessments of Neurodevelopment, Learning, and Social Behavior

PubMed Central

Curtis, Britni; Liberato, Noelle; Rulien, Megan; Morrisroe, Kelly; Kenney, Caroline; Yutuc, Vernon; Ferrier, Clayton; Marti, C. Nathan; Mandell, Dorothy; Burbacher, Thomas M.; Sackett, Gene P.

2015-01-01

Background In the 1990s, the mercury-based preservative thimerosal was used in most pediatric vaccines. Although there are currently only two thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) recommended for pediatric use, parental perceptions that vaccines pose safety concerns are affecting vaccination rates, particularly in light of the much expanded and more complex schedule in place today. Objectives The objective of this study was to examine the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model. Methods We administered vaccines to six groups of infant male rhesus macaques (n = 12–16/group) using a standardized thimerosal dose where appropriate. Study groups included the recommended 1990s Pediatric vaccine schedule, an accelerated 1990s Primate schedule with or without the measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccine, the MMR vaccine only, and the expanded 2008 schedule. We administered saline injections to age-matched control animals (n = 16). Infant development was assessed from birth to 12 months of age by examining the acquisition of neonatal reflexes, the development of object concept permanence (OCP), computerized tests of discrimination learning, and infant social behavior. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance, multilevel modeling, and survival analyses, where appropriate. Results We observed no group differences in the acquisition of OCP. During discrimination learning, animals receiving TCVs had improved performance on reversal testing, although some of these same animals showed poorer performance in subsequent learning-set testing. Analysis of social and nonsocial behaviors identified few instances of negative behaviors across the entire infancy period. Although some group differences in specific behaviors were reported at 2 months of age, by 12 months all infants, irrespective of vaccination status, had developed the typical repertoire of macaque behaviors. Conclusions This comprehensive 5-year case–control study, which closely examined the effects of pediatric vaccines on early primate development, provided no consistent evidence of neurodevelopmental deficits or aberrant behavior in vaccinated animals. Citation Curtis B, Liberato N, Rulien M, Morrisroe K, Kenney C, Yutuc V, Ferrier C, Marti CN, Mandell D, Burbacher TM, Sackett GP, Hewitson L. 2015. Examination of the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model: assessments of neurodevelopment, learning, and social behavior. Environ Health Perspect 123:579–589; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408257 PMID:25690930

Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD)

MedlinePlus

... Snapshot of Pregnancy & Infant Development Advances Snapshot of Child Development Advances Snapshot of Adult & Family Health Advances NICHD ... Meetings and Events BACK TO TOP Content Owner Child Development and Behavior Branch Last Reviewed Date 12/30/ ...

Maternal Attachment Behaviors with Adopted and Birth Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Marilyn M.

This study investigated: (1) effects of teaching mothers the unique behavioral cues of their adopted infants and (2) potential differences between the mothering practices of adoptive and birth mothers. A pretest, posttest experimental prospective design was used with random assignment of mother-infant dyads. Mother-adopted infant dyads were…

Infant-Parent Attachment and Parental and Child Behavior during Parent-Toddler Storybook Interaction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frosch, Cynthia A.; Cox, Martha J.; Goldman, Barbara Davis

2001-01-01

Examined longitudinal associations between infant-parent attachment and parent/toddler behavior during storybook interaction. Found that infants with insecure-resistant attachment with mothers were less enthusiastic and focused during storybook interaction at 24 months. Mothers of insecure-resistant infants were less warm/supportive, and less…

The Association between Infants' Attention Control and Social Inhibition Is Moderated by Genetic and Environmental Risk for Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooker, Rebecca J.; Neiderhiser, Jenae M.; Kiel, Elizabeth J.; Leve, Leslie D.; Shaw, Daniel S.; Reiss, David

2011-01-01

Infant social inhibition is associated with increased risk for anxiety later in life. Although both genetic and environmental factors are associated with anxiety, little empirical work has addressed how developing regulatory abilities work with genetic and environmental risk to exacerbate or mitigate problem behaviors. The current study was aimed…

Iron Deficiency's Long-Term Effects: An Interview with Pediatrician Betsy Lozoff

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2006

2006-01-01

Betsy Lozoff is among the world's leading experts on iron deficiency and its effects on infant brain development and behavior. Iron deficiency is the most common single nutrient disorder in the world, affecting more than half of the world's infants and young children. Research by Lozoff and others has shown that there are long-lasting…

The Effect of Day Care on the Infant.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kagan, Jerome

This paper examines conceptual issues and research evidence related to the effects of day care on infants. Examples of cultural relativism in child development are used as the basis for arguing that there is no fixed list of parental behaviors that can be counted on to meet children's psychological needs. American cultural values and the resultant…

Person Perception and Verbal Labeling: The Development of Social Labels.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; Lewis, Michael

This study examined the social labels which are first used by infants, social differentiation on the basis of labeling behavior, and overgeneralization of social labels. Subjects were 81 infants from 9 to 36 months of age. The 9- to 24-month-olds were shown slides of themselves, their mothers, their fathers, and unfamiliar children, babies, and…

Gut Microbiome and Infant Health: Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis and Host Genetic Factors.

PubMed

Cong, Xiaomei; Xu, Wanli; Romisher, Rachael; Poveda, Samantha; Forte, Shaina; Starkweather, Angela; Henderson, Wendy A

2016-09-01

The development of the neonatal gut microbiome is influenced by multiple factors, such as delivery mode, feeding, medication use, hospital environment, early life stress, and genetics. The dysbiosis of gut microbiota persists during infancy, especially in high-risk preterm infants who experience lengthy stays in the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Infant microbiome evolutionary trajectory is essentially parallel with the host (infant) neurodevelopmental process and growth. The role of the gut microbiome, the brain-gut signaling system, and its interaction with the host genetics have been shown to be related to both short and long term infant health and bio-behavioral development. The investigation of potential dysbiosis patterns in early childhood is still lacking and few studies have addressed this host-microbiome co-developmental process. Further research spanning a variety of fields of study is needed to focus on the mechanisms of brain-gut-microbiota signaling system and the dynamic host-microbial interaction in the regulation of health, stress and development in human newborns.

Precursors of social emotional functioning among full-term and preterm infants at 12 months: Early infant withdrawal behavior and symptoms of maternal depression.

PubMed

Moe, Vibeke; Braarud, Hanne Cecilie; Wentzel-Larsen, Tore; Slinning, Kari; Vannebo, Unni Tranaas; Guedeney, Antoine; Heimann, Mikael; Rostad, Anne Margrethe; Smith, Lars

2016-08-01

This study forms part of a longitudinal investigation of early infant social withdrawal, maternal symptoms of depression and later child social emotional functioning. The sample consisted of a group of full-term infants (N=238) and their mothers, and a group of moderately premature infants (N=64) and their mothers. At 3 months, the infants were observed with the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB) and the mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). At 12 months, the mothers filled out questionnaires about the infants' social emotional functioning (Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Social Emotional). At 3 months, as we have previously shown, the premature infants had exhibited more withdrawal behavior and their mothers reported elevated maternal depressive symptoms as compared with the full-born group. At 12 months the mothers of the premature infants reported more child internalizing behavior. These data suggest that infant withdrawal behavior as well as maternal depressive mood may serve as sensitive indices of early risk status. Further, the results suggest that early maternal depressive symptoms are a salient predictor of later child social emotional functioning. However, neither early infant withdrawal behavior, nor gestational age, did significantly predict social emotional outcome at 12 months. It should be noted that the differences in strength of the relations between ADBB and EPDS, respectively, to the outcome at 12 months was modest. An implication of the study is that clinicians should be aware of the complex interplay between early infant withdrawal and signs of maternal postpartum depression in planning ports of entry for early intervention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Behavioral aspects of development of eating behavior and nutrition status.

PubMed

Vazir, Shahnaz

2002-05-01

Studies on the development of eating behavior in rural India indicated that mothers of young children made food choices that fit into their budgets, and were also influenced by new information. Their choices were still immersed in traditional beliefs, some of which had positive effects on nutrition. Specific childrearing behaviors influenced positive deviance in the growth and psychosocial development of infants and preschoolers. A life-cycle approach to the development of eating behavior that deciphers needs at each stage and linkages between stages is necessary. Cost-benefit needs to be considered when devising strategies for future intervention programs.

Neural mechanisms of attention become more specialised during infancy: Insights from combined eye tracking and EEG.

PubMed

Kulke, Louisa; Atkinson, Janette; Braddick, Oliver

2017-03-01

The Fixation Shift Paradigm (FSP) measures infants' ability to shift gaze from a central fixation stimulus to a peripheral target (e.g. Hood & Atkinson, 1993: Infant Behavior and Development, 16(4), 405-422). Cortical maturation has been suggested as crucial for the developing ability to shift attention. This study investigated the development of neural mechanisms by combining EEG with simultaneous eye tracking during FSP testing, in typically developing infants aged between 1 and 8 months. The most prominent neural response was a frontal positivity which occurred only in the hemisphere contralateral to the target in the youngest infants but became more ipsilateral with age. This changing lateralisation was associated with improving ability to shift attention (decreasing saccade latencies and fewer 'sticky fixations'-failures to disengage attention from the central target). These findings suggest that the lateralisation of neural responses develops during infancy, possibly due to developing intracortical connections, allowing infants to shift attention more efficiently. Successful use of combined simultaneous remote eye tracking and EEG to measure infant attention shifts. Neural responses involved in attention shifts change in the first year of life. The lateralisation of EEG responses changes with age in the first year of life. Frontal cortex is involved in attention shifts from around 2 months of age. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Use of a training program to enhance NICU nurses' cognitive abilities for assessing preterm infant behaviors and offering supportive interventions.

PubMed

Liaw, Jen-Jiuan

2003-06-01

This study tested the use of a developmentally supportive care (DSC) training program in the form of videotaped and personalized instruction to increase nurses' cognitive abilities for assessing preterm infant behavioral signals and offering supportive care. The study used a two-group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental repeated measures design. The participants were 25 NICU nurses, 13 in the intervention group, and 12 in the control group. An instrument developed for the purpose of the study was a video test that measured the effectiveness of the DSC training. The video test questionnaires were administered to the participants twice with an interval of four weeks. ANCOVA controlling the baseline scores was used for data analysis. In general, the results support the hypothesis that nurses' cognitive abilities were enhanced after the DSC training. The increase in nurses' cognitive abilities is the prerequisite for behavioral change, based on the assumptions of Bandura's Social Cognitive Learning Theory (Bandura, 1986). As nurses' cognitive abilities increased, it would be possible that nurse behaviors in taking care of these preterm infants might change. Therefore, the author recommends that in order to improve NICU care quality and the outcomes of preterm infants, the concepts of developmentally supportive care be incorporated into NICU caregiving practice by educating nurses.

Assessing motivation to move and its relationship to motor development in infancy.

PubMed

Atun-Einy, Osnat; Berger, Sarah E; Scher, Anat

2013-06-01

Motivation to move has typically been a post hoc explanation for infants' discovery of new patterns of behavior. As a first step to studying motivation to move directly, we qualitatively assessed motivation to move and measured its relationship to motor development in infancy. We observed 27 infants longitudinally from ages 7 to 12 months. Every 3 weeks we assessed infants' motor motivation based on persistence, activity level, activity preference, and stimulus strength needed to elicit movement. We documented the onset of sitting, pulling-to-stand, crawling and cruising, as well as infants' overall motor development as measured with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS). Motor motivation increased over the course of the study and we identified two distinct motivation profiles. Strongly motivated infants had earlier onsets for all four motor milestones than weakly motivated infants (all p-values <0.05). Infants' motivation to move score was positively correlated with their AIMS percentile at the same and subsequent sessions. These findings provide empirical evidence for a motivational cascade whereby motivation to move and motor development enjoy a reciprocal relationship. These findings have important clinical implications for children with motor delay, suggesting that evaluation of motivation could be included as part of the assessment procedure so that both treatment and expectations can be tailored appropriately. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of a quantitative tool to assess the content of physical therapy for infants.

PubMed

Blauw-Hospers, Cornill H; Dirks, Tineke; Hulshof, Lily J; Hadders-Algra, Mijna

2010-01-01

The study aim was to describe and quantify physical therapy interventions for infants at high risk for developmental disorders. An observation protocol was developed based on knowledge about infant physical therapy and analysis of directly observable physiotherapeutic (PT) actions. The protocol's psychometric quality was assessed. Videos of 42 infant physical therapy sessions at 4 or 6 months of corrected age were analyzed. The observation protocol classified PT actions into 8 mutually exclusive categories. Virtually all PT actions during treatment could be classified. Inter- and intrarater agreements were satisfactory (intraclass correlations, 0.68-1.00). Approximately 40% of treatment time was spent challenging the infant to produce motor behavior by themselves, whereas approximately 30% of time facilitation techniques were applied. Tradition-based sessions could be differentiated from function-oriented ones. It is possible to document PT actions during physical therapy treatment of infants at high risk for cerebral palsy in a systematic, standardized, and reliable way.

Predictors of non-exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months among rural mothers in east Ethiopia: a community-based analytical cross-sectional study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Exclusive breastfeeding in infants aged under six months is a simple and cost-effective feeding method that ensures better infant and child survival and boosts the achievement of child related Millennium Development Goals in the developing world. Identifying factors associated with good breastfeeding practice helps to increase its coverage and maximize its advantages through improved advocacy. The objective of this study was to identify the predictors of non-exclusive breastfeeding in the rural areas of eastern Ethiopia. Methods A community-based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on mother/caregiver–child pairs in east Ethiopia from July to August 2011. Data on infant feeding practices were collected by trained interviewers who used a pretested and structured questionnaire. Odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was estimated for the predictors of non-exclusive breastfeeding using the multivariable logistic regression. Results The prevalence of non-exclusive breastfeeding in infants aged under six months, was 28.3%. Non-exclusive breastfeeding was more likely to be practiced by mothers who were not married at the moment [AOR (95% CI) = 2.6 (1.1, 6.0)], mothers who had no access to health facility [AOR (95% CI) = 2.9 (1.9, 4.3)], and mothers whose knowledge about infant and young child feeding practices was low [AOR (95% CI) = 3.4 (2.4, 4.7)]. Conclusion Non–exclusive breastfeeding was more common among mothers with no marital relationships, poor access to health facilities, and inadequate knowledge about infant and young child feeding practices. Family support, education, and behavior change communication on infant feeding, especially on exclusive breastfeeding, at the community level may improve the knowledge, behavior, and practice of mothers on optimal infant and young child feeding practices. PMID:23919800

Maternal Neural Responses to Infant Cries and Faces: Relationships with Substance Use

PubMed Central

Landi, Nicole; Montoya, Jessica; Kober, Hedy; Rutherford, Helena J. V.; Mencl, W. Einar; Worhunsky, Patrick D.; Potenza, Marc N.; Mayes, Linda C.

2011-01-01

Substance abuse in pregnant and recently post-partum women is a major public health concern because of effects on the infant and on the ability of the adult to care for the infant. In addition to the negative health effects of teratogenic substances on fetal development, substance use can contribute to difficulties associated with the social and behavioral aspects of parenting. Neural circuits associated with parenting behavior overlap with circuits involved in addiction (e.g., frontal, striatal, and limbic systems) and thus may be co-opted for the craving/reward cycle associated with substance use and abuse and be less available for parenting. The current study investigates the degree to which neural circuits associated with parenting are disrupted in mothers who are substance-using. Specifically, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural response to emotional infant cues (faces and cries) in substance-using compared to non-using mothers. In response to both faces (of varying emotional valence) and cries (of varying distress levels), substance-using mothers evidenced reduced neural activation in regions that have been previously implicated in reward and motivation as well as regions involved in cognitive control. Specifically, in response to faces, substance users showed reduced activation in prefrontal regions, including the dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortices, as well as visual processing (occipital lobes) and limbic regions (parahippocampus and amygdala). Similarly, in response to infant cries, substance-using mothers showed reduced activation relative to non-using mothers in prefrontal regions, auditory sensory processing regions, insula and limbic regions (parahippocampus and amygdala). These findings suggest that infant stimuli may be less salient for substance-using mothers, and such reduced saliency may impair developing infant-caregiver attachment and the ability of mothers to respond appropriately to their infants. PMID:21720537

Impact of intraventricular hemorrhage on cognitive and behavioral outcomes at 18 years of age in low birth weight preterm infants.

PubMed

Ann Wy, P; Rettiganti, M; Li, J; Yap, V; Barrett, K; Whiteside-Mansell, L; Casey, P

2015-07-01

Although high-grade intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH; grades III-IV) in preterm and low birth weight infants are clearly associated with increased risk of long-term adverse neurodevelopmental sequelae, the impact of low-grade IVH (grades I-II) has been less clear. Some studies have followed these infants through early school age and have shown some conflicting results regarding cognitive outcome. Such studies that assess children at younger ages may not accurately predict outcomes in later childhood, as it is known that fluid and crystallized intelligence peak at age 26 years. There is paucity of data in current medical literature, which correlates low-grade IVH with outcomes in early adulthood. To determine the link between the occurrence of low-grade IVH in low birth weight (birth weight ⩽2500 g) infants born prematurely (gestational age <37 weeks) and intellectual function, academic achievement, and behavioral problems to the age of 18 years. This study is an analysis of data derived from the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP), a multisite national collaborative study and a randomized controlled trial of education intervention for low birth weight infants from birth until 3 years of age with follow-up through 18 years of age. A total of 985 infants were enrolled in the IHDP. Of the 462 infants tested for IVH, 99 demonstrated sonographic evidence of low-grade IVH, whereas 291 showed no sonographic evidence of IVH. Several outcomes were compared between these two groups. Intelligence was assessed using Stanford-Binet Intelligence scales at age 3 years, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) at age 8 years, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) at age 18 years and Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement at age 8 and 18 years. Behavior was measured using the Achenbach Behavior Checklist at age 3 years and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at age 8 and 18 years. Outcomes were compared between the IVH-positive and IVH-negative groups using analysis of covariance after adjusting for the presence or absence of intervention, birth weight, gestational age, gender, severity of neonatal course, race and maternal education. No statistically significant difference in intelligence as measured by Stanford-Binet Intelligence scales, WISC-III, WASI and Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement could be appreciated between IVH-positive patients and controls at any age group (36 months, 8 years and 18 years of age). In addition, there was no significant difference in problem behavior as assessed by the Achenbach Behavior Checklist and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) comparing IVH patients with controls. Low-grade IVH was not demonstrated in our study to be an independent risk factor associated with lower outcomes in intelligence, academic achievement or problem behavior at age 3, 8 and 18 years.

Response to social challenge in young bonnet (Macaca radiata) and pigtail (Macaca nemestrina) macaques is related to early maternal experiences.

PubMed

Weaver, Ann; Richardson, Rebecca; Worlein, Julie; De Waal, Frans; Laudenslager, Mark

2004-04-01

Previous experience affects how young primates respond to challenging social situations. The present retrospective study looked at one aspect of early experience, the quality of the mother-infant relationship, to determine its relationship to young bonnet and pigtail macaques' responses to two social challenges: temporary maternal separation at 5-6 months and permanent transfer to an unfamiliar peer group at 16-17 months. Relationship quality was measured quantitatively on 30 macaque mother-infant pairs with the Relationship Quality Index (RQI), the ratio of relative affiliation to relative agonism as previously applied to capuchin monkeys. Infants with high RQI values had amicable mother-infant relationships and infants with low RQI values had agonistic mother-infant relationships. Young monkeys with amicable and agonistic relationships showed consistent differences in behavior before, during, and after each social challenge, supporting the hypothesis that juveniles from amicable mother-infant relationships based on the RQI coped more effectively with social challenges than did juveniles from agonistic mother-infant relationships. Results suggest 1) characteristic amicability or agonism in early mother-offspring macaque relationships has the potential to influence offspring behavior in tense social contexts and 2) the RQI is useful as one of a coordinated suite of methods for studying the development of social skills. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Limited Fine Motor and Grasping Skills in Six-month-old Infants at High Risk for Autism

PubMed Central

Libertus, Klaus; Sheperd, Kelly A.; Ross, Samuel W.; Landa, Rebecca J.

2014-01-01

Atypical motor behaviors are common among children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, little is known about onset and functional implications of differences in early motor development among infants later diagnosed with ASD. Two prospective experiments were conducted to investigate motor skills among six-month-olds at increased risk (high-risk) for ASD (N1 = 129; N2 = 46). Infants were assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and during toy play. Across both experiments, high-risk infants exhibited less mature object manipulation in a highly structured (MSEL) context and reduced grasping activity in an unstructured (free play) context than infants with no family history of ASD. Longitudinal assessments suggest that between six and ten months, grasping activity increases in high-risk infants. PMID:24978128

The Stability of Individual Differences in Infant-Mother Attachment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waters, Everett

This study compared three ways of analyzing individual mother-infant attachment behaviors in order to test the hypothesis that success in the search for stable individual differences in attachment behavior is in part a function of the level at which behavior individuality is assessed. Fifty infants were videotaped in the Ainsworth and Wittig…

Trajectories of Problem Behaviors from 4 to 23 Years in Former Preterm Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Allie; Winchester, Suzy Barcelos; Sullivan, Mary C.

2018-01-01

Premature infants have significant risk for later behavior problems. This study examined growth trajectories of three problem behaviors across five developmental age points from preschool to early adulthood in a well-characterized sample of premature infants. The effects of neonatal risk, gender, and socioeconomic context were modeled on these…

Effects of Selected Object Characteristics on Object Permanence Test Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lingle, Kathleen M.; Lingle, John H.

A study was conducted to investigate the degree to which both object familiarity and motivational factors influence infants' search behavior in an object permanence test. Infants' search behavior for an unfamiliar test object was compared with search behavior for (a) an experientially familiar object that each infant had played with daily for a…

Prenatal Maternal Anxiety and Depression Predict Negative Behavioral Reactivity in Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Elysia Poggi; Snidman, Nancy; Wadhwa, Pathik D.; Glynn, Laura M.; Schetter, Chris Dunkel; Sandman, Curt A.

2004-01-01

The effects of maternal antenatal and postnatal anxiety and depression on infant negative behavioral reactivity were examined in a sample of 22 mother-infant pairs. Maternal anxiety and depression were assessed by standardized measures during the third trimester of pregnancy and postpartum. Infant negative behavioral responses to novelty were…

Orientation to Infant and Toddler Assessment: A User's Guide for the Child Development Assessment Form.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caballero, Jane; Whordley, Derek

This manual presents guidelines for users of the Child Development Assessment Form (CDAF) -- a 90 item checklist of behaviors characteristic of children from birth to 3 years of age. The CDAF is designed to help parents and teachers identify skills and behaviors that the child has developed and plan learning experiences that facilitate growth. The…

Fairness expectations and altruistic sharing in 15-month-old human infants.

PubMed

Schmidt, Marco F H; Sommerville, Jessica A

2011-01-01

Human cooperation is a key driving force behind the evolutionary success of our hominin lineage. At the proximate level, biologists and social scientists have identified other-regarding preferences--such as fairness based on egalitarian motives, and altruism--as likely candidates for fostering large-scale cooperation. A critical question concerns the ontogenetic origins of these constituents of cooperative behavior, as well as whether they emerge independently or in an interrelated fashion. The answer to this question will shed light on the interdisciplinary debate regarding the significance of such preferences for explaining how humans become such cooperative beings. We investigated 15-month-old infants' sensitivity to fairness, and their altruistic behavior, assessed via infants' reactions to a third-party resource distribution task, and via a sharing task. Our results challenge current models of the development of fairness and altruism in two ways. First, in contrast to past work suggesting that fairness and altruism may not emerge until early to mid-childhood, 15-month-old infants are sensitive to fairness and can engage in altruistic sharing. Second, infants' degree of sensitivity to fairness as a third-party observer was related to whether they shared toys altruistically or selfishly, indicating that moral evaluations and prosocial behavior are heavily interconnected from early in development. Our results present the first evidence that the roots of a basic sense of fairness and altruism can be found in infancy, and that these other-regarding preferences develop in a parallel and interwoven fashion. These findings support arguments for an evolutionary basis--most likely in dialectical manner including both biological and cultural mechanisms--of human egalitarianism given the rapidly developing nature of other-regarding preferences and their role in the evolution of human-specific forms of cooperation. Future work of this kind will help determine to what extent uniquely human sociality and morality depend on other-regarding preferences emerging early in life.

Infant negative affect and maternal interactive behavior during the still-face procedure: the moderating role of adult attachment states of mind.

PubMed

Haltigan, John D; Leerkes, Esther M; Supple, Andrew J; Calkins, Susan D

2014-01-01

The current study examined associations between attachment state of mind measured prenatally (N = 259) and maternal behavior in the reunion episode of the still-face procedure when infants were six months of age both as a main effect and in conjunction with infant negative affect. Using a dimensional approach to adult attachment measurement, dismissing and preoccupied states of mind were negatively associated with maternal sensitivity, and each correlated with distinct parenting behaviors. Positive associations were found between dismissing states of mind and maternal monitoring and preoccupied states of mind and maternal withdraw. Maternal preoccupation moderated associations between infant negative affect and maternal intrusive, withdrawn, and monitoring behaviors, supporting the notion that maternal attachment influences parenting behavior via a modulatory process in which infant distress cues are selectively filtered and responded to. Analyses using a traditional AAI scale and classification approach also provided evidence for distinct parenting behavior correlates of insecure adult attachment representations. The importance of measuring global and stylistic differences in maternal behavior in contexts which allow for the activation of the entire range of infant affective states is discussed.

Infant Negative Affect and Maternal Interactive Behavior During the Still-Face Procedure: The Moderating Role of Adult Attachment States of Mind

PubMed Central

Haltigan, John D.; Leerkes, Esther M.; Supple, Andrew J.; Calkins, Susan D.

2013-01-01

The current study examined associations between attachment state of mind measured prenatally (N = 259) and maternal behavior in the reunion episode of the still-face procedure when infants were six months of age both as a main effect and in conjunction with infant negative affect. Using a dimensional approach to adult attachment measurement, dismissing and preoccupied states of mind were negatively associated with maternal sensitivity, and each correlated with distinct parenting behaviors. Positive associations were found between dismissing states of mind and maternal monitoring and preoccupied states of mind and maternal withdraw. Maternal preoccupation moderated associations between infant negative affect and maternal intrusive, withdrawn, and monitoring behaviors, supporting the notion that maternal attachment influences parenting behavior via a modulatory process in which infant distress cues are selectively filtered and responded to. Analyses using a traditional AAI scale and classification approach also provided evidence for distinct parenting behavior correlates of insecure adult attachment representations. The importance of measuring global and stylistic differences in maternal behavior in contexts which allow for the activation of the entire range of infant affective states is discussed. PMID:24329015

Mother-Infant and Father-Infant Interaction Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Carol J.

A total of 20 infants 8 months of age were videotaped in dyads with each parent during 10 minutes of free play in a laboratory setting, to investigate reciprocal behavior among parents and their infants. Questionnaire data on parents' caretaking involvement were also collected. Findings indicated that mothers and fathers did not differ on the…

Fathers Show Modifications of Infant-Directed Action Similar to that of Mothers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutherford, M. D.; Przednowek, Malgorzata

2012-01-01

Mothers' actions are more enthusiastic, simple, and repetitive when demonstrating novel object properties to their infants than to adults, a behavioral modification called "infant-directed action" by Brand and colleagues (2002). The current study tested whether fathers also tailor their behavior when interacting with infants and whether this…

Mother-infant bonding impairment across the first 6 months postpartum: the primacy of psychopathology in women with childhood abuse and neglect histories.

PubMed

Muzik, Maria; Bocknek, Erika London; Broderick, Amanda; Richardson, Patricia; Rosenblum, Katherine L; Thelen, Kelsie; Seng, Julia S

2013-02-01

Our goal was to examine the trajectory of bonding impairment across the first 6 months postpartum in the context of maternal risk, including maternal history of childhood abuse and neglect and postpartum psychopathology, and to test the association between self-reported bonding impairment and observed positive parenting behaviors. In a sample of women with childhood abuse and neglect histories (CA+, n = 97) and a healthy control comparison group (CA-, n = 53), participants completed questionnaires related to bonding with their infants at 6 weeks, 4 months, and 6 months postpartum and psychopathology at 6 months postpartum. In addition, during a 6-month postpartum home visit, mothers and infants participated in a dyadic play interaction subsequently coded for positive parenting behaviors by blinded coders. We found that all women, independent of risk status, increased in bonding with their infant over the first 6 months postpartum; however, women with postpartum psychopathology (depression and posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) showed consistently greater bonding impairment scores at all timepoints. Moreover, we found that, at the 6-month assessment, bonding impairment and observed parenting behaviors were significantly associated. These results highlight the adverse effects of maternal postpartum depression and PTSD on mother-infant bonding in early postpartum in women with child abuse and neglect histories. These findings also shed light on the critical need for early detection and effective treatment of postpartum mental illness in order to prevent problematic parenting and the development of disturbed mother-infant relationships. Results support the use of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire as a tool to assess parenting quality by its demonstrated association with observed parenting behaviors.

Mother-infant bonding impairment across the first six months postpartum: The primacy of psychopathology in women with childhood abuse and neglect histories

PubMed Central

Muzik, Maria; Bocknek, Erika London; Broderick, Amanda; Richardson, Patricia; Rosenblum, Katherine L.; Thelen, Kelsie; Seng, Julia S.

2014-01-01

Purpose Our goal was to examine the trajectory of bonding impairment across the first 6 months postpartum in the contexts of maternal risk, including maternal history of childhood abuse and neglect and postpartum psychopathology, and to test the association between self-reported bonding impairment and observed positive parenting behaviors. Method In a sample of women with childhood abuse and neglect (CA) histories (CA+, n=97) and a healthy control comparison group (CA-, n=53), participants completed questionnaires related to bonding with their infant at 6 weeks, 4 months, and 6 months postpartum and postpartum psychopathology at 6 months postpartum. In addition, during a 6 months postpartum home visit, mothers and infants participated in a dyadic play interaction subsequently coded for positive parenting behaviors by blinded coders. Results We found that all women independent of risk status increased in bonding to their infant over the first 6 months postpartum; however, women with postpartum psychopathology (depression and PTSD) showed consistently greater bonding impairment scores at all times points. Moreover, we found that at the 6 months assessment bonding impairment and observed parenting behaviors were significantly associated. Conclusion These results highlight the adverse effects of maternal postpartum depression and PTSD on mother-infant bonding in early postpartum in women with child abuse and neglect histories. These findings also shed light on the critical need for early detection and effective treatment of postpartum mental illness in order to prevent problematic parenting and the development of disturbed mother-infant relationships. Results support the use of the Parenting Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) as a tool to assess parenting quality by its demonstrated association with observed parenting behaviors. PMID:23064898

The concept of homology as a basis for evaluating developmental mechanisms: exploring selective attention across the life-span.

PubMed

Lickliter, Robert; Bahrick, Lorraine E

2013-01-01

Research with human infants as well as non-human animal embryos and infants has consistently demonstrated the benefits of intersensory redundancy for perceptual learning and memory for redundantly specified information during early development. Studies of infant affect discrimination, face discrimination, numerical discrimination, sequence detection, abstract rule learning, and word comprehension and segmentation have all shown that intersensory redundancy promotes earlier detection of these properties when compared to unimodal exposure to the same properties. Here we explore the idea that such intersensory facilitation is evident across the life-span and that this continuity is an example of a developmental behavioral homology. We present evidence that intersensory facilitation is most apparent during early phases of learning for a variety of tasks, regardless of developmental level, including domains that are novel or tasks that require discrimination of fine detail or speeded responses. Under these conditions, infants, children, and adults all show intersensory facilitation, suggesting a developmental homology. We discuss the challenge and propose strategies for establishing appropriate guidelines for identifying developmental behavioral homologies. We conclude that evaluating the extent to which continuities observed across development are homologous can contribute to a better understanding of the processes of development. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study.

PubMed

Goldstein, Alison; Cole, Thomas; Cordes, Sara

2016-01-01

Studies have stressed the importance of counting with children to promote formal numeracy abilities; however, little work has investigated when parents begin to engage in this behavior with their young children. In the current study, we investigated whether parents elaborated on numerical information when reading a counting book to their preverbal infants and whether developmental differences in numerical input exist even in the 1st year of life. Parents and their 5-10 months old infants were asked to read, as they would at home, two books to their infants: a counting book and another book that did not have numerical content. Parents' spontaneous statements rarely focused on number and those that did consisted primarily of counting, with little emphasis on labeling the cardinality of the set. However, developmental differences were observed even in this age range, such that parents were more likely to make numerical utterances when reading to older infants. Together, results are the first to characterize naturalistic reading behaviors between parents and their preverbal infants in the context of counting books, suggesting that although counting books promote numerical language in parents, infants still receive very little in the way of numerical input before the end of the 1st year of life. While little is known regarding the impact of number talk on the cognitive development of young infants, the current results may guide future work in this area by providing the first assessment of the characteristics of parental numerical input to preverbal infants.

Caregiving and early infant crying in a danish community.

PubMed

Alvarez, Marissa

2004-04-01

Maternal caregiving and fussing/crying in Danish infants at 3, 6, and 12 weeks were examined using self-report scales and 24-hour behavior diaries. Mothers reported practices commonly associated with responsive caregiving: frequent feeding, prompt response to infant cries, and considerable time holding the infant. Fuss/cry durations peaked in the first 2 months, were highest in evenings, and decreased approximately 50% by 12 weeks. Fussing was the majority behavior, and 9.2% of the infants fussed and cried more than 3 hours per day. In contrast with other Western studies, 24-hour fuss/cry durations were lower, and fussing accounted for up to 80% of total distress. Danish caregiving practices may partially explain the lower durations of infant distress and the lower ratio of cry to fuss. However, some infants fuss/cry a great deal despite sensitive care, which may reflect individual differences in infant maturation of behavior regulation.

School-Aged Outcomes following Prenatal Methamphetamine Exposure: 7.5 Year Follow-Up From The Infant Development, Environment, and Lifestyle (IDEAL) Study

PubMed Central

Eze, Nwando; Smith, Lynne M; LaGasse, Linda L; Derauf, Chris; Newman, Elana; Arria, Amelia; Huestis, Marilyn A.; Della Grotta, Sheri A; Dansereau, Lynne M; Neal, Charles; Lester, Barry M

2016-01-01

Objective To assess the relationship between prenatal methamphetamine exposure (PME) and behavior problems at age 7.5 years, and the extent to which early adversity mediated this relationship. Study design The multicenter, longitudinal IDEAL study enrolled 412 mother-infant pairs at 4 sites. Methamphetamine-exposed participants (n= 204) were identified by self-report and/or gas chromatography/mass spectrometry confirmation of amphetamine and metabolites in infant meconium. Matched participants (n = 208) denied methamphetamine use and had a negative meconium screen. At the 7.5 year follow-up, 290 children with complete Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) data and an early adversity index score were available for analysis (n=146 exposed). Results PME was significantly associated with an increased early adversity index score (P<0.001) and with increased externalizing, rule-breaking behavior, and aggressive behavior (P<0.05). Early adversity was also associated with higher externalizing behavior scores. Early adversity significantly mediated the relationship between PME and behavioral problems. After adjusting the mediation model for sex, prenatal tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana exposures, and study site, the association of PME with early adversity remained significant. Conclusion Though PME is associated with behavioral problems, early adversity may be a strong determinant of behavioral outcome for children exposed to methamphetamine in utero. Early adversity significantly mediated the relationship between PME and behavioral problems. PMID:26781836

The Association between Infants' Self-Regulatory Behavior and MAOA Gene Polymorphism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Minghao; Chen, Xinyin; Way, Niobe; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Deng, Huihua; Ke, Xiaoyan; Yu, Weiwei; Chen, Ping; He, Chuan; Chi, Xia; Lu, Zuhong

2011-01-01

Self-regulatory behavior in early childhood is an important characteristic that has considerable implications for the development of adaptive and maladaptive functioning. The present study investigated the relations between a functional polymorphism in the upstream region of monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) and self-regulatory behavior in a sample…

Behavioral Prescription Guide. Manual IIb: Motor. Parent/Child Home Stimulation 'The Marshalltown Project.'

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keiser, Arlene F.; And Others

Presented is the Marshalltown Behavioral Prescription Guide for motor development which consists of incremental behavioral objectives and strategies to aid parents in the prescriptive teaching of handicapped and culturally deprived infants and preschool children. The guide is intended for use prior to a weekly home visit resulting in a weekly…

Effects of prenatal substance exposure on infant temperament vary by context.

PubMed

Locke, Robin L; Lagasse, Linda L; Seifer, Ronald; Lester, Barry M; Shankaran, Seetha; Bada, Henrietta S; Bauer, Charles R

2016-05-01

This was a prospective longitudinal multisite study of the effects of prenatal cocaine and/or opiate exposure on temperament in 4-month-olds of the Maternal Lifestyle Study (N = 958: 366 cocaine exposed, 37 opiate exposed, 33 exposed to both drugs, 522 matched comparison). The study evaluated positivity and negativity during The Behavior Assessment of Infant Temperament (Garcia Coll et al., 1988). Parents rated temperament (Infant Behavior Questionnaire; Rothbart, 1981). Cocaine-exposed infants showed less positivity overall, mainly during activity and threshold items, more negativity during sociability items, and less negativity during irritability and threshold items. Latent profile analysis indicated individual temperament patterns were best described by three groups: low/moderate overall reactivity, high social negative reactivity, and high nonsocial negative reactivity. Infants with heavy cocaine exposure were more likely in high social negative reactivity profile, were less negative during threshold items, and required longer soothing intervention. Cocaine- and opiate-exposed infants scored lower on Infant Behavior Questionnaire smiling and laughter and duration of orienting scales. Opiate-exposed infants were rated as less respondent to soothing. By including a multitask measure of temperament we were able to show context-specific behavioral dysregulation in prenatally cocaine-exposed infants. The findings indicate flatter temperament may be specific to nonsocial contexts, whereas social interactions may be more distressing for cocaine-exposed infants.

Bi-directional effects of depressed mood in the postnatal period on mother-infant non-verbal engagement with picture books.

PubMed

Reissland, Nadja; Burt, Mike

2010-12-01

The purpose of the present study is to examine the bi-directional nature of maternal depressed mood in the postnatal period on maternal and infant non-verbal behaviors while looking at a picture book. Although, it is acknowledged that non-verbal engagement with picture books in infancy plays an important role, the effect of maternal depressed mood on stimulating the interest of infants in books is not known. Sixty-one mothers and their infants, 38 boys and 23 girls, were observed twice approximately 3 months apart (first observation: mean age 6.8 months, range 3-11 months, 32 mothers with depressed mood; second observation: mean age 10.2 months, range 6-16 months, 17 mothers with depressed mood). There was a significant effect for depressed mood on negative behaviors: infants of mothers with depressed mood tended to push away and close books more often. The frequency of negative behaviors (pushing the book away/closing it on the part of the infant and withholding the book and restraining the infant on the part of the mother) were behaviors which if expressed during the first visit were more likely to be expressed during the second visit. Levels of negative behaviors by mother and infant were strongly related during each visit. Additionally, the pattern between visits suggests that maternal negative behavior may be the cause of her infant negative behavior. These results are discussed in terms of the effects of maternal depressed mood on the bi-directional relation of non-verbal engagement of mother and child. Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Infant Responding to Joint Attention, Executive Processes, and Self-Regulation in Preschool Children

PubMed Central

Van Hecke, Amy Vaughan; Mundy, Peter; Block, Jessica J.; Delgado, Christine E. F.; Parlade, Meaghan V.; Pomares, Yuly B.; Hobson, Jessica A.

2011-01-01

Infant joint attention is related to behavioral and social outcomes, as well as language in childhood. Recent research and theory suggests that the relations between joint attention and social-behavioral outcomes may reflect the role of executive self-regulatory processes in the development of joint attention. To test this hypothesis two- studies were conducted. The first, cross-sectional study examined the development of responding to joint attention skill (RJA) in terms of increasing executive efficiency of responding between 9 and 18 months of age. The results indicated that development of RJA was characterized by a decreased latency to shift attention in following another person’s gaze and head turn, as well as an increase in the proportion of correct RJA responses exhibited by older infants. The second study examined the longitudinal relations between 12-month measures of responding to joint attention (RJA) and 36-month attention regulation in a delay of gratification task. The results indicated that responding to joint attention at 12-months was significantly related to children’s use of three types of self-regulation behaviors while waiting for a snack reward at 36 months of age. These observations are discussed in light of a developmental theory of attention regulation and joint attention in infancy. PMID:22206892

Close Collaboration with Parents™ intervention to improve parents' psychological well-being and child development: Description of the intervention and study protocol.

PubMed

Ahlqvist-Björkroth, Sari; Boukydis, Zack; Axelin, Anna Margareta; Lehtonen, Liisa

2017-05-15

Parents of preterm infants commonly experience separation from their infant or exclusion from their role as primary caregivers during the hospital care of their infant, which may impair parent-infant bonding and parents' psychological well-being. Therefore, we developed the Close Collaboration with Parents™ intervention to improve staff skills in communicating and collaborating with parents in neonatal intensive care units (NICU), to increase parents' presence and participation into infant care, and to improve parent-infant bonding and, thereby, parents' psychological well-being and later child development. The Close Collaboration with Parents™ intervention was developed and carried out at Turku University Hospital. The intervention was based on developmental theories about early parenthood and parent-infant attachment. The training was targeted at both doctors and nurses. The goals of the training included understanding individual behaviors and responses of infants and the uniqueness of families, using receptive listening skills in communication with parents and making decisions collaboratively with them. By increasing the sensitivity of the staff to the individual needs of infants and parents and by increasing staff-parent collaboration in daily care, the intervention supported parents' presence and parents' participation in the care of their infant. The effectiveness of the intervention is being evaluated in a prospective study comparing the post-intervention cohort (n=113) to the baseline cohort (n=232). The outcomes include bonding, long-term psychological well-being of both mothers and fathers and child development up to 5 years of age. The Close Collaboration with Parents™ intervention potentially offers a preventive and salutogenic model to integrate parents and parenting in neonatal hospital care. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The developmental origins of naïve psychology in infancy.

PubMed

Poulin-Dubois, Diane; Brooker, Ivy; Chow, Virginia

2009-01-01

Research interest in children's understanding of the mind goes back as far as Piaget's claim that children are cognitively egocentric (Flavell, 2000). Many years later, research on the understanding of the mind was revived in a paper that sought evidence for a theory of mind, not for children but for chimpanzees (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). The researchers claimed that chimpanzees' ability to predict what a human actor will do to achieve certain goals implies that the animal attributes mental states to the actor. This seminal paper generated a flurry of studies on theory of mind in nonhuman primates. A review of this research based on several different experimental paradigms concluded that chimpanzees understand others in terms of a perception-goal psychology (i.e., they can perceive what the other's goal is but not understand the mental states associated with the goal), as opposed to a full-fledged, human-like belief-desire psychology (Call & Tomasello, 2008). Around the same time, research on children's understanding of the mind was revived in a landmark paper by Wimmer and Perner (1983) and by other developmentalists (Bretherton, McNew, & Beegly-Smith. 1981). In line with the research on nonhuman primates, part of the progress that has been made in recent years is a recognition that theory of mind knowledge is acquired in an extended series of developmental milestones and that this development is based on a rich set of socio-cognitive abilities that develop in infancy (Wellman, 2002). The evidence outlined in the sections of this chapter suggests that infants possess a nascent understanding of mental states that older children use in explaining and predicting human behavior. Researchers have learned a great deal about the developmental origins of naive psychology in infancy. Nevertheless, the depth of infants' understanding of human behavior is still a controversial issue. For example, a popular paradigm in naive psychology is violation of expectancy. In false-belief tasks, infants look longer at a scene.in which a protagonist searches for an object in a location she does not know than at a scene in which the protagonist searches for an object in a location where she has previously seen the object disappear. The fact that no active behavioral response is required makes many researchers doubt that an infants' looking pattern reflects a deep level of understanding. Looking pattern may simply reflect the infants' detection that something in the scene is novel (e.g., protagonist looks at a location different than the one infants last saw her look at). Indeed this interpretation may account for the conflicting results in recent studies (e.g., Poulin-Dubois et al., 2007; Onishi & Baillargeon, 2005; Surian et al., 2007). Poulin-Dubois et al. (2007) recently reported that the ability to distinguish between knowledge and ignorance (true belief) is absent at 14 months of age and still fragile at 18 months in a violation-of-expectancy task depicting videotaped human actors. In contrast, false-belief attribution to a computer animated caterpillar has been reported in 13-month-old infants (Surian et al., 2007). Given that infants have had more experience with humans looking at objects than with a caterpillar's looking behavior, the current evidence for an implicit understanding of advanced mental states such as false belief should be interpreted with caution. As is the case for nonhuman primate research, infants' mind-reading success might be accounted for by a simple behavior-reading explanation. According to some researchers, primates' (and infants') successful performance in theory of mind tasks can be explained by a sophisticated form of behavior reading. Under this view, infants perform well in such tasks because they are adept at calculating the statistical likelihood that some aspects of people's observable features (e.g., gaze) will be linked to future actions (e.g., search at a location). Distinguishing between a mentalistic and rule-based account is very difficult (Povinelli & Vonk, 2004). One way to address this debate would be to design training studies that provide infants with first-person experience of mental states and to use more active behavioral measures. In terms of training, there is some evidence that infants' performance on goal and visual perception attribution tasks is improved if they received training of relevant skills (e.g., wearing a blindfold, reaching with a "sticky mitten": Meltzoff & Brooks, 2007: Sommerville & Woodward, 2004). Furthermore, longitudinal research using more active measures revealed links between goal detection as measured with the violation of expectancy paradigm at 10 months of age and the ability to infer intended goals in an imitation task at 14 months (Olineck & Poulin-Dubois, 2007b). Developmental changes in the scope of infants' concept of intentional agent also will require more attention from researchers. According to some, infants' attributions of intentional behavior are activated whenever infants recognize an object as a psychological agent, based on an evolutionary designed system which is sensitive to certain cues such as self-propulsion, contingent reactivity or equifinal variation of the action (Baron-Cohen, 1995; Gergely & Csibra, 2003; Johnson, 2000; Leslie, deficient in theory of mind. One may hope that nonverbal theory of mind tasks that reliably predict later theory mind skills will be adapted for use with this population and eventually used for the early detection of autism. In sum, the numerous studies reported here show that by the end of the second year of life, infants have developed ways to predict human actions The review also makes clear that we do not yet fully understand how deep infants' insight into the mind really is. Nonetheless, there appears to be some consensus that infants, like chimpanzees, understand the goals, intentions, perception, and knowledge of others. This provides the foundations for the full-fledged adult-like naive psychology that develops gradually in early childhood.

Building a Bridge from Birth to School: Improving Developmental and Behavioral Health Services for Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halfon, Neal; Regalado, Michael; McLearn, Kathryn Taaffe; Kuo, Alice A.; Wright, Kynna

Although most American infants and young children receive adequate well-child care, they may not receive needed help if developmental problems arise. This report examines primary health care services that promote infant/child development and suggests ways to improve those services as part of routine primary child health care. The report details…

Kindergarten Readiness after Prematurity: Integrating Health, Development, and Behavioral Functioning to Optimize Educational Outcomes of Vulnerable Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauer, Sarah C.; Msall, Michael E.

2010-01-01

In the past 20 years, many advances (e.g., maternal steroids and surfactant) have changed the course of neonatal medicine. As a result, extremely preterm infants survive medical complications that were previously fatal. Once they are discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit, preterm infants may continue to experience a spectrum of medical…

Relationships Between Selected Family Variables and Maternal and Infant Behavior in a Disadvantaged Population. A Supplementary Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Ira J.; And Others

This pamphlet contains a series of studies that grew out of the parent education project of the Institute for Development of Human Resources. The objectives and general design of the project consisted of instruction of 200 environmentally disadvantaged mothers by parent educators using a sequence of infant stimulation exercises conducted in the…

Manual Activity and Onset of First Words in Babies Exposed and Not Exposed to Baby Signing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seal, Brenda C.; DePaolis, Rory A.

2014-01-01

Support for baby signing (BS) with hearing infants tends to converge toward three camps or positions. Those who advocate BS to advance infant language, literacy, behavioral, and cognitive development rely heavily on anecdotal evidence and social media to support their claims. Those who advocate BS as an introduction to another language, such as…

A Behavior-Genetic Study of Parenting Quality, Infant Attachment Security, and Their Covariation in a Nationally Representative Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roisman, Glenn I.; Fraley, R. Chris

2008-01-01

A number of relatively small-sample, genetically sensitive studies of infant attachment security have been published in the past several years that challenge the view that all psychological phenotypes are heritable and that environmental influences on child development--to the extent that they can be detected--serve to make siblings dissimilar.…

Father-Infant Interaction, Paternal Ideas about Early Child Care, and Their Consequences for the Development of Children's Self-Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borke, Jorn; Lamm, Bettina; Eickhorst, Andreas; Keller, Heidi

2007-01-01

In this longitudinal study, the authors addressed intracultural variation on fathers' interactions with their 3-month-old infants, their ideas about parental care, and the timing of their children's self-recognition at the age of 18-20 months. Participants were 24 middle-class German fathers and their firstborn children. Two behavioral clusters…

The Cowden Preautism Observation Inventory: With Effective Intervention Activities for Sensory Motor Stimulation and Joint Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowden, Jo E.

2011-01-01

Written for parents and professionals who want to positively affect the development of infants, this book provides guidance to families for detecting early signs of preautism in their infant or toddler. The Cowden Preautism Observation Inventory (CPAOI) will help parents to establish a baseline of behaviors and skills, along with the use of…

Developmental Emergence of Self-Referential and Inhibition Mechanisms of Body Movements Underling Felicitous Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watanabe, Hama; Homae, Fumitaka; Taga, Gentaro

2011-01-01

In young infants, activation or inhibition of body movements on perception of environmental events is important to enable them to act on the world or understand the world. To reveal the development of this ability, we observed movement patterns in all four limbs under the two experimental conditions. Infants assigned to the interaction condition…

Behavioral analysis of preterm neonates included in a tactile and kinesthetic stimulation program during hospitalization.

PubMed

Ferreira, Andréia M; Bergamasco, Niélsy H P

2010-01-01

To evaluate the effect of tactile and kinesthetic stimulation on behavioral and clinical development in preterm neonates while still in the hospital. Thirty-two clinically stable preterm infants weighing <2.500 grams, with no significant perinatal asphyxia, were allocated to two groups: a control group (CG) in which no intervention was made (n=16) and a study group (SG) in which the newborn infants received tactile and kinesthetic stimulation (n=16). Data on the infants' clinical progress were collected from medical charts and behavioral evaluations by means of a series of weekly, eight-minute films recorded from the time of inclusion into the study until hospital discharge. There was a trend towards a shorter duration of hospital stay, increased daily weight gain and a predominance of self-regulated behavior (regular breathing, state of alertness, balanced tonus, a range of postures, coordinated movements, hand-to-face movement control, suction, grip, support) in infants in the SG. With respect to motor control, comparative analysis of postconceptional ages according to age-bracket (I - 31-33 weeks 6/7; II - 34-36 weeks 6/7; and III - 37-39 weeks 6/7) revealed balanced tonus and coordinated voluntary movements in all three periods, a longer time spent in a range of postures (age bracket I) or in flexion (age bracket II) and more regular breathing in age bracket I in the SG. In the hospital, tactile and kinesthetic stimulation was shown to have a positive effect, contributing towards adjustment and self-regulation of behavior in the preterm newborn infant. Article registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) under the number ACTRN12610000133033.

“Giving” and “responding” differences in gestural communication between nonhuman great ape mothers and infants

PubMed Central

Liebal, Katja; Call, Josep

2017-01-01

Abstract In the first comparative analysis of its kind, we investigated gesture behavior and response patterns in 25 captive ape mother–infant dyads (six bonobos, eight chimpanzees, three gorillas, and eight orangutans). We examined (i) how frequently mothers and infants gestured to each other and to other group members; and (ii) to what extent infants and mothers responded to the gestural attempts of others. Our findings confirmed the hypothesis that bonobo mothers were more proactive in their gesturing to their infants than the other species. Yet mothers (from all four species) often did not respond to the gestures of their infants and other group members. In contrast, infants “pervasively” responded to gestures they received from their mothers and other group members. We propose that infants’ pervasive responsiveness rather than the quality of mother investment and her responsiveness may be crucial to communication development in nonhuman great apes. PMID:28323346

Optimizing the rapid measurement of detection thresholds in infants

PubMed Central

Jones, Pete R.; Kalwarowsky, Sarah; Braddick, Oliver J.; Atkinson, Janette; Nardini, Marko

2015-01-01

Accurate measures of perceptual threshold are difficult to obtain in infants. In a clinical context, the challenges are particularly acute because the methods must yield meaningful results quickly and within a single individual. The present work considers how best to maximize speed, accuracy, and reliability when testing infants behaviorally and suggests some simple principles for improving test efficiency. Monte Carlo simulations, together with empirical (visual acuity) data from 65 infants, are used to demonstrate how psychophysical methods developed with adults can produce misleading results when applied to infants. The statistical properties of an effective clinical infant test are characterized, and based on these, it is shown that (a) a reduced (false-positive) guessing rate can greatly increase test efficiency, (b) the ideal threshold to target is often below 50% correct, and (c) simply taking the max correct response can often provide the best measure of an infant's perceptual sensitivity. PMID:26237298

Infant frontal EEG asymmetry in relation with postnatal maternal depression and parenting behavior.

PubMed

Wen, D J; Soe, N N; Sim, L W; Sanmugam, S; Kwek, K; Chong, Y-S; Gluckman, P D; Meaney, M J; Rifkin-Graboi, A; Qiu, A

2017-03-14

Right frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry associates with negative affect and depressed mood, which, among children, are predicted by maternal depression and poor parenting. This study examined associations of maternal depression and maternal sensitivity with infant frontal EEG asymmetry based on 111 mother-6-month-infant dyads. There were no significant effects of postnatal maternal depression or maternal sensitivity, or their interaction, on infant EEG frontal asymmetry. However, in a subsample for which the infant spent at least 50% of his/her day time hours with his/her mother, both lower maternal sensitivity and higher maternal depression predicted greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry. Our study further showed that greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry of 6-month-old infants predicted their greater negative emotionality at 12 months of age. Our study suggested that among infants with sufficient postnatal maternal exposure, both maternal sensitivity and mental health are important influences on early brain development.

Retrospective Assessment of Behavioral Inhibition in Infants and Toddlers: Development of a Parent Report Questionnaire

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gensthaler, A.; Mohler, E.; Resch, F.; Paulus, F.; Schwenck, C.; Freitag, C. M.; Goth, K.

2013-01-01

A behaviorally inhibited temperament in early childhood has been identified as a potential risk factor for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. The purpose of our investigation was the development and evaluation of the factor structure, reliability and validity of the first retrospective parent report measure to assess behavioral…

The Relationship between Neonatal Characteristics and Three-Month Mother-Infant Interaction in High-Risk Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greene, Jamie G.; And Others

1983-01-01

Addresses three questions: (1) To what extent do risk factors of prematurity and illness affect neonatal characteristics? (2) Do these risk factors continue to account for differences in mother and infant social interactive behavior at three months? and (three) To what degree are neonatal characteristics predictive of mother and infant behavior at…

Individual Differences in Infants' Joint Attention Behaviors with Mother and a New Social Partner

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meins, Elizabeth; Fernyhough, Charles; Arnott, Bronia; Vittorini, Lucia; Turner, Michelle; Leekam, Susan R.; Parkinson, Kathryn

2011-01-01

Relations between infant-mother attachment security at 15 months and infants' (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants' tendency to respond to an…

Child-Centered Behaviors of Caregivers with 12-Month-Old Infants: Associations with Passive Joint Engagement and Later Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trautman, Carol Hamer; Rollins, Pamela Rosenthal

2006-01-01

This study investigates three aspects of social communication in 12-month-old infants and their caregivers: (a) caregiver conversational style, (b) caregiver gesture, and (c) infant engagement. Differences in caregiver behavior during passive joint engagement were associated with language outcomes. Although total mean duration of infant time in…

Bidirectional associations between bedtime parenting and infant sleep: Parenting quality, parenting practices, and their interaction.

PubMed

Philbrook, Lauren E; Teti, Douglas M

2016-06-01

In keeping with transactional conceptualizations of infant sleep development (Sadeh, Tikotzky, & Scher, 2010), the present study was an examination of longitudinal, bidirectional linkages between bedtime parenting (through direct observations of parenting practices and quality) and infant sleep across the first 6 months postpartum. In doing so, we also drew from Darling and Steinberg's (1993) conceptual model to examine parenting quality as a moderator of linkages between specific bedtime practices and infant sleep. Multilevel model analyses revealed that the strongest increases in infant nighttime sleep across the first 6 months occurred among infants of mothers who engaged in low levels of nursing at bedtime. Within-person linkages between mothers' emotional availability (EA) at bedtime, infant distress, and infant sleep were found, such that at time points when mothers were more emotionally available, infants were less distressed and slept more throughout the night. Several moderating effects of maternal EA on linkages between parenting practices and infant sleep were obtained that were consistent with predictions from Darling and Steinberg (1993). Higher maternal EA in combination with less close contact at bedtime was associated with more infant sleep across the night on average, and higher EA in combination with fewer arousing bedtime activities predicted more rapid increases in infant sleep with age. Finally, there was evidence of infant-driven effects, as higher infant nighttime distress predicted lower EA at subsequent time points. Results showcased the complex, reciprocal interplay between parents and infants in the development of infant sleep patterns and parenting behavior during the first 6 months postpartum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Bidirectional Associations between Bedtime Parenting and Infant Sleep: Parenting Quality, Parenting Practices, and their Interaction

PubMed Central

Philbrook, Lauren E.; Teti, Douglas M.

2016-01-01

In keeping with transactional conceptualizations of infant sleep development (Sadeh et al., 2010), the present study examined longitudinal, bidirectional linkages between bedtime parenting (direct observations of parenting practices and quality) and infant sleep across the first six months postpartum. In doing so, we also drew from Darling and Steinberg's (1993) conceptual model to examine parenting quality as a moderator of linkages between specific bedtime practices and infant sleep. Multilevel model analyses revealed that the strongest increases in infant nighttime sleep across the first six months occurred among infants of mothers who engaged in low levels of nursing at bedtime. Within-person linkages between mothers' emotional availability (EA) at bedtime, infant distress, and infant sleep were found, such that at time points when mothers were more emotionally available, infants were less distressed and slept more throughout the night. Several moderating effects of maternal EA on linkages between parenting practices and infant sleep were obtained that were consistent with predictions from Darling and Steinberg (1993). Higher maternal EA in combination with less close contact at bedtime was associated with more infant sleep across the night on average, and higher EA in combination with fewer arousing bedtime activities predicted more rapid increases in infant sleep with age. Finally, there was evidence of infant-driven effects, as higher infant nighttime distress predicted lower EA at subsequent time points. Results showcased the complex, reciprocal interplay between parents and infants in the development of infant sleep patterns and parenting behavior during the first six months postpartum. PMID:27010601

Iron deficiency anemia: adverse effects on infant psychomotor development.

PubMed

Walter, T; De Andraca, I; Chadud, P; Perales, C G

1989-07-01

In a double-blind, placebo-control prospective cohort study of 196 infants from birth to 15 months of age, assessment was made at 12 months of age of the relationship between iron status and psychomotor development, the effect of a short-term (10-day) trial of oral iron vs placebo, and the effect of long-term (3 months) oral iron therapy. Development was assessed with the mental and psychomotor indices and the infant behavior record of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development in 39 anemic, 30 control, and 127 nonanemic iron-deficient children. Anemic infants had significantly lower Mental and Psychomotor Developmental Index scores than control infants or nonanemic iron-deficient infants (one-way analysis of variance, P less than .0001). Control infants and nonanemic iron-deficient infants performed comparably. No difference was noted between the effect of oral administration of iron or placebo after 10 days or after 3 months of iron therapy. Among anemic infants a hemoglobin concentration less than 10.5 g/dL and duration of anemia of greater than 3 months were correlated with significantly lower motor and mental scores (P less than .05). Anemic infants failed specifically in language capabilities and body balance-coordination skills when compared with controls. These results, in a design in which intervening variables were closely controlled, suggest that when iron deficiency progresses to anemia, but not before, adverse influences in the performance of developmental tests appear and persist for at least 3 months despite correction of anemia with iron therapy. If these impairments prove to be long standing, prevention of iron deficiency anemia in early infancy becomes the only way to avoid them.

Early brain development in infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorder

PubMed Central

Hazlett, Heather Cody; Gu, Hongbin; Munsell, Brent C.; Kim, Sun Hyung; Styner, Martin; Wolff, Jason J.; Elison, Jed T.; Swanson, Meghan R.; Zhu, Hongtu; Botteron, Kelly N.; Collins, D. Louis; Constantino, John N.; Dager, Stephen R.; Estes, Annette M.; Evans, Alan C.; Fonov, Vladimir S.; Gerig, Guido; Kostopoulos, Penelope; McKinstry, Robert C.; Pandey, Juhi; Paterson, Sarah; Pruett, John R.; Schultz, Robert T.; Shaw, Dennis W.; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Piven, Joseph

2017-01-01

Summary Brain enlargement has been observed in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but the timing of this phenomenon and its relationship to the appearance of behavioral symptoms is unknown. Retrospective head circumference and longitudinal brain volume studies of 2 year olds followed up at age 4 years, have provided evidence that increased brain volume may emerge early in development.1, 2 Studies of infants at high familial risk for autism can provide insight into the early development of autism and have found that characteristic social deficits in ASD emerge during the latter part of the first and in the second year of life3,4. These observations suggest that prospective brain imaging studies of infants at high familial risk for ASD might identify early post-natal changes in brain volume occurring before the emergence of an ASD diagnosis. In this prospective neuroimaging study of 106 infants at high familial risk of ASD and 42 low-risk infants, we show that cortical surface area hyper-expansion between 6-12 months of age precedes brain volume overgrowth observed between 12-24 months in the 15 high-risk infants diagnosed with autism at 24 months. Brain volume overgrowth was linked to the emergence and severity of autistic social deficits. A deep learning algorithm primarily using surface area information from brain MRI at 6 and 12 months of age predicted the diagnosis of autism in individual high-risk children at 24 months (with a positive predictive value of 81%, sensitivity of 88%). These findings demonstrate that early brain changes unfold during the period in which autistic behaviors are first emerging. PMID:28202961

Temperamental precursors of infant attachment with mothers and fathers.

PubMed

Planalp, Elizabeth M; Braungart-Rieker, Julia M

2013-12-01

The degree to which parent sensitivity and infant temperament distinguish attachment classification was examined. Multilevel modeling was used to assess the effect of parent sensitivity and infant temperament on infant-mother and infant-father attachment. Data were collected from mothers, fathers, and their infants (N = 135) when the infant was 3-, 5-, 7-, 12-, and 14-months old. Temperament was measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003); parent sensitivity was coded during the Still Face Paradigm (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, & Brazelton, 1978); attachment was coded using the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Results indicate that mothers and fathers were less sensitive with insecure-avoidant infants. Whereas only one difference was found for infant-mother attachment groups and temperament, five significant differences emerged for infant-father attachment groups, with the majority involving insecure-ambivalent attachment. Infants classified as ambivalent with fathers were higher in perceptual sensitivity and cuddliness and these infants also showed a greater increase in low-intensity pleasure over time compared with other infants. Results indicate the importance of both parent sensitivity and infant temperament, though operating in somewhat different ways, in the development of the infant-mother and infant-father attachment relationship. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hypersynchrony in MEG spectral amplitude in prospectively-identified 6-month-old infants prenatally exposed to alcohol.

PubMed

Stephen, Julia M; Flynn, Lucinda; Kabella, Danielle; Schendel, Megan; Cano, Sandra; Savage, Daniel D; Rayburn, William; Leeman, Lawrence M; Lowe, Jean; Bakhireva, Ludmila N

2018-01-01

Early identification of children who experience developmental delays due to prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) remains a challenge for individuals who do not exhibit facial dysmorphia. It is well-established that children with PAE may still exhibit the cognitive and behavioral difficulties, and individuals without facial dysmorphia make up the majority of individuals affected by PAE. This study employed a prospective cohort design to capture alcohol consumption patterns during pregnancy and then followed the infants to 6 months of age. Infants were assessed using magnetoencephalography to capture neurophysiological indicators of brain development and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-III to measure behavioral development. To account for socioeconomic and family environmental factors, we employed a two-by-two design with pregnant women who were or were not using opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) and did or did not consume alcohol during pregnancy. Based on prior studies, we hypothesized that infants with PAE would exhibit broad increased spectral amplitude relative to non-PAE infants. We also hypothesized that the developmental shift from low to high frequency spectral amplitude would be delayed in infants with PAE relative to controls. Our results demonstrated broadband increased spectral amplitude, interpreted as hypersynchrony, in PAE infants with no significant interaction with OMT. Unlike prior EEG studies in neonates, our results indicate that this hypersynchrony was highly lateralized to left hemisphere and primarily focused in temporal/lateral frontal regions. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between estimated number of drinks consumed during pregnancy and spectral amplitude revealing a dose-response effect of increased hypersynchrony corresponding to greater alcohol consumption. Contrary to our second hypothesis, we did not see a significant group difference in the contribution of low frequency to high frequency amplitude at 6 months of age. These results provide new evidence that hypersynchrony, previously observed in neonates prenatally exposed to high levels of alcohol, persists until 6 months of age and this measure is detectable with low to moderate exposure of alcohol with a dose-response effect. These results indicate that hypersynchrony may provide a sensitive early marker of prenatal alcohol exposure in infants up to 6 months of age.

Fetal programming of infant neuromotor development: the generation R study.

PubMed

van Batenburg-Eddes, Tamara; de Groot, Laila; Steegers, Eric A P; Hofman, Albert; Jaddoe, Vincent W V; Verhulst, Frank C; Tiemeier, Henning

2010-02-01

The objective of the study was to examine whether infant neuromotor development is determined by fetal size and body symmetry in the general population. This study was embedded within the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort in Rotterdam. In 2965 fetuses, growth parameters were measured in mid-pregnancy and late pregnancy. After birth, at age 9 to 15 wks, neuromotor development was assessed with an adapted version of Touwen's Neurodevelopmental Examination. Less optimal neuromotor development was defined as a score in the highest tertile. We found that higher fetal weight was beneficial to infant neurodevelopment. A fetus with a 1-SD score higher weight in mid-pregnancy had an 11% lower risk of less optimal neuromotor development (OR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.82-0.97). Similarly, a fetus with a 1-SD score larger abdominal-to-head circumference (AC/HC) ratio had a 13% lower risk of less optimal neuromotor development (OR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79-0.96). These associations were also present in late pregnancy. Our findings show that fetal size and body symmetry in pregnancy are associated with infant neuromotor development. These results suggest that differences in infant neuromotor development, a marker of behavioral and cognitive problems, are at least partly caused by processes occurring early in fetal life.

Video interaction guidance inviting transcendence of postpartum depressed mothers' self-centered state and holding behavior.

PubMed

Vik, Kari; Braten, Stein

2009-05-01

By sometimes evoking self-absorbed and avoidance behaviors in new mothers, postnatal depression affects the quality of mother-infant interaction, which in turn may invoke distress and avoidance in the infant and cause even more lasting impairment in the child's development. Three depressed mothers, A, B, and C, are reported upon after having been offered counseling in accordance with the Marte Meo approach through jointly watching with the therapist video replays of themselves interacting with their newborns. Clinical vignettes are offered which indicate how empathic and positive support of a sensitive therapist can be helpful in inviting the mother's recognition of her importance to her infant and facilitating mutually gratifying interaction between mother and child. Protocol analyses of select sessions of video-related therapy reveal that two of the mothers sometimes complete the therapist's unfinished statements in an other-centered manner, thereby transcending their initial self-centered state. This is most dramatic in the case of Mother A, who starts out in the first session almost incapable of speech, merely nodding or shaking her head. In addition to other indications of improved mother-infant interaction, comparison of pre- and postguidance windows regarding the three mothers' holding behaviors reveals a shift from an avoidance or anxious stance to closer and more secure holding. Copyright © 2009 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Intersubjective Interaction Between Deaf Parents/Deaf Infants During the Infant's First 18 Months.

PubMed

Roos, Carin; Cramér-Wolrath, Emelie; Falkman, Kerstin W

2016-01-01

This study is part of a larger longitudinal project with the aim of focusing early social interaction and development of mentalizing ability in 12 deaf infants, including the interaction between the infants and their deaf parents. The aim of the present paper is to describe early social interaction and moments of intersubjectivity between the deaf infants and their deaf parents during the first 18 months of the infant's life. The study is focused on the dyadic interaction rather than on the behaviors of the infant and the caregiver separately. In the analysis, the Intersubjective Developmental Theory Model (Loots, Devisé, & Sermijn, 2003) and the definitions of moments of intersubjectivity (Loots, Devisé, & Jacquet, 2005) were used. The findings show that the participating infants follow a typical developmental trajectory of intersubjectivity, both with regard to developmental stages and age. This development is supported by a visual, simultaneous way of communicating by gaze rather than having constant eye contact. Parents use complex visual communication skills in maintaining joint attention and also expect the infant to grasp the meaning of the interaction by use of gaze contact. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB): Furthering the Understanding and Measurement of Neurodevelopmental Competence in Preterm and Full-Term Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Als, Heidelise; Butler, Samantha; Kosta, Sandra; McAnulty, Gloria

2005-01-01

The Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB) is a newborn neurobehavioral assessment appropriate for preterm, at risk, and full-term newborns, from birth to 1 month after expected due date. The APIB is based in ethological--evolutionary thought and focuses on the assessment of mutually interacting behavioral subsystems in simultaneous…

Infant Attention and Visual Preferences: Converging Evidence from Behavior, Event-Related Potentials, and Cortical Source Localization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Greg D.; Courage, Mary L.; Richards, John E.

2010-01-01

In this study, we had 3 major goals. The 1st goal was to establish a link between behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures of infant attention and recognition memory. To assess the distribution of infant visual preferences throughout ERP testing, we designed a new experimental procedure that embeds a behavioral measure (paired…

Effect of maternal behavior on regulation during feeding in healthy infants and infants with transposition

PubMed Central

Harrison, Tondi M.

2010-01-01

Objective To compare physiologic regulation and the effect of maternal sensitive caregiving during feeding on physiologic regulation in healthy infants and in infants with transposition of the great arteries (TGA). Design Descriptive, two group, repeated measures. Setting Three children's hospitals in the Midwest. Participants A convenience sample of 15 infants with TGA matched with 16 healthy infants. Methods Measures of physiologic regulation before, during, and after feeding and quality of maternal affect and behavior during feeding were collected post-operatively at two weeks and two months of age. Results At two weeks, infants with TGA demonstrated impaired physiologic regulation with feedings when compared with healthy infants. Healthy infants of more sensitive mothers were more likely to demonstrate a physiologically adaptive response during feeding. Maternal effect on physiologic regulation was not observed in infants with TGA. No differences between groups were found at two months. Conclusions For infants with TGA, effects of surgical recovery and limited contact with their mothers relative to healthy infants may have outweighed the supportive effect of maternal sensitivity during feeding in the early weeks of life. Further research is needed to identify ways of enhancing the regulatory effect of maternal behavior on infants with heart defects. PMID:19614886

Infant feeding: the interfaces between interaction design and cognitive ergonomics in user-centered design.

PubMed

Lima, Flavia; Araújo, Lilian Kely

2012-01-01

This text presents a discussion on the process of developing interactive products focused on infant behavior, which result was an interactive game for encouraging infant feeding. For that, it describes the use of cognitive psychology concepts added to interaction design methodology. Through this project, this article sustains how the cooperative use of these concepts provides adherent solutions to users' needs, whichever they are. Besides that, it verifies the closeness of those methodologies to boundary areas of knowledge, such as design focused on user and ergonomics.

Neural correlates of perceptual narrowing in cross-species face-voice matching.

PubMed

Grossmann, Tobias; Missana, Manuela; Friederici, Angela D; Ghazanfar, Asif A

2012-11-01

Integrating the multisensory features of talking faces is critical to learning and extracting coherent meaning from social signals. While we know much about the development of these capacities at the behavioral level, we know very little about the underlying neural processes. One prominent behavioral milestone of these capacities is the perceptual narrowing of face-voice matching, whereby young infants match faces and voices across species, but older infants do not. In the present study, we provide neurophysiological evidence for developmental decline in cross-species face-voice matching. We measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while 4- and 8-month-old infants watched and listened to congruent and incongruent audio-visual presentations of monkey vocalizations and humans mimicking monkey vocalizations. The ERP results indicated that younger infants distinguished between the congruent and the incongruent faces and voices regardless of species, whereas in older infants, the sensitivity to multisensory congruency was limited to the human face and voice. Furthermore, with development, visual and frontal brain processes and their functional connectivity became more sensitive to the congruence of human faces and voices relative to monkey faces and voices. Our data show the neural correlates of perceptual narrowing in face-voice matching and support the notion that postnatal experience with species identity is associated with neural changes in multisensory processing (Lewkowicz & Ghazanfar, 2009). © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2), dopamine transporter solute carrier family C6, member 4 (SLC6A3), and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genes as moderators of the relation between maternal history of maltreatment and infant emotion regulation.

PubMed

Villani, Vanessa; Ludmer, Jaclyn; Gonzalez, Andrea; Levitan, Robert; Kennedy, James; Masellis, Mario; Basile, Vincenzo S; Wekerle, Christine; Atkinson, Leslie

2018-05-01

Although infants less than 18 months old are capable of engaging in self-regulatory behavior (e.g., avoidance, withdrawal, and orienting to other aspects of their environment), the use of self-regulatory strategies at this age (as opposed to relying on caregivers) is associated with elevated behavioral and physiological distress. This study investigated infant dopamine-related genotypes (dopamine receptor D2 [DRD2], dopamine transporter solute carrier family C6, member 4 [SLC6A3], and catechol-O-methyltransferase [COMT]) as they interact with maternal self-reported history of maltreatment to predict observed infant independent emotion regulation behavior. A community sample (N = 193) of mother-infant dyads participated in a toy frustration challenge at infant age 15 months, and infant emotion regulation behavior was coded. Buccal cells were collected for genotyping. Maternal maltreatment history significantly interacted with infant SLC6A3 and COMT genotypes, such that infants with more 10-repeat and valine alleles of SLC6A3 and COMT, respectively, relative to infants with fewer or no 10-repeat and valine alleles, utilized more independent (i.e., maladaptive) regulatory behavior if mother reported a more extensive maltreatment history, as opposed to less. The findings indicate that child genetic factors moderate the intergenerational impact of maternal maltreatment history. The results are discussed in terms of potential mechanism of Gene × Environment interaction.

Cortisol in mother's milk across lactation reflects maternal life history and predicts infant temperament.

PubMed

Hinde, Katie; Skibiel, Amy L; Foster, Alison B; Del Rosso, Laura; Mendoza, Sally P; Capitanio, John P

2015-01-01

The maternal environment exerts important influences on offspring mass/growth, metabolism, reproduction, neurobiology, immune function, and behavior among birds, insects, reptiles, fish, and mammals. For mammals, mother's milk is an important physiological pathway for nutrient transfer and glucocorticoid signaling that potentially influences offspring growth and behavioral phenotype. Glucocorticoids in mother's milk have been associated with offspring behavioral phenotype in several mammals, but studies have been handicapped by not simultaneously evaluating milk energy density and yield. This is problematic as milk glucocorticoids and nutrients likely have simultaneous effects on offspring phenotype. We investigated mother's milk and infant temperament and growth in a cohort of rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta ) mother-infant dyads at the California National Primate Research Center ( N = 108). Glucocorticoids in mother's milk, independent of available milk energy, predicted a more Nervous, less Confident temperament in both sons and daughters. We additionally found sex differences in the windows of sensitivity and the magnitude of sensitivity to maternal-origin glucocorticoids. Lower parity mothers produced milk with higher cortisol concentrations. Lastly, higher cortisol concentrations in milk were associated with greater infant weight gain across time. Taken together, these results suggest that mothers with fewer somatic resources, even in captivity, may be "programming" through cortisol signaling, behaviorally cautious offspring that prioritize growth. Glucocorticoids ingested through milk may importantly contribute to the assimilation of available milk energy, development of temperament, and orchestrate, in part, the allocation of maternal milk energy between growth and behavioral phenotype.

Cortisol in mother’s milk across lactation reflects maternal life history and predicts infant temperament

PubMed Central

Skibiel, Amy L.; Foster, Alison B.; Del Rosso, Laura; Mendoza, Sally P.; Capitanio, John P.

2015-01-01

The maternal environment exerts important influences on offspring mass/growth, metabolism, reproduction, neurobiology, immune function, and behavior among birds, insects, reptiles, fish, and mammals. For mammals, mother’s milk is an important physiological pathway for nutrient transfer and glucocorticoid signaling that potentially influences offspring growth and behavioral phenotype. Glucocorticoids in mother’s milk have been associated with offspring behavioral phenotype in several mammals, but studies have been handicapped by not simultaneously evaluating milk energy density and yield. This is problematic as milk glucocorticoids and nutrients likely have simultaneous effects on offspring phenotype. We investigated mother’s milk and infant temperament and growth in a cohort of rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) mother–infant dyads at the California National Primate Research Center (N = 108). Glucocorticoids in mother’s milk, independent of available milk energy, predicted a more Nervous, less Confident temperament in both sons and daughters. We additionally found sex differences in the windows of sensitivity and the magnitude of sensitivity to maternal-origin glucocorticoids. Lower parity mothers produced milk with higher cortisol concentrations. Lastly, higher cortisol concentrations in milk were associated with greater infant weight gain across time. Taken together, these results suggest that mothers with fewer somatic resources, even in captivity, may be “programming” through cortisol signaling, behaviorally cautious offspring that prioritize growth. Glucocorticoids ingested through milk may importantly contribute to the assimilation of available milk energy, development of temperament, and orchestrate, in part, the allocation of maternal milk energy between growth and behavioral phenotype. PMID:25713475

Social visual engagement in infants and toddlers with autism: Early developmental transitions and a model of pathogenesis

PubMed Central

Klin, Ami; Shultz, Sarah; Jones, Warren

2014-01-01

Efforts to determine and understand the causes of autism are currently hampered by a large disconnect between recent molecular genetics findings that are associated with the condition and the core behavioral symptoms that define the condition. In this perspective piece, we propose a systems biology framework to bridge that gap between genes and symptoms. The framework focuses on basic mechanisms of socialization that are highly-conserved in evolution and are early-emerging in development. By conceiving of these basic mechanisms of socialization as quantitative endophenotypes, we hope to connect genes and behavior in autism through integrative studies of neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and epigenetic changes. These changes both lead to and are led by the accomplishment of specific social adaptive tasks in a typical infant's life. However, based on recent research that indicates that infants later diagnosed with autism fail to accomplish at least some of these tasks, we suggest that a narrow developmental period, spanning critical transitions from reflexive, subcortically-controlled visual behavior to interactional, cortically-controlled and social visual behavior be prioritized for future study. Mapping epigenetic, neural, and behavioral changes that both drive and are driven by these early transitions may shed a bright light on the pathogenesis of autism. PMID:25445180

Social visual engagement in infants and toddlers with autism: early developmental transitions and a model of pathogenesis.

PubMed

Klin, Ami; Shultz, Sarah; Jones, Warren

2015-03-01

Efforts to determine and understand the causes of autism are currently hampered by a large disconnect between recent molecular genetics findings that are associated with the condition and the core behavioral symptoms that define the condition. In this perspective piece, we propose a systems biology framework to bridge that gap between genes and symptoms. The framework focuses on basic mechanisms of socialization that are highly-conserved in evolution and are early-emerging in development. By conceiving of these basic mechanisms of socialization as quantitative endophenotypes, we hope to connect genes and behavior in autism through integrative studies of neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and epigenetic changes. These changes both lead to and are led by the accomplishment of specific social adaptive tasks in a typical infant's life. However, based on recent research that indicates that infants later diagnosed with autism fail to accomplish at least some of these tasks, we suggest that a narrow developmental period, spanning critical transitions from reflexive, subcortically-controlled visual behavior to interactional, cortically-controlled and social visual behavior be prioritized for future study. Mapping epigenetic, neural, and behavioral changes that both drive and are driven by these early transitions may shed a bright light on the pathogenesis of autism. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Variation in Prolactin Is Related to Variation in Sexual Behavior and Contact Affiliation

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Prolactin is associated with both maternal and paternal care and appears important in developing a bond between parent and infant. In contrast with oxytocin, another hormone important in infant care, there is scant information on the role of prolactin in maintaining adult heterosexual relationships. We present here the first results demonstrating a relationship between prolactin levels and sexual and contact affiliation behavior in a pair-bonded species. We studied cotton-top tamarins, a socially-monogamous, cooperatively-breeding primate. We measured chronic urinary prolactin levels over a four week period to include the entire female ovulatory cycle and correlated prolactin levels in males and females with simultaneous measures of contact affiliation and sexual behavior. Current mothers who were no longer nursing displayed lower amounts of sexual behavior and proximity than non-breeding females and also had marginally lower levels of prolactin. The prolactin levels of males and females were similar within pairs, and variation in prolactin levels for both sexes was explained both by the amount of sexual behavior and contact affiliation. The results parallel a previous study that compared oxytocin levels with sociosexual behavior in the same species, and supports the hypothesis that both prolactin and oxytocin are involved in pair-bonding as well as in infant care. PMID:25799436

TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MINDFULNESS AS PREDICTORS IN MATERNAL-INFANT INTERACTION.

PubMed

Pickard, Judy A; Townsend, Michelle L; Caputi, Peter; Grenyer, Brin F S

2018-01-01

The cross-generational transmission of attachment appears to reflect a complex interplay of factors, which have been challenging to identify. The current longitudinal study explored the maternal cognitive model of relationships through language use, maternal mindfulness, and attachment style assessed prenatally, as predictors of maternal response to distress and infant behavior at 6 months' postpartum. Infant behavior to the mother also was examined to provide an understanding of the evolving relationship. Thirty-two females were interviewed prenatally regarding social and family experiences. At 6 months' postpartum, each mother participated in a video-recorded session where she was asked to teach her infant a developmentally appropriate task. Videos were analyzed using the NCAST Teaching Protocol. Language use prenatally as well as the mindfulness facets (acting with awareness and describing) predicted the mothers' ability to respond to infant distress, indicating greater attunement. Infant's response to mother and clarity of cues also were predicted by maternal pronoun use. The study highlights the role of internal working models reflective of interpersonal beliefs, cognitive models, and current-moment awareness in maternal behavior. The effect of maternal language on infant behavior arguably indicates the infant's integration of maternal internal working models. © 2017 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Solving Sleep Behavior Disorders in Infants and Toddlers: The Munich Research and Intervention Program for Fussy Babies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papousek, Mechthild

2009-01-01

Sleep behavior disorders do not only affect infants' well-being, they also challenge the parents' physical and emotional resources, promote risks for the growing parent-infant relationships, and burden the parents' co-parenting relationship. Sleep-onset and night waking problems are widely spread among otherwise healthy infants, and they tend to…

Effects of music on physiological and behavioral responses of premature infants: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Alipour, Zahra; Eskandari, Narges; Ahmari Tehran, Hoda; Eshagh Hossaini, Seyed Kamal; Sangi, Sareh

2013-08-01

Despite persuasive theories about the beneficial effects of music and singing in developmental care for premature infants, few small studies are available in this regard. We conducted this study to investigate the physiological and behavioral responses of premature infants to recorded lullaby music and silence. In a randomized controlled trial, 90 premature infants in the neonatal care unit of a hospital in Qom (Iran) were randomly allocated to intervention (lullaby and silence) or control groups. Lullaby music was played via headphones at a volume of 50-60 dB. In the silence group, headphones were placed on the infants' ears while no music was played. The three groups were surveyed for physiological responses including oxygen saturation, respiratory and heart rates, and behavioral states every five minutes before, during, and after the intervention. The three groups were not significantly different in terms of mean values of respiratory and heart rates, oxygen saturation, and behavioral states of infants. Similarly, no significant within group differences in respiratory and heart rates, oxygen saturation, and behavioral states were observed at different times. Our findings did not support the beneficial effects of music for premature infants. However, music is a noninvasive, non-pharmaceutical, and relatively low-cost intervention that can be implemented at infants' bedside. Thus further research is warranted to determine whether the effects noted in previous studies can be consistently replicated in diverse settings and with diverse groups of preterm infants. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Children's Responses to Mother-Infant and Father-Infant Interaction with a Baby Sibling: Jealousy or Joy?

PubMed Central

Volling, Brenda L.; Yu, Tianyi; Gonzalez, Richard; Kennedy, Denise E.; Rosenberg, Lauren; Oh, Wonjung

2014-01-01

Firstborn children's reactions to mother-infant and father-infant interaction after a sibling's birth were examined in an investigation of 224 families. Triadic observations of parent-infant-sibling interaction were conducted at 1 month after the birth. Parents reported on children's problem behaviors at 1 and 4 months after the birth, and completed the Attachment Q-sort before the birth. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) identified four latent classes (behavioral profiles) for mother-infant and father-infant interaction: regulated-exploration, disruptive-dysregulated, approach-avoidant, and anxious-clingy. A fifth class, attention-seeking, was found with fathers. The regulated-exploration class was the normative pattern (60%), with few children in the disruptive class (2.7%). Approach-avoidant children had more behavior problems at 4 months than any other class with the exception of the disruptive children who were higher on aggression and attention problems. Before the birth, anxious-clingy children had less secure attachments to their fathers than approach avoidant children, but more secure attachments to their mothers. Results underscore individual differences in firstborns' behavioral responses to parent-infant interaction and the importance of a person-centered approach for understanding children's jealousy. PMID:25150371

Autonomous visual exploration creates developmental change in familiarity and novelty seeking behaviors

PubMed Central

Perone, Sammy; Spencer, John P.

2013-01-01

What motivates children to radically transform themselves during early development? We addressed this question in the domain of infant visual exploration. Over the first year, infants' exploration shifts from familiarity to novelty seeking. This shift is delayed in preterm relative to term infants and is stable within individuals over the course of the first year. Laboratory tasks have shed light on the nature of this familiarity-to-novelty shift, but it is not clear what motivates the infant to change her exploratory style. We probed this by letting a Dynamic Neural Field (DNF) model of visual exploration develop itself via accumulating experience in a virtual world. We then situated it in a canonical laboratory task. Much like infants, the model exhibited a familiarity-to-novelty shift. When we manipulated the initial conditions of the model, the model's performance was developmentally delayed much like preterm infants. This delay was overcome by enhancing the model's experience during development. We also found that the model's performance was stable at the level of the individual. Our simulations indicate that novelty seeking emerges with no explicit motivational source via the accumulation of visual experience within a complex, dynamical exploratory system. PMID:24065948

Playing it cool: Characterizing social play, bout termination, and candidate play signals of juvenile and infant Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana).

PubMed

Wright, Kaitlin R; Mayhew, Jessica A; Sheeran, Lori K; Funkhouser, Jake A; Wagner, Ronald S; Sun, Li-Xing; Li, Jin-Hua

2018-07-18

Play behaviors and signals during playful interactions with juvenile conspecifics are important for both the social and cognitive development of young animals. The social organization of a species can also influence juvenile social play. We examined the relationships among play behaviors, candidate play signals, and play bout termination in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) during juvenile and infant social play to characterize the species play style. As Tibetan macaques are despotic and live in groups with strict linear dominance hierarchies and infrequent reconciliation, we predicted that play would be at risk of misinterpretation by both the individuals engaged in the play bout and by those watching, possibly leading to injury of the players. Animals living in such societies might need to frequently and clearly signal playful intent to play partners and other group members to avoid aggressive outcomes. We gathered video data on 21 individually-identified juvenile and infant macaques (one month to five years of age) from the Valley of the Wild Monkeys, Mt. Huangshan, China. We used all-occurrence sampling to record play behaviors and candidate play signals based on an ethogram. We predicted that play groups would use multiple candidate play signals in a variety of contexts and in association with the number of audience members in proximity to the players and play bout length. In the 283 playful interactions we scored, juvenile and infant macaques used multiple body and facial candidate play signals. Our data showed that juvenile and infant Tibetan macaques use a versatile repertoire of play behaviors and signals to sustain play.

Predicting Social Wariness in Middle Childhood: The Moderating Roles of Childcare History, Maternal Personality and Maternal Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Degnan, Kathryn Amey; Henderson, Heather A.; Fox, Nathan A.; Rubin, Kenneth H.

2008-01-01

Children with behavioral inhibition, a temperamental style characterized by infant distress to novelty and childhood social reticence, exhibit both continuity and discontinuity of this behavioral trait over the course of development. However, few researchers have identified factors that might be responsible for these different patterns. In the…

Contribution of Parenting Factors to the Developmental Attainment of 9-Month-Old Infants: Results From the Japan Children’s Study

PubMed Central

Cheng, Shunyue; Maeda, Tadahiko; Tomiwa, Kiyotaka; Yamakawa, Noriko; Koeda, Tatsuya; Kawai, Masatoshi; Ogura, Tamiko; Yamagata, Zentaro

2009-01-01

Background Child development integrates several interdependent domains, but few studies have attempted to identify the common factors that contribute to these different domains of development in infancy. The aim of the present study was to identify the factors that contribute to several domains of developmental attainment in 9-month-old infants. Methods We used data from the Japan Children’s Study, a prospective cohort study underway in Japan since 2005. Mothers completed questionnaires about their children’s temperament, coparenting behaviors, maternal parenting stress, and parenting behavior. The Kinder infant development scale was used to evaluate child development outcomes. Results A total of 270 children were included in this analysis. After adjusting for the children’s birth weight, gestational age, temperament, and other family environmental variables, multiple logistic regression analyses showed that greater maternal cognitive stimulation was associated with the development of receptive language, expressive language, social relationships, and feeding. Results also suggest that early supportive coparenting helped to promote development in manipulation, receptive language, and social relationships. Maternal parenting stress was stable between the infant ages of 4 and 9 months and was negatively correlated with scores for coparenting and maternal stimulation, which suggests an indirect effect of maternal parenting stress on child outcomes. Conclusions Supportive coparenting and maternal cognitive stimulation were the most important contributors to most domains of child development. Our findings suggest that educational interventions targeting young families would help parents establish and maintain an environment of successful coparenting and cognitive stimulation as their children grow. PMID:19776496

Comparison of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition, and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition.

PubMed

Scattone, Dorothy; Raggio, Donald J; May, Warren

2011-10-01

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition (Vineland-II), and Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) were administered to 65 children between the ages of 12 and 42 months referred for developmental delays. Standard scores and age equivalents were compared across instruments. Analyses showed no statistical difference between Vineland-II ABC standard scores and cognitive levels obtained from the Bayley-III. However, Vineland-II Communication and Motor domain standard scores were significantly higher than corresponding scores on the Bayley-III. In addition, age equivalent scores were significantly higher on the Vineland-II for the fine motor subdomain. Implications for early intervention are discussed.

Can mother-infant interaction produce vulnerability to schizophrenia?

PubMed

Brody, E B

1981-02-01

Schizophrenia is regarded as a final common behavioral syndrome which may be arrived at though a variety of routes. Even with a probably genotype, environmental influence seems necessary for the phenotype to appear. The problem concerns the likelihood of an early experience-induced sequence of events within the person of infant and later adult vs. a continuing pathogenic environment. Either may or may not interact with a continuing genic factor(s) as a source of vulnerability. Vulnerability is here, then, viewed as epigenetically evolving via individual-environment transactions throughout life (although with major impacts from conception through adolescence). At any point, therapeutic intervention may preclude or minimize the actualization of the pathogenic potential. It may begin during pregnancy, with attention to such factors as diet, drugs, physical stress, and illness, influencing fetal development and obstetrical manipulations and the birth process. All influence earliest mother-infant interaction from the point of view both of the infant's evocation of maternal behavior and maternal responsivity. Therapeutic interventions also include attention to the multigenerational context of earliest interaction, with special reference to a woman's relationships with her own mother. At every point, nonspecific protective or pathogenic factors such as social support or stressful precipitating events may become important. Socioeconomic status appears to have a powerful nonspecific influence as the core of a cluster of factors which exert an enduring influence from infancy to adulthood. A continuing specific factor may reside in distorted communicative reciprocity between parent an child rooted in the preverbal period of infant development. Context-mediated cerebral deficits may influence learning capacity, hedonic capacity, behavioral rigidity, and many other factors leading ultimately to impaired social competence and increased vulnerability.

The Development of a Mother’s Internal Working Model of Feeding

PubMed Central

Brown, Lisa F; Griffin, Junyanee; Reyna, Barbara; Lewis, Mary

2012-01-01

Purpose The purpose of the study was to describe changes in a mother’s early internal working model (IWM) of infant feeding. Design & Methods In this qualitative study, 12 maternal responses to the semi-structured IWM interview were audio-recorded; once in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after infants began oral feeding and once 2 weeks post-discharge. Interviews were analyzed using directed content analysis. Results A change between mothers’ early and later nipple feeding experiences was identified. Practice Implications Nurses and other clinicians can help mothers understand the infant’s behaviors and focus on the infant’s nutritional intake while simultaneously developing a relationship with the infant. PMID:23289455

Behavioral and neural responses to infant and adult tears: The impact of maternal love withdrawal.

PubMed

Riem, Madelon M E; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H; De Carli, Pietro; Vingerhoets, Ad J J M; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J

2017-09-01

The current study examined behavioral and neural responses to infant and adult tears, taking into account childhood experiences with parental love-withdrawal. With functional MRI (fMRI), we measured neural reactivity to pictures of infants and adults with and without tears on their faces in nulliparous women with varying childhood experiences of maternal use of love withdrawal. Behavioral responses to infant and adult tears were measured with an approach-avoidance task. We found that individuals with experiences of love withdrawal showed less amygdala and insula reactivity to adult tears, but love withdrawal did not affect amygdala and insula reactivity to infant tears. During the approach-avoidance task, individuals responded faster to adult tears in the approach condition compared with the avoidance condition, indicating that adult tears facilitate approach behavior. Individuals responded faster to infant tears than to adult tears, regardless of approach or avoidance condition. Our findings suggest that infant tears are highly salient and may, therefore, overrule the effects of contextual and personal characteristics that influence the perception of adult crying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Neonatal morphine exposure in very preterm infants-cerebral development and outcomes.

PubMed

Steinhorn, Rachel; McPherson, Christopher; Anderson, Peter J; Neil, Jeffrey; Doyle, Lex W; Inder, Terrie

2015-05-01

To investigate the association of morphine exposure in very preterm infants with cerebral volumes and neurodevelopmental outcome from birth through middle childhood. Observational study of very preterm infants in the Victorian Infant Brain Study cohort. A total of 230 infants born <30 weeks' gestational age or <1250 g were recruited from all admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit of the Royal Women's Hospital. Fifty-seven (25%) infants received morphine analgesia during their neonatal intensive care unit stay at the attending physician's discretion. Primary outcomes were regional brain volumes at term and 7 years; neurobehavioral performance at term; and cognitive, motor, emotional, behavioral, communication, and executive function scores at age 2 and 7 years. Linear regressions were used to compare outcomes between participants who did and did not receive morphine. At term, preterm infants who received morphine had similar rates of gray matter injury to no-morphine infants, but a trend toward smaller cortical volumes in the orbitofrontal (Pleft=.002, Pright=.01) and subgenual (Pleft=.01) regions. At 7 years, cortical volumes did not differ between groups. At 2 years, morphine-exposed children were more likely to show behavioral dysregulation (P=.007) than no-morphine children, but at 7 years no detrimental impacts of morphine on neurobehavioral outcome were observed. Low-dose morphine analgesia received during neonatal intensive care was associated with early alterations in cerebral structure and short-term neurobehavioral problems that did not persist into childhood. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Infant temperament reactivity and early maternal caregiving: independent and interactive links to later childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.

PubMed

Miller, Natalie V; Degnan, Kathryn A; Hane, Amie A; Fox, Nathan A; Chronis-Tuscano, Andrea

2018-06-11

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with origins early in life. There is growing evidence that individual differences in temperament reactivity are predictive of ADHD symptoms, yet little is known about the relations between temperament reactivity in early infancy and later ADHD symptoms or the combined effect of reactivity with early environmental factors on ADHD symptom development. Using a 9-year prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the independent and interactive contributions of infant reactivity and maternal caregiving behaviors (MCB) on parent- and teacher-reported childhood ADHD symptoms. Participants included 291 children (132 male; 159 female) who participated in a larger study of temperament and social-emotional development. Reactivity was assessed by behavioral observation of negative affect, positive affect, and motor activity during novel stimuli presentations at 4 months of age. MCB were observed during a series of semistructured mother-infant tasks at 9 months of age. Finally, ADHD symptoms were assessed by parent- and teacher-report questionnaires at 7 and 9 years, respectively. Reactivity was predictive of ADHD symptoms, but results were sex specific. For boys, infant motor activity was positively predictive of later ADHD symptoms, but only at lower quality MCB. For girls, infant positive affect was positively predictive of later ADHD symptoms at lower quality MCB, and-unexpectedly-infant positive affect and motor activity were negatively predictive of later ADHD symptoms at higher quality MCB. These results point to early parenting as a moderating factor to mitigate temperament-related risk for later ADHD, suggesting this as a potential intervention target to mitigate risk for ADHD among reactive infants. © 2018 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

"Giving" and "responding" differences in gestural communication between nonhuman great ape mothers and infants.

PubMed

Schneider, Christel; Liebal, Katja; Call, Josep

2017-04-01

In the first comparative analysis of its kind, we investigated gesture behavior and response patterns in 25 captive ape mother-infant dyads (six bonobos, eight chimpanzees, three gorillas, and eight orangutans). We examined (i) how frequently mothers and infants gestured to each other and to other group members; and (ii) to what extent infants and mothers responded to the gestural attempts of others. Our findings confirmed the hypothesis that bonobo mothers were more proactive in their gesturing to their infants than the other species. Yet mothers (from all four species) often did not respond to the gestures of their infants and other group members. In contrast, infants "pervasively" responded to gestures they received from their mothers and other group members. We propose that infants' pervasive responsiveness rather than the quality of mother investment and her responsiveness may be crucial to communication development in nonhuman great apes. © 2017 The Authors. Developmental Psychobiology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Integrative literature review: sleep patterns in infants attending nurseries.

PubMed

Cerqueira, Ana Carolina Dantas Rocha; Cardoso, Maria Vera Lúcia Moreira Leitão; Viana, Tamires Rebeca Forte; Lopes, Márcia Maria Coelho Oliveira

2018-01-01

To identify evidence available in the literature about sleep patterns of infants attending nurseries. An integrative review of studies published in Portuguese, English or Spanish available in full text on LILACS, CINAHL, and PubMed databases. The following descriptors sono, lactente and creches or berçários (in Portuguese) and sleep, infant and childcare or nurseries were used for LILACS, CINAHL and Pubmed, respectively. Nine studies were selected and analyzed. The main component explored in the studies about sleep pattern is the sleep position of the infants, due to its association with sudden infant death syndrome. The results pointed to the need to promote and develop written guidelines regarding behavioral practices to reduce the risk of this phenomenon. Evidence has identified sleep issues, mainly regarding the sleep position of the infant and the environment where the infant sleeps, showing that it is critical to set routines and interventions to improve the quality of sleep care of infants attending nurseries.

Stability of parental care across siblings from undisturbed and challenged pregnancies: intrinsic maternal dispositions of female rhesus monkeys.

PubMed

Shirtcliff, Elizabeth A; Phan, Jenny M; Lubach, Gabriele R; Crispen, Heather R; Coe, Christopher L

2013-11-01

The concept of fetal programming is based on the idea that the developmental trajectory of infants is adjusted in response to in utero conditions. In species with extended parental care, these prenatally derived tendencies are further substantiated by behavioral attributes of the mother during the postnatal period. We investigated the stability of maternal behavioral interactions with infant monkeys and carefully varied prenatal conditions across siblings reared by the same mother. We hypothesized that effects of prenatal disturbance and the infant's susceptibility would be differentially affected by maternal attributes. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we analyzed observational data on 121 rhesus macaques reared by a total of 35 multiparous mothers. A portion of the variance in 5 dyadic behaviors was statistically driven by the infant (or was unique to a particular mother-infant pair), but stable maternal propensities and a consistent style of care across siblings also substantially influenced behavioral interactions. Moreover, the magnitude and direction of the prenatal effects were contingent on a female's intrinsic dispositions. When mothers typically exhibited high levels of a corresponding behavior, responsiveness to infants was enhanced as a consequence of prenatal disturbance. The opposite was true for less expressive females. Challenges to the well-being of pregnancy thus served to accentuate maternal predispositions and served to magnify the range of variation in mother-infant behavior across the whole population.

Frequency-modulated orocutaneous stimulation promotes non-nutritive suck development in preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome or chronic lung disease.

PubMed

Barlow, S M; Lee, J; Wang, J; Oder, A; Hall, S; Knox, K; Weatherstone, K; Thompson, D

2014-02-01

For the premature infant, extrauterine life is a pathological condition, which greatly amplifies the challenges to the brain in establishing functional oromotor behaviors. The extent to which suck can be entrained using a synthetically patterned orocutaneous input to promote its development in preterm infants who manifest chronic lung disease (CLD) is unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a frequency-modulated (FM) orocutaneous pulse train delivered through a pneumatically charged pacifier capable of enhancing non-nutritive suck (NNS) activity in tube-fed premature infants. A randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of pneumatic orocutaneous stimulation 3 × per day on NNS development and length of stay (LOS) in the neonatal intensive care unit among 160 newborn infants distributed among three sub-populations, including healthy preterm infants, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and CLD. Study infants received a regimen of orocutaneous pulse trains through a PULSED pressurized silicone pacifier or a SHAM control (blind pacifier) during gavage feeds for up to 10 days. Mixed modeling, adjusted for the infant's gender, gestational age, postmenstrual age and birth weight, was used to handle interdependency among repeated measures within subjects. A significant main effect for stimulation mode (SHAM pacifier vs PULSED orosensory) was found among preterm infants for NNS bursts per min (P=0.003), NNS events per min (P=0.033) and for total oral compressions per min (NNS+nonNNS) (P=0.016). Pairwise comparison of adjusted means using Bonferroni adjustment indicated RDS and CLD infants showed the most significant gains on these NNS performance indices. CLD infants in the treatment group showed significantly shorter LOS by an average of 2.5 days. FM PULSED orocutaneous pulse train stimuli delivered through a silicone pacifier are effective in facilitating NNS burst development in tube-fed RDS and CLD preterm infants, with an added benefit of reduced LOS for CLD infants.

Regional brain responses in nulliparous women to emotional infant stimuli.

PubMed

Montoya, Jessica L; Landi, Nicole; Kober, Hedy; Worhunsky, Patrick D; Rutherford, Helena J V; Mencl, W Einar; Mayes, Linda C; Potenza, Marc N

2012-01-01

Infant cries and facial expressions influence social interactions and elicit caretaking behaviors from adults. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that neural responses to infant stimuli involve brain regions that process rewards. However, these studies have yet to investigate individual differences in tendencies to engage or withdraw from motivationally relevant stimuli. To investigate this, we used event-related fMRI to scan 17 nulliparous women. Participants were presented with novel infant cries of two distress levels (low and high) and unknown infant faces of varying affect (happy, sad, and neutral) in a randomized, counter-balanced order. Brain activation was subsequently correlated with scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System scale. Infant cries activated bilateral superior and middle temporal gyri (STG and MTG) and precentral and postcentral gyri. Activation was greater in bilateral temporal cortices for low- relative to high-distress cries. Happy relative to neutral faces activated the ventral striatum, caudate, ventromedial prefrontal, and orbitofrontal cortices. Sad versus neutral faces activated the precuneus, cuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex, and behavioral activation drive correlated with occipital cortical activations in this contrast. Behavioral inhibition correlated with activation in the right STG for high- and low-distress cries relative to pink noise. Behavioral drive correlated inversely with putamen, caudate, and thalamic activations for the comparison of high-distress cries to pink noise. Reward-responsiveness correlated with activation in the left precentral gyrus during the perception of low-distress cries relative to pink noise. Our findings indicate that infant cry stimuli elicit activations in areas implicated in auditory processing and social cognition. Happy infant faces may be encoded as rewarding, whereas sad faces activate regions associated with empathic processing. Differences in motivational tendencies may modulate neural responses to infant cues.

The critical period of infant feeding for the development of early disparities in obesity

PubMed Central

Thompson, Amanda L.; Bentley, Margaret E.

2013-01-01

Childhood obesity is an increasing public health problem, particularly among minority infants and young children. Disparities in overweight prevalence persist and widen with age, highlighting the need to identify factors contributing to early excess weight gain. We review the behavioral, social and macro-environmental factors contributing to the development of obesogenic early feeding practices among African-American infants and young children. We then examine the sociodemographic, household factors, feeding beliefs and infant characteristics associated with age-inappropriate feeding of liquids and solids (inappropriate feeding) among mothers and infants participating the U.S. Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study, a cohort study of 217 low-income, first-time mothers and infants followed from 3 to 18 months of age. Maternal and infant anthropometry, infant diet, and maternal and household characteristics were collected at home visits at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months of age. Mixed logistic regression was used to estimate the association between maternal and infant characteristics and inappropriate feeding. Rates of age-inappropriate feeding are high; over 75% of infants received solids or juice by 3 months of age. The odds of age-inappropriate feeding were higher among mothers who were single, depressed or believed that their infant is a “greedy” baby. Inappropriate feeding was associated with higher daily energy intake in infants (β = 109.28 calories, p = 0.01) and with increased odds of high infant weight-for-length (WFL; OR = 1.74, 95%CI: 1.01–3.01). Our findings suggest that age-inappropriate complementary feeding influences current energy intakes and infant WFL, factors that may increase long-term obesity risk by shaping infant appetite, food preferences, and metabolism. Given the intractability of pediatric obesity, understanding the role of early feeding in shaping long-term health disparities is critical for developing prevention strategies to stem obesity in early childhood. PMID:23312304

Comparing two motor assessment tools to evaluate neurobehavioral intervention effects in infants with very low birth weight at 1 year.

PubMed

Van Hus, Janeline W P; Jeukens-Visser, Martine; Koldewijn, Karen; Van Sonderen, Loekie; Kok, Joke H; Nollet, Frans; Van Wassenaer-Leemhuis, Aleid G

2013-11-01

Infants with very low birth weight (VLBW) are at increased risk for motor deficits, which may be reduced by early intervention programs. For detection of motor deficits and to monitor intervention, different assessment tools are available. It is important to choose tools that are sensitive to evaluate the efficacy of intervention on motor outcome. The purpose of this study was to compare the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) and the Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Dutch Second Edition (BSID-II-NL) in their ability to evaluate effects of an early intervention, provided by pediatric physical therapists, on motor development in infants with VLBW at 12 months corrected age (CA). This was a secondary study in which data collected from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) were used. At 12 months CA, 116 of 176 infants with VLBW participating in an RCT on the effect of the Infant Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Program were assessed with both the AIMS and the PDI. Intervention effects on the AIMS and PDI were compared. Corrected for baseline differences, significant intervention effects were found for AIMS and PDI scores. The highest effect size was for the AIMS subscale sit. A significant reduction of abnormal motor development in the intervention group was found only with the AIMS. No Dutch norms are available for the AIMS. The responsiveness of the AIMS to detect intervention effects was better than that of the PDI. Therefore, caution is recommended in monitoring infants with VLBW only with the PDI, and the use of both the AIMS and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development is advised when evaluating intervention effects on motor development at 12 months CA.

SUPPORTING PRETERM INFANT ATTACHMENT AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: STAFF PERCEPTIONS.

PubMed

Twohig, Aoife; Reulbach, Udo; Figuerdo, Ricardo; McCarthy, Anthony; McNicholas, Fiona; Molloy, Eleanor Joan

2016-01-01

The infant-parent relationship has been shown to be of particular significance to preterm infant socioemotional development. Supporting parents and infants in this process of developing their relationships is an integral part of neonatal intensive care; however, there is limited knowledge of NICU staff perceptions about this aspect of care. To explore NICU staff perceptions about attachment and socioemotional development of preterm infants, experience of training in this area and the emotional impact of their work. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of staff perceptions of the emotional experiences of parents and the developing parent-infant relationship in an NICU was conducted in a Level III NICU, after pilot testing, revision, and ethical approval. Fifty-seven (68%) of NICU staff responded to the survey. Respondents identified parents' emotional experiences such as "anxiety," "shock," "loss of control," and "lack of feelings of competence as parents" as highly prevalent. Infant cues of "responding to parent's voice" and "quieting-alerting" were ranked most highly; "crying" and "physiological changes" were ranked lowest. Preterm infant medical risk, maternal emotional state, and mental health are perceived to impact most highly on the developing relationship, as compared with infant state or behavior and socioeconomic factors. Fifty-three (93%) respondents felt confident, and 50 (87.8%) felt competent discussing their emotional experiences with parents. Fifty-four (95%) responded that attending to these areas was an integral part of their role; however, staff had seldom received education in this area. Respondents also perceived that specific psychological support for parents was lacking both during and after the infant's discharge. While all staff surveyed perceived the nature of their work to be emotionally stressful, there were differences among NICU staff disciplines and with years of experience in the NICU in terms of their perceptions about education in this area, the place of supervision for staff, and in relation to opportunities to discuss the emotional impact of the work on staff. NICU staff perceive their role as integral to supporting the developing parent-infant relationship and preterm infant socioemotional development; however, education in this area and provision of specific psychological support are lacking. Opportunities for staff to discuss and reflect on this aspect of their work should be developed and evaluated given the essential, but emotionally challenging, nature of their work with preterm babies and their parents. © 2016 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

The Role of Experience in the Behavioral Development of Human Infants: Current Status and Recommendations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Burton L.

This paper is designed as an information guide for those persons responsible for rearing human infants from birth to 18 months. The author provides an extensive review of the literature and trends of research in this area noting that the current volumes of knowledge in this area are not yet dependable enough to provide reliable bases for practice.…

Prevention of postpartum traumatic stress in mothers with preterm infants: manual development and evaluation.

PubMed

Shaw, Richard J; Sweester, Carrie J; St John, Nicholas; Lilo, Emily; Corcoran, Julia B; Jo, Booil; Howell, Shelley H K; Benitz, William E; Feinstein, Nancy; Melnyk, Bernadette; Horwitz, Sarah M

2013-08-01

Premature birth has been associated with multiple adverse maternal psychological outcomes that include depression, anxiety, and trauma as well as adverse effects on maternal coping ability and parenting style. Infants who are premature are more likely to have poorer cognitive and developmental functioning and, thus, may be harder to parent, both as infants and as they get older. In response to these findings, a number of educational and behavioral interventions have been developed that target maternal psychological functioning, parenting, and aspects of the parent-infant relationship. The current study aimed to both develop and evaluate a treatment that integrates, for the first time, effective interventions for reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and enhancing maternal-infant interactions. Conclusions from the study indicate that the intervention is feasible, able to be implemented with a high level of fidelity, and is rated as highly satisfactory by participants. Though encouraging, these findings are preliminary, and future studies should strive to reproduce these findings with a larger sample size and a comparison group.

Infant humor perception from 3- to 6-months and attachment at one year.

PubMed

Mireault, Gina; Sparrow, John; Poutre, Merlin; Perdue, Brittany; Macke, Laura

2012-12-01

Infancy is a critical time for the development of secure attachment, which is facilitated by emotionally synchronous interactions with parents. Humor development, which includes shared laughter and joint attention to an event, emerges concurrently with attachment, but little is known regarding the relationship, if any, between humor development and attachment in the first year. Thirty 3-month-old infants were videoed at home each month until they were 6-months old while their parents attempted to amuse them. Frequency of infants' smiles and laughs served as a measure of "state humor", and the smiling/laughing subscale of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised served as a measure of "trait humor". State and trait humor were not correlated. Lower trait humor as 6 months predicted higher attachment security on the Attachment Q-sort at 12-months (r=.46), suggesting that less good-humored infants elicit greater parental engagement, which works to the benefit of attachment, or vice versa. Future studies should examine the importance of smiling and laughter as they relate to other developmental phenomena in the first year. Published by Elsevier Inc.

How Parents Read Counting Books and Non-numerical Books to Their Preverbal Infants: An Observational Study

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Alison; Cole, Thomas; Cordes, Sara

2016-01-01

Studies have stressed the importance of counting with children to promote formal numeracy abilities; however, little work has investigated when parents begin to engage in this behavior with their young children. In the current study, we investigated whether parents elaborated on numerical information when reading a counting book to their preverbal infants and whether developmental differences in numerical input exist even in the 1st year of life. Parents and their 5–10 months old infants were asked to read, as they would at home, two books to their infants: a counting book and another book that did not have numerical content. Parents’ spontaneous statements rarely focused on number and those that did consisted primarily of counting, with little emphasis on labeling the cardinality of the set. However, developmental differences were observed even in this age range, such that parents were more likely to make numerical utterances when reading to older infants. Together, results are the first to characterize naturalistic reading behaviors between parents and their preverbal infants in the context of counting books, suggesting that although counting books promote numerical language in parents, infants still receive very little in the way of numerical input before the end of the 1st year of life. While little is known regarding the impact of number talk on the cognitive development of young infants, the current results may guide future work in this area by providing the first assessment of the characteristics of parental numerical input to preverbal infants. PMID:27493639

Ready, Set, Go! Low Anticipatory Response during a Dyadic Task in Infants at High Familial Risk for Autism

PubMed Central

Landa, Rebecca J.; Haworth, Joshua L.; Nebel, Mary Beth

2016-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate a host of motor impairments that may share a common developmental basis with ASD core symptoms. School-age children with ASD exhibit particular difficulty with hand-eye coordination and appear to be less sensitive to visual feedback during motor learning. Sensorimotor deficits are observable as early as 6 months of age in children who later develop ASD; yet the interplay of early motor, visual and social skill development in ASD is not well understood. Integration of visual input with motor output is vital for the formation of internal models of action. Such integration is necessary not only to master a wide range of motor skills, but also to imitate and interpret the actions of others. Thus, closer examination of the early development of visual-motor deficits is of critical importance to ASD. In the present study of infants at high risk (HR) and low risk (LR) for ASD, we examined visual-motor coupling, or action anticipation, during a dynamic, interactive ball-rolling activity. We hypothesized that, compared to LR infants, HR infants would display decreased anticipatory response (perception-guided predictive action) to the approaching ball. We also examined visual attention before and during ball rolling to determine whether attention engagement contributed to differences in anticipation. Results showed that LR and HR infants demonstrated context appropriate looking behavior, both before and during the ball’s trajectory toward them. However, HR infants were less likely to exhibit context appropriate anticipatory motor response to the approaching ball (moving their arm/hand to intercept the ball) than LR infants. This finding did not appear to be driven by differences in motor skill between risk groups at 6 months of age and was extended to show an atypical predictive relationship between anticipatory behavior at 6 months and preference for looking at faces compared to objects at age 14 months in the HR group. PMID:27252667

The Origins of 12-Month Attachment: A Microanalysis of 4-Month Mother-Infant Interaction

PubMed Central

Beebe, Beatrice; Jaffe, Joseph; Markese, Sara; Buck, Karen; Chen, Henian; Cohen, Patricia; Bahrick, Lorraine; Andrews, Howard; Feldstein, Stanley

2013-01-01

A detailed microanalysis of 4-month mother-infant face-to-face communication revealed a fine-grained specification of essential communication processes that predicted 12-month insecure attachment outcomes, particularly resistant and disorganized classifications. An urban community sample of 84 dyads were videotaped at 4 months during a face-to-face interaction, and at 12 months during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Four-month mother and infant communication modalities of attention, affect, touch, and spatial orientation were coded from split-screen videotape on a 1s time base; mother and infant facial-visual “engagement” variables were constructed. We used contingency measures (multi-level time-series modeling) to examine the dyadic temporal process over time, and specific rates of qualitative features of behavior to examine the content of behavior. Self-contingency (auto-correlation) measured the degree of stability/lability within an individual’s own rhythms of behavior; interactive contingency (lagged cross-correlation) measured adjustments of the individual’s behavior that were correlated with the partner’s previous behavior. We documented that both self- and interactive contingency, as well as specific qualitative features, of mother and infant behavior were mechanisms of attachment formation by 4 months, distinguishing 12-month insecure, resistant, and disorganized attachment classifications from secure; avoidant were too few to test. All communication modalities made unique contributions. The separate analysis of different communication modalities identified intermodal discrepancies or conflict, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, that characterized insecure dyads. Contrary to dominant theories in the literature on face-to-face interaction, measures of maternal contingent coordination with infant yielded the fewest associations with 12-month attachment, whereas mother and infant self-contingency, and infant contingent coordination with mother, yielded comparable numbers of findings. Rather than the more usual hypothesis that more contingency is “better,” we partially supported our hypothesis that 12-month insecurity is associated with both higher and lower 4-month self- and interactive contingency values than secure, as a function of mother vs. infant and communication modality. Thus, in the origins of attachment security, more contingency is not necessarily better. A remarkable degree of differentiation was identified in the 4-month patterns of “future” C and D infants, classified as resistant and disorganized, respectively, at 12 months. Only future D infants were emotionally distressed, with simultaneous positive and negative discrepant affect; only their mothers showed difficulty in sharing infant affect, particularly distress, and lowered their contingent coordination with infant facial-visual engagement. This lowered contingent coordination makes it more difficult for infants to come to expect that their emotional/attentional states can influence mothers to coordinate with them and thus compromises the infant’s sense of interactive efficacy. Only future C dyads showed the spatial approach/avoid pattern of “chase and dodge;” only mothers of future D infants showed the spatial intrusion pattern of “looming” into the infant’s face. Both future C and D dyads showed patterns of touch dysregulation. Future C infants inhibited their emotional coordination with mothers’ less affectionate touch, as if tuning it out. Future D dyads showed a dyadic touch dysregulation, in which mothers lowered their coordination with infant touch, while infants had a lowered ability to use their own touch. Both mothers of future C and D infants disturbed the stability of the spatial “frame” of the encounter by transitioning among upward, forward and loom orientations in less predictable ways than mothers of future B infants. Only mothers of future D infants disturbed the attentional “frame” as well, by looking and looking away from the infant’s face in less predictable ways than mothers of future B infants. Only mothers of future D infants showed methods of managing their own state which distanced them from their infants, such as extensive looking away and “closing up” their faces. The intact interactive contingency of the mother of the future C infant overall safeguards the infant’s interactive agency, and the infant’s expectation that mother will match the direction of infant affective change, sharing infant states. However, we proposed that the future C infant will have difficulty feeling sensed and known by mother during her spatial/tactile intrusions. The central feature of future D dyads is intrapersonal and interpersonal discordance or conflict in the context of intensely distressed infants. Lowered maternal contingent coordination, and failures of maternal affective correspondence, constitute maternal emotional withdrawal from distressed infants, compromising infant interactive agency and emotional coherence. The level of dysregulation in future D dyads is thus of an entirely different order than that of future C dyads. We proposed that the future D infant represents not being sensed and known by the mother, particularly in states of distress. We proposed that the emerging internal working model of future D infants includes confusion about their own basic emotional organization, about their mothers’ emotional organization, and about their mothers’ response to their distress, setting a trajectory in development which may disturb the fundamental integration of the person. The findings have rich implications for clinical intervention, with remarkable specificity for different kinds of mother and infant distress. The concepts of heightened and lowered self- and interactive contingency, in different modalities, as well as the specific behavioral qualities identified, provide a more differentiated set of concepts to guide clinical intervention. PMID:20390524

Potential Risk Factors for the Development of Self-Injurious Behavior among Infants at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimian, Adele F.; Botteron, Kelly N.; Dager, Stephen R.; Elison, Jed T.; Estes, Annette M.; Pruett, John R., Jr.; Schultz, Robert T.; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Piven, Joseph; Wolff, Jason J.

2017-01-01

Prevalence of self-injurious behavior (SIB) is as high as 50% among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Identification of risk factors for the development of SIB is critical to early intervention and prevention. However, there is little empirical research utilizing a prospective design to identify early risk factors for SIB. The purpose…

Oxytocin and mutual communication in mother-infant bonding

PubMed Central

Nagasawa, Miho; Okabe, Shota; Mogi, Kazutaka; Kikusui, Takefumi

2012-01-01

Mother-infant bonding is universal to all mammalian species. In this review, we describe the manner in which reciprocal communication between the mother and infant leads to mother-infant bonding in rodents. In rats and mice, mother-infant bond formation is reinforced by various social stimuli, such as tactile stimuli and ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) from the pups to the mother, and feeding and tactile stimulation from the mother to the pups. Some evidence suggests that mother and infant can develop a cross-modal sensory recognition of their counterpart during this bonding process. Neurochemically, oxytocin in the neural system plays a pivotal role in each side of the mother-infant bonding process, although the mechanisms underlying bond formation in the brains of infants has not yet been clarified. Impairment of mother-infant bonding, that is, deprivation of social stimuli from the mother, strongly influences offspring sociality, including maternal behavior toward their own offspring in their adulthood, implying a “non-genomic transmission of maternal environment,” even in rodents. The comparative understanding of cognitive functions between mother and infants, and the biological mechanisms involved in mother-infant bonding may help us understand psychiatric disorders associated with mother-infant relationships. PMID:22375116

Individual Variation in Attachment Security and Strange Situation Behavior: The Role of Maternal and Infant Temperament.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Ruth A.; And Others

1986-01-01

Results suggest that various aspects of Strange Situation behavior are related to both maternal and infant temperament, and that maternal temperament is a predictor of attachment security, particularly for Type A mother-avoidant infants. (Author/RH)

Infants' Behaviors as Antecedents and Consequents of Mothers' Responsive and Directive Utterances

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masur, Elise Frank; Flynn, Valerie; Lloyd, Carrie A.

2013-01-01

To investigate possible influences on and consequences of mothers' speech, specific infant behaviors preceding and following four pragmatic categories of mothers' utterances--responsive utterances, supportive behavioral directives, intrusive behavioral directives, and intrusive attentional directives--were examined longitudinally during dyadic…

The Relationship of Maternal Behavior and Acculturation to the Quality of Attachment in Hispanic Infants Living in New York City.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fracasso, Maria P.; And Others

1994-01-01

Studied the relationship of parenting behavior and acculturation to the quality of attachment in 26 Puerto Rican and Dominican infants. Results revealed equal numbers of secure and insecure infants, although more boys than girls were secure. Mothers of secure infants were more sensitive and engaged in more frequent abrupt-interfering pick-ups. (KS)

Co-regulated Approach to Feeding Preterm Infants with Lung Disease: Effects During Feeding

PubMed Central

Thoyre, Suzanne M.; Holditch-Davis, Diane; Schwartz, Todd A.; Melendez Roman, Carlos R.; Nix, William

2015-01-01

Background Very preterm infants are at risk for poor oral feeding endurance, early cessation of eating, poor fluid management with aspiration risk, behavioral distress, and unstable heart rate and oxygenation during feeding. Objective To determine the preliminary effectiveness of a Co-Regulated Approach (CoReg) to oral feeding for very preterm infants at risk for lung disease. Method A randomized, within-subjects, cross-over design was used with 20 very preterm infants requiring oxygen at the start of oral feeding. Infants were bottle fed by the Usual Care approach and by the CoReg approach on 2 consecutive days for an average of four feedings each. Intervention components included co-regulation of suck, swallow, and breathe rhythms using enhanced auditory assessment, infant-guided feeding onsets, and infant positioning in a semielevated, side-lying position. Infant physiology metrics (heart rate, SaO2) were collected continuously prior to and during the feeding. Behavioral and auditory indicators of regulation were coded continuously from videotape during the feeding. Results Seventy feedings were analyzed (38 Usual Care, 32 CoReg) using repeated measures modeling. CoReg feedings were characterized by more frequent preparation of the infant for the feeding, were more commonly initiated in response to infant readiness cues, had more rest periods and breath regulation events, and had fewer sucking stimulation events. CoReg feedings had less SaO2 variability, decline, and time spent in a desaturated state; less heart rate fluctuation and decline; less behavioral disorganization; better fluid management; and less observed effort to breathe. Discussion Support is provided for a co-regulated approach to feeding vulnerable infants. Enhanced auditory assessment of infant feeding rhythms increases the responsiveness of the feeder and improves infant behavioral and physiologic responses. PMID:22565102

Autism spectrum disorder symptoms in infants with fragile X syndrome: A prospective case series

PubMed Central

Hogan, Abigail L.; Caravella, Kelly E.; Ezell, Jordan; Rague, Lisa; Hills, Kimberly; Roberts, Jane E.

2017-01-01

No studies to date have prospectively examined early autism spectrum disorder (ASD) markers in infants with fragile X syndrome (FXS), who are at elevated risk for ASD. This paper describes the developmental profiles of eight infants with FXS from 9 to 24 months of age. Four meet diagnostic criteria for ASD at 24 months of age, and four do not. Trends in these case studies suggest that early social-communicative deficits differentiate infants with and without later ASD diagnoses in ways that are similar to later-born siblings of children with ASD. Repetitive behaviors and cognitive and adaptive impairments are present in all FXS infants throughout development, suggesting that these deficits reflect the general FXS phenotype and not ASD in FXS specifically. PMID:28281129

Neurophysiological correlates of attention behavior in early infancy: Implications for emotion regulation during early childhood

PubMed Central

Perry, Nicole B.; Swingler, Margaret M.; Calkins, Susan D.; Bell, Martha Ann

2015-01-01

Current theoretical conceptualizations of regulatory development suggest that attention processes and emotion regulation processes share common neurophysiological underpinnings and behavioral antecedents such that emotion regulation abilities may build upon early attentional skills. To further elucidate this proposed relationship, we tested whether early neurophysiological processes measured during an attention task in infancy predicted in-task attention behavior, and whether infant's attention behavior was subsequently associated with their ability to regulate emotion in early childhood (N=388). Results indicated that, greater EEG power change (from baseline to task) at medial frontal locations (F3 and F4) during an attention task at 10 months were associated with concurrent observed behavioral attention. Specifically, greater change in EEG power at the right frontal location (F4) was associated with more attention, and greater EEG power at the left frontal location (F3) was associated with less attention, indicating a potential right hemisphere specialization for attention processes already present in the first year of life. In addition, after controlling for 5-month attention behavior, increased behavioral attention at 10-months was negatively associated with children's observed frustration to emotional challenge at age 3. Finally, the indirect effects from 10-month EEG power change at F3 and F4 to 3-year emotion regulation via infants' 10-month behavioral attention were significant, suggesting that infant's attention behavior is one mechanism through which early neurophysiological activity is related to emotion regulation abilities in childhood. PMID:26381926

Postpartum depression: Etiology, treatment and consequences for maternal care.

PubMed

Brummelte, Susanne; Galea, Liisa A M

2016-01-01

This article is part of a Special Issue "Parental Care". Pregnancy and postpartum are associated with dramatic alterations in steroid and peptide hormones which alter the mothers' hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) and hypothalamic pituitary gonadal (HPG) axes. Dysregulations in these endocrine axes are related to mood disorders and as such it should not come as a major surprise that pregnancy and the postpartum period can have profound effects on maternal mood. Indeed, pregnancy and postpartum are associated with an increased risk for developing depressive symptoms in women. Postpartum depression affects approximately 10-15% of women and impairs mother-infant interactions that in turn are important for child development. Maternal attachment, sensitivity and parenting style are essential for a healthy maturation of an infant's social, cognitive and behavioral skills and depressed mothers often display less attachment, sensitivity and more harsh or disrupted parenting behaviors, which may contribute to reports of adverse child outcomes in children of depressed mothers. Here we review, in honor of the "father of motherhood", Jay Rosenblatt, the literature on postnatal depression in the mother and its effect on mother-infant interactions. We will cover clinical and pre-clinical findings highlighting putative neurobiological mechanisms underlying postpartum depression and how they relate to maternal behaviors and infant outcome. We also review animal models that investigate the neurobiology of maternal mood and disrupted maternal care. In particular, we discuss the implications of endogenous and exogenous manipulations of glucocorticoids on maternal care and mood. Lastly we discuss interventions during gestation and postpartum that may improve maternal symptoms and behavior and thus may alter developmental outcome of the offspring. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Challenge of Understanding Cerebral White Matter Injury in the Premature Infant

PubMed Central

Elitt, Christopher M.; Rosenberg, Paul A.

2014-01-01

White matter injury in the premature infant leads to motor and more commonly behavioral and cognitive problems that are a tremendous burden to society. While there has been much progress in understanding unique vulnerabilities of developing oligodendrocytes over the past 30 years, there remain no proven therapies for the premature infant beyond supportive care. The lack of translational progress may be partially explained by the challenge of developing relevant animal models when the etiology remains unclear, as is the case in this disorder. There has been an emphasis on hypoxia-ischemia and infection/inflammation as upstream etiologies, but less consideration of other contributory factors. This review highlights the evolution of white matter pathology in the premature infant, discusses the prevailing proposed etiologies, critically analyzes a sampling of common animal models and provides detailed support for our hypothesis that nutritional and hormonal deprivation may be additional factors playing critical and overlooked roles in white matter pathology in the premature infant. PMID:24838063

Do child healthcare professionals and parents recognize social-emotional and behavioral problems in 1-year-old infants?

PubMed

Alakortes, Jaana; Kovaniemi, Susanna; Carter, Alice S; Bloigu, Risto; Moilanen, Irma K; Ebeling, Hanna E

2017-04-01

Growing evidence supports the existence of clinically significant social-emotional/behavioral (SEB) problems among as young as 1-year-old infants. However, a substantial proportion of early SEB problems remain unidentified during contacts with child healthcare professionals. In this study, child healthcare nurse (CHCN; N = 1008) and parental (N = 518) reports about SEB worries were gathered, along with the maternal and paternal Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) ratings, for 12-month-old infants randomly recruited through Finnish child health centers. Only 1.4-1.8 % of CHCNs, 3.9 % of mothers, and 3.2 % of fathers reported of being worried about the assessed child's SEB development. When the CHCNs' and parental reports were combined, 7.7 % (33/428) of the infants assessed each by all three adults had one (7.0 %), two (0.7 %) or three (0 %) worry reports. Even the combination of the CHCN's and parental worry reports identified only 7.0-13.8 % of the infants with the maternal and/or paternal BITSEA Problem or Competence rating in the of-concern range. Identified associations across the three informants' worry reports, parental BITSEA ratings and sociodemographic factors are discussed in the paper. Routine and frequent use of developmentally appropriate screening measures, such as the BITSEA, might enhance identification and intervening of early SEB problems in preventive child healthcare by guiding both professionals and parents to pay more attention to substantial aspects of young children's SEB development and encouraging them to discuss possible problems and worries.

The biology of mammalian parenting and its effect on offspring social development.

PubMed

Rilling, James K; Young, Larry J

2014-08-15

Parents know the transformative nature of having and caring for a child. Among many mammals, giving birth leads from an aversion to infant stimuli to irresistible attraction. Here, we review the biological mechanisms governing this shift in parental motivation in mammals. Estrogen and progesterone prepare the uterus for embryo implantation and placental development. Prolactin stimulates milk production, whereas oxytocin initiates labor and triggers milk ejection during nursing. These same molecules, interacting with dopamine, also activate specific neural pathways to motivate parents to nurture, bond with, and protect their offspring. Parenting in turn shapes the neural development of the infant social brain. Recent work suggests that many of the principles governing parental behavior and its effect on infant development are conserved from rodent to humans. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Infant handling in bonobos (Pan paniscus): Exploring functional hypotheses and the relationship to oxytocin.

PubMed

Boose, Klaree; White, Frances; Brand, Colin; Meinelt, Audra; Snodgrass, Josh

2018-05-09

Infant handling describes interactions between infants and non-maternal group members and is widespread across mammalian taxa. The expression of infant handling behaviors, defined as any affiliative or agonistic interaction between a group member and an infant, varies considerably among primate species. Several functional hypotheses may explain the adaptive value of infant handling including the Kin Selection hypothesis, which describes handling as a mechanism through which indirect fitness is increased and predicts a bias in handling behaviors directed toward related (genetic) infants; the Alliance Formation hypothesis, which describes handling as a social commodity and predicts females with infants will support handlers during conflict; and the Learning-to-Mother hypothesis, which describes handling as a mechanism through which handlers learn species-specific maternal behaviors and predicts that handling will occur most frequently in immature and nulliparous females. Using behavioral observation and data on urinary oxytocin, a neuropeptide hormone known to modulate maternal care and social bonds in mammals, the purpose of this study was to describe the pattern of infant handling in bonobos (Pan paniscus) and to explore proposed functional hypotheses. Data show that related infant-handler dyads occurred significantly more frequently than unrelated infant-handler dyads during some of the study period and that handling was positively correlated with support during conflict. Data also showed that immature and nulliparous females handled infants significantly more than other age-sex categories and exhibited higher post handling oxytocin values than other age-sex class. The trends identified in this data set provide insight into the role oxytocin may play in facilitating care-giving behaviors in young female bonobos and help to narrow the focus of future research efforts, particularly those associated with the Kin Selection, Alliance Formation, and Learning-to-Mother functional hypotheses. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rhythm and interpersonal synchrony in early social development.

PubMed

Trainor, Laurel J; Cirelli, Laura

2015-03-01

Adults who engage in synchronous movement to music later report liking each other better, remembering more about each other, trusting each other more, and are more likely to cooperate with each other compared to adults who engage in asynchronous movements. Although poor motor coordination limits infants' ability to entrain to a musical beat, they perceive metrical structure in auditory rhythm patterns, their movements are affected by the tempo of music they hear, and if they are bounced by an adult to a rhythm pattern, the manner of this bouncing can affect their auditory interpretation of the meter of that pattern. In this paper, we review studies showing that by 14 months of age, infants who are bounced in synchrony with an adult subsequently show more altruistic behavior toward that adult in the form of handing back objects "accidentally" dropped by the adult compared to infants who are bounced asynchronously with the adult. Furthermore, increased helpfulness is directed at the synchronized bounce partner, but not at a neutral stranger. Interestingly, however, helpfulness does generalize to a "friend" of the synchronized bounce partner. In sum, synchronous movement between infants and adults has a powerful effect on infants' expression of directed prosocial behavior. © 2014 New York Academy of Sciences.

Response to Infant Cry in Clinically Depressed and Non-Depressed Mothers

PubMed Central

Manian, Nanmathi; Truzzi, Anna; Bornstein, Marc H.

2017-01-01

Background Bowlby and Ainsworth hypothesized that maternal responsiveness is displayed in the context of infant distress. Depressed mothers are less responsive to infant distress vocalizations (cry) than non-depressed mothers. The present study focuses on acoustical components of infant cry that give rise to responsive caregiving in clinically depressed (n = 30) compared with non-depressed mothers (n = 30) in the natural setting of the home. Methods Analyses of infant and mother behaviors followed three paths: (1) tests of group differences in acoustic characteristics of infant cry, (2) tests of group differences of mothers’ behaviors during their infant’s crying, and (3) tree-based modeling to ascertain which variable(s) best predict maternal behaviors during infant cry. Results (1) Infants of depressed mothers cried as frequently and for equal durations as infants of non-depressed mothers; however, infants of depressed mothers cried with a higher fundamental frequency (f0) and in a more restricted range of f0. (2) Depressed mothers fed, rocked, and touched their crying infants less than non-depressed mothers, and depressed mothers were less responsive to their infants overall. (3) Novel tree-based analyses confirmed that depressed mothers engaged in less caregiving during their infants’ cry and indicated that depressed mothers responded only to cries at higher f0s and shorter durations. Older non-depressed mothers were the most interactive with infants. Conclusions Clinical depression affects maternal responsiveness during infant cry, leading to patterns of action that appear poorly attuned to infant needs. PMID:28046020

Limiting parental interaction during vocal development affects acoustic call structure in marmoset monkeys

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Human vocal development is dependent on learning by imitation through social feedback between infants and caregivers. Recent studies have revealed that vocal development is also influenced by parental feedback in marmoset monkeys, suggesting vocal learning mechanisms in nonhuman primates. Marmoset infants that experience more contingent vocal feedback than their littermates develop vocalizations more rapidly, and infant marmosets with limited parental interaction exhibit immature vocal behavior beyond infancy. However, it is yet unclear whether direct parental interaction is an obligate requirement for proper vocal development because all monkeys in the aforementioned studies were able to produce the adult call repertoire after infancy. Using quantitative measures to compare distinct call parameters and vocal sequence structure, we show that social interaction has a direct impact not only on the maturation of the vocal behavior but also on acoustic call structures during vocal development. Monkeys with limited parental interaction during development show systematic differences in call entropy, a measure for maturity, compared with their normally raised siblings. In addition, different call types were occasionally uttered in motif-like sequences similar to those exhibited by vocal learners, such as birds and humans, in early vocal development. These results indicate that a lack of parental interaction leads to long-term disturbances in the acoustic structure of marmoset vocalizations, suggesting an imperative role for social interaction in proper primate vocal development. PMID:29651461

Limiting parental interaction during vocal development affects acoustic call structure in marmoset monkeys.

PubMed

Gultekin, Yasemin B; Hage, Steffen R

2018-04-01

Human vocal development is dependent on learning by imitation through social feedback between infants and caregivers. Recent studies have revealed that vocal development is also influenced by parental feedback in marmoset monkeys, suggesting vocal learning mechanisms in nonhuman primates. Marmoset infants that experience more contingent vocal feedback than their littermates develop vocalizations more rapidly, and infant marmosets with limited parental interaction exhibit immature vocal behavior beyond infancy. However, it is yet unclear whether direct parental interaction is an obligate requirement for proper vocal development because all monkeys in the aforementioned studies were able to produce the adult call repertoire after infancy. Using quantitative measures to compare distinct call parameters and vocal sequence structure, we show that social interaction has a direct impact not only on the maturation of the vocal behavior but also on acoustic call structures during vocal development. Monkeys with limited parental interaction during development show systematic differences in call entropy, a measure for maturity, compared with their normally raised siblings. In addition, different call types were occasionally uttered in motif-like sequences similar to those exhibited by vocal learners, such as birds and humans, in early vocal development. These results indicate that a lack of parental interaction leads to long-term disturbances in the acoustic structure of marmoset vocalizations, suggesting an imperative role for social interaction in proper primate vocal development.

A Reevaluation of Gender Label Effects: Expectant Mothers' Responses to Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Nancy J.; Carver, William

1980-01-01

Women pregnant with their first child were observed interacting with an infant labeled as either a boy or a girl. Toy use and other maternal behaviors were examined as a function of gender label, women's attitudes regarding gender differences, and infant behavior. (Author/DB)

Baby, you light-up my face: culture-general physiological responses to infants and culture-specific cognitive judgements of adults.

PubMed

Esposito, Gianluca; Nakazawa, Jun; Ogawa, Shota; Stival, Rita; Kawashima, Akiko; Putnick, Diane L; Bornstein, Marc H

2014-01-01

Infants universally elicit in adults a set of solicitous behaviors that are evolutionarily important for the survival of the species. However, exposure, experience, and prejudice appear to govern adults' social choice and ingroup attitudes towards other adults. In the current study, physiological arousal and behavioral judgments were assessed while adults processed unfamiliar infant and adult faces of ingroup vs. outgroup members in two contrasting cultures, Japan and Italy. Physiological arousal was investigated using the novel technique of infrared thermography and behavioral judgments using ratings. We uncovered a dissociation between physiological and behavioral responses. At the physiological level, both Japanese and Italian adults showed significant activation (increase of facial temperature) for both ingroup and outgroup infant faces. At the behavioral level, both Japanese and Italian adults showed significant preferences for ingroup adults. Arousal responses to infants appear to be mediated by the autonomic nervous system and are not dependent on direct caregiving exposure, but behavioral responses appear to be mediated by higher-order cognitive processing based on social acceptance and cultural exposure.

Frequency-Modulated Orocutaneous Stimulation Promotes Non-nutritive Suck Development in Preterm Infants with Respiratory Distress Syndrome or Chronic Lung Disease

PubMed Central

Barlow, Steven M; Lee, Jaehoon; Wang, Jingyan; Oder, Austin; Hall, Sue; Knox, Kendi; Weatherstone, Kathleen; Thompson, Diane

2013-01-01

Background For the premature infant, extrauterine life is a pathological condition which greatly amplifies the challenges to the brain in establishing functional oromotor behaviors. The extent to which suck can be entrained using a synthetically patterned orocutaneous input to promote its development in preterm infants who manifest chronic lung disease is unknown. Objective To evaluate the effects of a frequency-modulated orocutaneous pulse train delivered through a pneumatically-charged pacifier capable of enhancing non-nutritive suck (NNS) activity in tube-fed premature infants. Methods A randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of pneumatic orocutaneous stimulation 3x/day on NNS development and length of stay (LOS) in the NICU among 160 newborn infants distributed among 3 subpopulations, including healthy preterm infants (HI), respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), and chronic lung disease (CLD). Study infants received a regimen of orocutaneous pulse trains through a PULSED pressurized silicone pacifier or a SHAM control (blind pacifier) during gavage feeds for up to 10 days. Results Mixed modeling, adjusted for the infant’s gender, gestational age, postmenstrual age, and birth weight, was used to handle interdependency among repeated measures within subjects. A significant main effect for stimulation mode (SHAM pacifier vs PULSED orosensory) was found among preterm infants for NNS Bursts/minute (p=.003), NNS events/minute (p=.033), and for Total Oral Compressions/minute [NNS+nonNNS] (p=.016). Pairwise comparison of adjusted means using Bonferroni adjustment indicated RDS and CLD infants showed the most significant gains on these NNS performance indices. CLD infants in the treatment group showed significantly shorter LOS by an average of 2.5 days. Conclusion Frequency-modulated PULSED orocutaneous pulse train stimuli delivered through a silicone pacifier are effective in facilitating NNS burst development in tube-fed RDS and CLD preterm infants, with an added benefit of reduced LOS for CLD infants. PMID:24310444

NICU Network Neurobehavioral Profiles Predict Developmental Outcomes in a Low Risk Sample

PubMed Central

Sucharew, Heidi; Khoury, Jane C.; Xu, Yingying; Succop, Paul; Yolton, Kimberly

2012-01-01

Summary Latent profile analysis (LPA) has been used previously to classify neurobehavioral responses of infants prenatally exposed to cocaine and other drugs of abuse. The objective of this study was to define NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) profile response patterns in a cohort of infants with no known cocaine exposure or other risks for neurobehavior deficits, and determine whether these profiles predict neurobehavioral outcomes in these low-risk infants. NNNS exams were performed on 355 low-risk infants at approximately 5 weeks after birth. LPA was used to define discrete profiles based on the standard NNNS summary scales. Associations between the infant profiles and neurobehavioral outcomes at one to three years of age were examined. Twelve of the 13 summary scales were used and three discrete NNNS profiles identified: social/easy going infants (44%), hypotonic infants (24%), and high arousal/difficult infants (32%). Statistically significant associations between NNNS profiles and later neurobehavioral outcomes were found for psychomotor development and externalizing behaviors. Hypotonic infants had both lower psychomotor development and lower externalizing scores compared to the other two profiles. In conclusion, three distinct profiles of the NNNS summary scores were identifiable using LPA among infants with no known cocaine exposure. These profile patterns were associated with early childhood neurobehavioral outcome, similar to findings reported in a study of infants with substantial cocaine exposure, demonstrating the utility of this profiling technique in both exposed and unexposed populations. PMID:22686386

Expectancy Learning from Probabilistic Input by Infants

PubMed Central

Romberg, Alexa R.; Saffran, Jenny R.

2013-01-01

Across the first few years of life, infants readily extract many kinds of regularities from their environment, and this ability is thought to be central to development in a number of domains. Numerous studies have documented infants’ ability to recognize deterministic sequential patterns. However, little is known about the processes infants use to build and update representations of structure in time, and how infants represent patterns that are not completely predictable. The present study investigated how infants’ expectations fora simple structure develope over time, and how infants update their representations with new information. We measured 12-month-old infants’ anticipatory eye movements to targets that appeared in one of two possible locations. During the initial phase of the experiment, infants either saw targets that appeared consistently in the same location (Deterministic condition) or probabilistically in either location, with one side more frequent than the other (Probabilistic condition). After this initial divergent experience, both groups saw the same sequence of trials for the rest of the experiment. The results show that infants readily learn from both deterministic and probabilistic input, with infants in both conditions reliably predicting the most likely target location by the end of the experiment. Local context had a large influence on behavior: infants adjusted their predictions to reflect changes in the target location on the previous trial. This flexibility was particularly evident in infants with more variable prior experience (the Probabilistic condition). The results provide some of the first data showing how infants learn in real time. PMID:23439947

Experience-dependent changes in the development of face preferences in infant rhesus monkeys.

PubMed

Parr, Lisa A; Murphy, Lauren; Feczko, Eric; Brooks, Jenna; Collantes, Marie; Heitz, Thomas R

2016-12-01

It is well known that early experience shapes the development of visual perception for faces in humans. However, the effect of experience on the development of social attention in non-human primates is unknown. In two studies, we examined the effect of cumulative social experience on developmental changes in attention to the faces of unfamiliar conspecifics or heterospecifics, and mom versus an unfamiliar female. From birth, infant rhesus monkeys preferred to look at conspecific compared to heterospecific faces, but this pattern reversed over time. In contrast, no consistent differences were found for attention to mom's face compared to an unfamiliar female. These results suggest differential roles of social experience in shaping the development of face preferences in infant monkeys. Results have important implications for establishing normative trajectories for the development of face preferences in an animal model of human social behavior. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Don’t worry, be (moderately) happy: Mothers’ anxiety and positivity during pregnancy independently predict lower mother–infant synchrony

PubMed Central

Moore, Ginger; Quigley, Kelsey M.; Voegtline, Kristin M.; DiPietro, Janet A.

2015-01-01

Maternal positivity and mother–infant synchrony have been linked, independently, to beneficial infant outcomes; however, research that has examined relations between the two has found that higher positivity is associated with lower synchrony. Methodological issues may inform this counter-intuitive association and clinical theory supports its validity. This study examined the theory that heightened positivity associated with anxiety is a way of avoiding negative emotion and contributes to lower synchrony because it interferes with appropriate responding to infant cues. We examined mothers’ (N = 75) self-reported anxiety and verbal expression of positivity during pregnancy in relation to mother–infant synchrony at 6 months post-partum. Verbal positivity was assessed using linguistic analysis of interviews about pregnancy experiences. Mother and infant affect and gaze were coded during interaction and synchrony was computed as the correlation between mother and infant behaviors. Higher verbal positivity and anxiety during pregnancy independently predicted lower mother–infant synchrony, suggesting distinct pathways to the same degree of synchrony with potentially different consequences for infant development. PMID:26705933

Different Fear-Regulation Behaviors in Toddlerhood: Relations to Preceding Infant Negative Emotionality, Maternal Depression, and Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gloggler, Bettina; Pauli-Pott, Ursula

2008-01-01

In the study presented, the development of different fear regulation behaviors and their associations with preceding maternal sensitivity and depression is addressed. A sample of 64 mother-child pairs was examined at the children's ages of 4, 12, and 30 months. Four-month negative reactivity and 12- and 30- month behavioral inhibition and fear…

TABS Manual for the Temperament and Atypical Behavior Scale: Early Childhood Indicators of Developmental Dysfunction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neisworth, John T.; Bagnato, Stephen J.; Salvia, John; Hunt, Frances M.

This manual describes the rationale, use, and validity of the Temperament and Atypical Behavior Scale (TABS), a norm-referenced measure of dysfunctional behavior appropriately used with infants and young children between the ages of 11 and 71 months. TABS is intended to identify children who are developing atypically or are at risk for atypical…

Temperamental precursors of infant attachment with mothers and fathers☆

PubMed Central

Planalp, Elizabeth M.; Braungart-Rieker, Julia M.

2013-01-01

The degree to which parent sensitivity and infant temperament distinguish attachment classification was examined. Multilevel modeling was used to assess the effect of parent sensitivity and infant temperament on infant–mother and infant–father attachment. Data were collected from mothers, fathers, and their infants (N = 135) when the infant was 3-, 5-, 7-, 12-, and 14-months old. Temperament was measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003); parent sensitivity was coded during the Still Face Paradigm (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise, & Brazelton, 1978); attachment was coded using the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Results indicate that mothers and fathers were less sensitive with insecure-avoidant infants. Whereas only one difference was found for infant–mother attachment groups and temperament, five significant differences emerged for infant–father attachment groups, with the majority involving insecure-ambivalent attachment. Infants classified as ambivalent with fathers were higher in perceptual sensitivity and cuddliness and these infants also showed a greater increase in low-intensity pleasure over time compared with other infants. Results indicate the importance of both parent sensitivity and infant temperament, though operating in somewhat different ways, in the development of the infant–mother and infant–father attachment relationship. PMID:24103401

Speech Preference Is Associated with Autistic-Like Behavior in 18-Months-Olds at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curtin, Suzanne; Vouloumanos, Athena

2013-01-01

We examined whether infants' preference for speech at 12 months is associated with autistic-like behaviors at 18 months in infants who are at increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) because they have an older sibling diagnosed with ASD and in low-risk infants. Only low-risk infants listened significantly longer to speech than to…

Children's responses to mother-infant and father-infant interaction with a baby sibling: jealousy or joy?

PubMed

Volling, Brenda L; Yu, Tianyi; Gonzalez, Richard; Kennedy, Denise E; Rosenberg, Lauren; Oh, Wonjung

2014-10-01

Firstborn children's reactions to mother-infant and father-infant interaction after a sibling's birth were examined in an investigation of 224 families. Triadic observations of parent-infant-sibling interaction were conducted at 1 month after the birth. Parents reported on children's problem behaviors at 1 and 4 months after the birth and completed the Attachment Q-sort before the birth. Latent profile analysis (LPA) identified 4 latent classes (behavioral profiles) for mother-infant and father-infant interactions: regulated-exploration, disruptive-dysregulated, approach-avoidant, and anxious-clingy. A fifth class, attention-seeking, was found with fathers. The regulated-exploration class was the normative pattern (60%), with few children in the disruptive class (2.7%). Approach-avoidant children had more behavior problems at 4 months than any other class, with the exception of the disruptive children, who were higher on aggression and attention problems. Before the birth, anxious-clingy children had less secure attachments to their fathers than approach avoidant children but more secure attachments to their mothers. Results underscore individual differences in firstborns' behavioral responses to parent-infant interaction and the importance of a person-centered approach for understanding children's jealousy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Tools for teen moms to reduce infant obesity: a randomized clinical trial.

PubMed

Horodynski, Mildred A; Silk, Kami; Hsieh, Gary; Hoffman, Alice; Robson, Mackenzie

2015-01-21

Unhealthy infant feeding practices, such as a combination of formula feeding and early introduction of solids may lead to rapid or excessive weight gain in early infancy. Adolescent mothers' feeding behaviors are most directly related to infant weight gain in the first year of life. Compared to adult mothers, adolescent mothers are less knowledgeable, less responsive, more controlling, and less skilled in infant feeding, which interferes with infants' healthy growth. The Tools for Teen Moms trial aims to compare the effect of a social media intervention for low-income adolescent, first-time mothers of infants 2 months of age or younger, versus standard care on infant weight, maternal responsiveness, and feeding style and practices. The intervention is conducted during the infant's first four months of life to promote healthy transition to solids during their first year. Tools for Teen Moms is an intervention delivered via a social media platform that actively engages and coaches low-income adolescent mothers in infant-centered feeding to reduce rapid/excessive infant weight gain in the first six months of life. We describe our study protocol for a randomized control trial with an anticipated sample of 100 low-income African- American and Caucasian adolescent, first-time mothers of infants. Participants are recruited through Maternal-Infant Health Programs in four counties in Michigan, USA. Participants are randomly assigned to the intervention or the control group. The intervention provides infant feeding information to mothers via a web-based application, and includes daily behavioral challenges, text message reminders, discussion forums, and website information as a comprehensive social media strategy over 6 weeks. Participants continue to receive usual care during the intervention. Main maternal outcomes include: (a) maternal responsiveness, (b) feeding style, and (c) feeding practices. The primary infant outcome is infant weight. Data collection occurs at baseline, and when the baby is 3 and 6 months old. Expected outcomes will address the effectiveness of the social media intervention in helping teen mothers develop healthy infant feeding practices that contribute to reducing the risk of early onset childhood obesity. Clinical Trials.Gov NCT02244424, June 24, 2014.

Toward a Neuroscientific Understanding of Play: A Dimensional Coding Framework for Analyzing Infant-Adult Play Patterns.

PubMed

Neale, Dave; Clackson, Kaili; Georgieva, Stanimira; Dedetas, Hatice; Scarpate, Melissa; Wass, Sam; Leong, Victoria

2018-01-01

Play during early life is a ubiquitous activity, and an individual's propensity for play is positively related to cognitive development and emotional well-being. Play behavior (which may be solitary or shared with a social partner) is diverse and multi-faceted. A challenge for current research is to converge on a common definition and measurement system for play - whether examined at a behavioral, cognitive or neurological level. Combining these different approaches in a multimodal analysis could yield significant advances in understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms of play, and provide the basis for developing biologically grounded play models. However, there is currently no integrated framework for conducting a multimodal analysis of play that spans brain, cognition and behavior. The proposed coding framework uses grounded and observable behaviors along three dimensions (sensorimotor, cognitive and socio-emotional), to compute inferences about playful behavior in a social context, and related social interactional states. Here, we illustrate the sensitivity and utility of the proposed coding framework using two contrasting dyadic corpora ( N = 5) of mother-infant object-oriented interactions during experimental conditions that were either non-conducive (Condition 1) or conducive (Condition 2) to the emergence of playful behavior. We find that the framework accurately identifies the modal form of social interaction as being either non-playful (Condition 1) or playful (Condition 2), and further provides useful insights about differences in the quality of social interaction and temporal synchronicity within the dyad. It is intended that this fine-grained coding of play behavior will be easily assimilated with, and inform, future analysis of neural data that is also collected during adult-infant play. In conclusion, here, we present a novel framework for analyzing the continuous time-evolution of adult-infant play patterns, underpinned by biologically informed state coding along sensorimotor, cognitive and socio-emotional dimensions. We expect that the proposed framework will have wide utility amongst researchers wishing to employ an integrated, multimodal approach to the study of play, and lead toward a greater understanding of the neuroscientific basis of play. It may also yield insights into a new biologically grounded taxonomy of play interactions.

Behavioral observation differentiates the effects of an intervention to promote sleep in premature infants: a pilot study.

PubMed

Lacina, Linda; Casper, Tammy; Dixon, Melodie; Harmeyer, Joann; Haberman, Beth; Alberts, Jeffrey R; Simakajornboon, Narong; Visscher, Marty O

2015-02-01

Sleep and ongoing cycling of sleep states are required for neurosensory processing, learning, and brain plasticity. Many aspects of neonatal intensive care environments such as handling for routine and invasive procedures, bright lighting, and noise can create stress, disrupt behavior, and interfere with sleep in prematurely born infants. The study empirically investigated whether a 30-minute observation of infant sleep states and behavior could differentiate an intervention to promote sleep in premature infants with feeding difficulties relative to conventional care (standard positioning, standard crib mattress [SP]). We included an intervention to determine the ability of the method to discriminate treatments and generate a benchmark for future improvements. The intervention, a conformational positioner (CP), is contoured around the infant to provide customized containment and boundaries. To more fully verify the 30-minute observational sleep results, standard polysomnography was conducted simultaneously and sleep outcomes for the 2 modalities were compared. In a randomized crossover clinical trial, 25 infants, 31.5 ± 0.6 weeks' gestational age and 38.4 ± 0.6 weeks at the study, with gastrointestinal conditions or general feeding difficulties used each intervention during an overnight neonatal intensive care unit sleep study. Infant sleep states and behaviors were observed during two 30-minute periods--that is, on the positioner and mattress--using the naturalistic observation of newborn behavior. Two certified developmental care nurses assessed sleep state, self-regulatory, and stress behaviors during 2-minute intervals and summed over 30 minutes. Sleep characteristics from standard polysomnography were measured at the time of behavior observations. Infants on CP spent significantly less time in alert, active awake, or crying states by observation compared with SP. Surgical subjects spent more time awake, active awake, or crying and displayed a higher number of behavior state changes than the nonsurgical infants. The percentage of time in observed deep sleep and quiet sleep was correlated with both percentage sleep efficiency (r = 0.78) and fewer state shifts per hour (r = -0.65) from electroencephalogram (EEG). Sleep efficiency by EEG was greater on CP versus SP. The CP enabled sleep compared with the standard mattress (SP) over 30-minute observation periods. Sleep status from behavioral observation was verified by standard EEG-based sleep techniques. Behavioral observation of sleep states may be a useful strategy for measuring the effectiveness of strategies to facilitate sleep in premature infants. Surgical subjects may benefit from additional interventions to promote sleep.

Making smart social judgments takes time: infants' recruitment of goal information when generating action predictions.

PubMed

Krogh-Jespersen, Sheila; Woodward, Amanda L

2014-01-01

Previous research has shown that young infants perceive others' actions as structured by goals. One open question is whether the recruitment of this understanding when predicting others' actions imposes a cognitive challenge for young infants. The current study explored infants' ability to utilize their knowledge of others' goals to rapidly predict future behavior in complex social environments and distinguish goal-directed actions from other kinds of movements. Fifteen-month-olds (N = 40) viewed videos of an actor engaged in either a goal-directed (grasping) or an ambiguous (brushing the back of her hand) action on a Tobii eye-tracker. At test, critical elements of the scene were changed and infants' predictive fixations were examined to determine whether they relied on goal information to anticipate the actor's future behavior. Results revealed that infants reliably generated goal-based visual predictions for the grasping action, but not for the back-of-hand behavior. Moreover, response latencies were longer for goal-based predictions than for location-based predictions, suggesting that goal-based predictions are cognitively taxing. Analyses of areas of interest indicated that heightened attention to the overall scene, as opposed to specific patterns of attention, was the critical indicator of successful judgments regarding an actor's future goal-directed behavior. These findings shed light on the processes that support "smart" social behavior in infants, as it may be a challenge for young infants to use information about others' intentions to inform rapid predictions.

Infant temperament and feeding history predict infants' responses to novel foods.

PubMed

Moding, Kameron J; Birch, Leann L; Stifter, Cynthia A

2014-12-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether infant temperament and previous feeding history were associated with infants' acceptance and rejection of a novel food at 12 months of age. Mother-infant dyads (n = 89) were video-recorded during a novel food (hummus, cottage cheese) feeding task. Infants' reactions (acceptance and rejection behaviors) and maternal responsiveness and affect during the interaction were coded from the recordings by teams of coders. Mothers reported on their infants' temperamental approach via the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) and their infants' feeding history (previous exposure to solid foods and exclusive breastfeeding). Regression analyses revealed that infants rated lower on approach showed less acceptance of the first offer of novel food than infants rated higher on approach. Additionally, low approach infants who were previously exposed to a greater number of solid foods showed fewer rejection behaviors in response to the later offers of food. Exclusive breastfeeding for 4 months did not appear to have an effect on acceptance or rejection. Finally, greater maternal responsiveness was related to the infants' acceptance of the new food whereas lower maternal responsiveness was associated with rejection of the novel food. These results suggest that the acceptance and rejection of new foods by infants is dependent upon their temperament and previous exposure to solid foods, as well as the manner in which mothers present the novel food. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Next Steps for Science and Policy on Promoting Vegetable Consumption among US Infants and Young Children12

PubMed Central

Fisher, Jennifer O; Dwyer, Johanna T

2016-01-01

Vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet for infants and young children, but they are poorly accepted and underconsumed. This paper highlights major themes and research needs for understanding how to raise children to consume and enjoy vegetables as part of a healthful diet. A range of factors impedes US infants and young children from eating as many vegetables as experts consider optimal for child nutrition, health, and development. Barriers include biological and behavioral issues relating to infant and child development, household- and family-related barriers, obstacles in the larger community, economic limitations, and some government policies and programs. These barriers must be removed to encourage children to eat more vegetables. Research gaps also must be filled. We summarize the basic and applied research that is needed to craft more effective messages, devise strategies for parents and other child caretakers to take within households, develop action in the larger community, and modify some government policies and programs. PMID:26773035

Next Steps for Science and Policy on Promoting Vegetable Consumption among US Infants and Young Children.

PubMed

Fisher, Jennifer O; Dwyer, Johanna T

2016-01-01

Vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet for infants and young children, but they are poorly accepted and underconsumed. This paper highlights major themes and research needs for understanding how to raise children to consume and enjoy vegetables as part of a healthful diet. A range of factors impedes US infants and young children from eating as many vegetables as experts consider optimal for child nutrition, health, and development. Barriers include biological and behavioral issues relating to infant and child development, household- and family-related barriers, obstacles in the larger community, economic limitations, and some government policies and programs. These barriers must be removed to encourage children to eat more vegetables. Research gaps also must be filled. We summarize the basic and applied research that is needed to craft more effective messages, devise strategies for parents and other child caretakers to take within households, develop action in the larger community, and modify some government policies and programs. © 2016 American Society for Nutrition.

Prenatal PCB Exposure and Neurobehavioral Development in Infants and Children: Can the Oswego Study Inform the Current Debate?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Paul; Reihman, Jacqueline; Lonky, Edward; Darvill, Thomas; Pagano, James

2004-01-01

In the current paper we describe the methodology and results of the Oswego study, in light of D.V. Cicchetti, A.S. Kaufman, and S.S. Sparrow's (this issue) criticisms regarding the validity of the human health/behavioral claims in the PCB literature. The Oswego project began as a replication of the Lake Michigan Maternal Infant Cohort study.…

Individual and combined effects of postpartum depression in mothers and fathers on parenting behavior.

PubMed

Paulson, James F; Dauber, Sarah; Leiferman, Jenn A

2006-08-01

Pediatric anticipatory guidance has been associated with parenting behaviors that promote positive infant development. Maternal postpartum depression is known to negatively affect parenting and may prevent mothers from following anticipatory guidance. The effects of postpartum depression in fathers on parenting is understudied. Our purpose with this work was to examine the effects of maternal and paternal depression on parenting behaviors consistent with anticipatory guidance recommendations. The 9-month-old wave of data from a national study of children and their families, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, provided data on 5089 2-parent families. Depressive symptoms were measured with a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Interviews with both parents provided data on parent health behaviors and parent-infant interactions. Logistic and linear regression models were used to estimate the association between depression in each parent and the parenting behaviors of interest. These models were adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic status indicators. In this national sample, 14% of mothers and 10% of fathers exhibited levels of depressive symptoms on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale that have been associated with clinical diagnoses, confirming other findings of a high prevalence of postpartum maternal depression but highlighting that postpartum depression is a significant issue for fathers as well. Mothers who were depressed were approximately 1.5 times more likely to engage in less healthy feeding and sleep practices with their infant. In both mothers and fathers, depressive symptoms were negatively associated with positive enrichment activity with the child (reading, singing songs, and telling stories). Postpartum depression is a significant problem in both mothers and fathers in the United States. It is associated with undesirable parent health behaviors and fewer positive parent-infant interactions.

Three-quarter view preference for three-dimensional objects in 8-month-old infants.

PubMed

Yamashita, Wakayo; Niimi, Ryosuke; Kanazawa, So; Yamaguchi, Masami K; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2014-04-04

This study examined infants' visual perception of three-dimensional common objects. It has been reported that human adults perceive object images in a view-dependent manner: three-quarter views are often preferred to other views, and the sensitivity to object orientation is lower for three-quarter views than for other views. We tested whether such characteristics were observed in 6- to 8-month-old infants by measuring their preferential looking behavior. In Experiment 1 we examined 190- to 240-day-olds' sensitivity to orientation change and in Experiment 2 we examined these infants' preferential looking for the three-quarter view. The 240-day-old infants showed a pattern of results similar to adults for some objects, while the 190-day-old infants did not. The 240-day-old infants' perception of object view is (partly) similar to that of adults. These results suggest that human visual perception of three-dimensional objects develops at 6 to 8 months of age.

Breastfeeding, parenting, and early cognitive development.

PubMed

Gibbs, Benjamin G; Forste, Renata

2014-03-01

To explain why breastfeeding is associated with children's cognitive development. By using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of early childhood (N = 7500), we examined how breastfeeding practices, the early introduction of solid foods, and putting an infant to bed with a bottle were associated with cognitive development across early childhood. We also explored whether this link can be explained by parenting behaviors and maternal education. There is a positive relationship between predominant breastfeeding for 3 months or more and child reading skills, but this link is the result of cognitively supportive parenting behaviors and greater levels of education among women who predominantly breastfed. We found little-to-no relationship between infant feeding practices and the cognitive development of children with less-educated mothers. Instead, reading to a child every day and being sensitive to a child's development were significant predictors of math and reading readiness outcomes. Although breastfeeding has important benefits in other settings, the encouragement of breastfeeding to promote school readiness does not appear to be a key intervention point. Promoting parenting behaviors that improve child cognitive development may be a more effective and direct strategy for practitioners to adopt, especially for disadvantaged children. Copyright © 2014 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling Prosocial Behavior Increases Helping in 16-Month-Olds.

PubMed

Schuhmacher, Nils; Köster, Moritz; Kärtner, Joscha

2018-04-17

In two experiments, the imitation of helping behavior in 16-month-olds was investigated. In Study 1 (N = 31), infants either observed an adult model helping or not helping another individual before they had the opportunity to assist an unfamiliar experimenter. In one of two tasks, more children helped in the prosocial model condition than in the no model control condition. In Study 2 (N = 60), a second control condition was included to test whether infants imitated the prosocial intention (no neediness control). Children in the prosocial model condition helped more readily than children in the no model condition, with the second control condition falling in between. These findings propose that modeling provides a critical learning mechanism in early prosocial development. © 2018 Society for Research in Child Development.

Foster Mother-Infant Bonding: Associations Between Foster Mothers’ Oxytocin Production, Electrophysiological Brain Activity, Feelings of Commitment, and Caregiving Quality

PubMed Central

Bick, Johanna; Dozier, Mary; Bernard, Kristin; Simons, Robert; Grasso, Damion

2012-01-01

This study examined the biological processes associated with foster mother-infant bonding. In an examination of foster mother-infant dyads (N = 41, mean infant age = 8.5 months), foster mothers’ oxytocin production was associated with their expressions of behavioral delight toward their foster infant and their average P3 response to images of all infant faces in the first two months of the relationship. Three months later, foster mothers’ oxytocin production was still associated with delight toward their foster infant and was also specifically associated with their P3 response to an image of their foster infant. Similar to biologically-related mothers and infants, oxytocin appears to be associated with foster mothers’ brain activity and caregiving behavior, with patterns suggestive of bond formation. PMID:23163703

Auditory-Oral Matching Behavior in Newborns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Xin; Striano, Tricia; Rakoczy, Hannes

2004-01-01

Twenty-five newborn infants were tested for auditory-oral matching behavior when presented with the consonant sound /m/ and the vowel sound /a/--a precursor behavior to vocal imitation. Auditory-oral matching behavior by the infant was operationally defined as showing the mouth movement appropriate for producing the model sound just heard (mouth…

On the nature and consequences of early loss.

PubMed

Hofer, M A

1996-01-01

To describe how an animal model system can be used to explore basic questions about the nature of loss and the effects of early loss on later vulnerability to disease. The physiological and behavioral responses of infant rats to separation from their mothers are first described and then analyzed experimentally into component mechanisms. These studies have revealed an extensive layer of processes underlying the psychological constructs generally used to understand the response to loss. Hidden within the observable interactions of parent and offspring, we found a number of discrete sensorimotor, thermal, and nutrient-based events that have unexpected long-term regulatory effects on specific components of infant physiology and behavior. Release from all of these inhibitory and excitatory regulators together during maternal separation constitutes a novel mechanism by which the experience of loss can be translated into a complex patterned response. Evidence for early regulatory processes has also been found in monkey and human mother-infant interactions. Here they may well constitute the building blocks from which attachment and object representations develop. We and others have found long-term effects of loss, and of selective replacement of regulators, on behavioral development and on later vulnerability to disease. The results give us a new understanding of early attachment as a developmental force and of human grief as a risk to health.

Development of the Preverbal Visual Assessment (PreViAs) questionnaire.

PubMed

Pueyo, Victoria; García-Ormaechea, Inés; González, Inmaculada; Ferrer, Concepción; de la Mata, Guillermo; Duplá, María; Orós, Pedro; Andres, Eva

2014-04-01

Visual cognitive functions of preverbal infants are evaluated by means of a behavioral assessment. Parents or primary caregivers may be appropriate to certify the acquisition of certain abilities. To develop the PreViAs (Preverbal Visual Assessment) questionnaire to assess visual behavior of infants under 24 months of age and to assess the normative outcomes for each item at each age. The process was divided into three phases: scale development (items and domains generation), pilot testing, and exploratory analysis. The final version of the PreViAs questionnaire consisted of 30 items, each related to one or more of four domains (visual attention, visual communication, visual-motor coordination, and visual processing). For the exploratory analysis, 298 children (159 boys and 139 girls) were recruited. Their ages ranged from 0.1 to 24 months (mean, 11.2 months). Internal consistency of the questionnaire was high for all domains (Cronbach's α coefficients of 0.85-0.94). The PreViAs questionnaire is a useful scale for assessing visual cognitive abilities of infants under 24 months of age. It is easy and feasible to complete by primary caregivers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The longitudinal link between parenting and child aggression: the moderating effect of attachment security.

PubMed

Cyr, Maeve; Pasalich, Dave S; McMahon, Robert J; Spieker, Susan J

2014-10-01

This study examined whether infant attachment security moderates the association between parenting in preschool and later aggressive behavior among a sample of children at high risk for developing conduct problems. Participants were 82 adolescent mother-child dyads recruited from the community. Infant attachment status at age 1 year was measured using the Strange Situation. When children were aged 4.5 years, mothers reported on their self-efficacy in regards to parenting, and mothers' positive parenting and criticism were coded from direct observations of parent-child interactions. In grade 1, mothers reported on their children's aggressive behavior. Infant secure attachment significantly moderated the association between observed maternal criticism and child aggression. That is, among insecurely attached children, higher levels of maternal criticism were associated with more severe aggression. This longitudinal finding suggests that a secure attachment may buffer the deleterious effects of harsh parenting on child aggression.

Length of day-care attendance and attachment behavior in eighteen-month-old infants.

PubMed

Schwartz, P

1983-08-01

Differences in the attachment behavior of 18-month-old full-time, part-time, and non-day-care infants from intact middle-class homes were compared. Mothers of the day-care infants had made arrangements to return to work before their infants' birth, and all the infants had been placed in day-care homes before 9 months of age. The study involved 2 sessions: a home observation and the strange-situation procedure in a laboratory setting. The home-observation and rating scale scores of maternal behaviors directed at the child yielded few group differences. More full-time day-care children (but not part-time children) were found to display avoidance of the mother during the final reunion episode of the strange-situation procedure than did non-day-care children. The length of the daily separation appears to be an important determinant of day-care effects on infant-mother attachment.

The behavior of a zoo-housed infant orangutan after the death of its mother.

PubMed

Whilde, Jenny; Marples, Nicola

2011-01-01

The behavior of an infant female orangutan at Dublin Zoo before and after the death of her mother was recorded using scan sampling and compared. Social interactions and associations of the infant with the other individuals in the group were also compared before and after the death of her mother. Increases in climbing and object manipulation were observed, and a decrease in resting occurred. The infant orangutan significantly increased the amount of time she spent in close contact with another related adult female in the group after her mother's death. This case study describes an example of a zoo-housed infant orangutan being successfully fostered by a related female without human intervention. It also provides a quantification of the behavior of an infant orangutan before and after being orphaned. Zoo Biol 30:205-211, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Sequential Analysis of Mastery Behavior in 6- and 12-Month-Old Infants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacTurk, Robert H.; And Others

1987-01-01

Sequences of mastery behavior were analyzed in a sample of 67 infants 6 to 12 months old. Authors computed (a) frequencies of six categories of mastery behavior, transitional probabilities, and z scores for each behavior change, and (b) transitions from a mastery behavior to positive affect. Changes in frequencies and similarity in organization…

Prenatal meditation influences infant behaviors.

PubMed

Chan, Ka Po

2014-11-01

Meditation is important in facilitating health. Pregnancy health has been shown to have significant consequences for infant behaviors. In view of limited studies on meditation and infant temperament, this study aims to explore the effects of prenatal meditation on these aspects. The conceptual framework was based on the postulation of positive relationships between prenatal meditation and infant health. A randomized control quantitative study was carried out at Obstetric Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong. 64 pregnant Chinese women were recruited for intervention and 59 were for control. Outcome measures were cord blood cortisol, infant salivary cortisol, and Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Cord blood cortisol level of babies was higher in the intervention group (p<0.01) indicates positive health status of the newborns verifies that prenatal meditation can influence fetal health. Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire showed that the infants of intervention group have better temperament (p<0.05) at fifth month reflects the importance of prenatal meditation in relation to child health. Present study concludes the positive effects of prenatal meditation on infant behaviors and recommends that pregnancy care providers should provide prenatal meditation to pregnant women. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The development of motor behavior

PubMed Central

Adolph, Karen E.; Franchak, John M.

2016-01-01

This article reviews research on the development of motor behavior from a developmental systems perspective. We focus on infancy when basic action systems are acquired. Posture provides a stable base for locomotion, manual actions, and facial actions. Experience facilitates improvements in motor behavior and infants accumulate immense amounts of experience with all of their basic action systems. At every point in development, perception guides motor behavior by providing feedback about the results of just prior movements and information about what to do next. Reciprocally, the development of motor behavior provides fodder for perception. More generally, motor development brings about new opportunities for acquiring knowledge about the world, and burgeoning motor skills can instigate cascades of developmental changes in perceptual, cognitive, and social domains. PMID:27906517

Deficits in Top-Down Sensory Prediction in Infants At Risk due to Premature Birth.

PubMed

Emberson, Lauren L; Boldin, Alex M; Riccio, Julie E; Guillet, Ronnie; Aslin, Richard N

2017-02-06

A prominent theoretical view is that the brain is inherently predictive [1, 2] and that prediction helps drive the engine of development [3, 4]. Although infants exhibit neural signatures of top-down sensory prediction [5, 6], in order to establish that prediction supports development, it must be established that deficits in early prediction abilities alter trajectories. We investigated prediction in infants born prematurely, a leading cause of neuro-cognitive impairment worldwide [7]. Prematurity, independent of medical complications, leads to developmental disturbances [8-12] and a broad range of developmental delays [13-17]. Is an alteration in early prediction abilities the common cause? Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we measured top-down sensory prediction in preterm infants (born <33 weeks gestation) before infants exhibited clinically identifiable developmental delays (6 months corrected age). Whereas preterm infants had typical neural responses to presented visual stimuli, they exhibited altered neural responses to predicted visual stimuli. Importantly, a separate behavioral control confirmed that preterm infants detect pattern violations at the same rate as full-terms, establishing selectivity of this response to top-down predictions (e.g., not in learning an audiovisual association). These findings suggest that top-down sensory prediction plays a crucial role in development and that deficits in this ability may be the reason why preterm infants experience altered developmental trajectories and are at risk for poor developmental outcomes. Moreover, this work presents an opportunity for establishing a neuro-biomarker for early identification of infants at risk and could guide early intervention regimens. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) System on Sensitivity in Mother-Infant Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nugent, J. Kevin; Bartlett, Jessica Dym; Von Ende, Adam; Valim, Clarissa

2017-01-01

The Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system is a neurobehavioral observation tool designed to sensitize parents to infants' capacities and individuality and to enhance the parent-infant relationship by strengthening parents' confidence and practical skills in caring for their children. The NBO's focus on relationship building is intended for…

Behavior of Infants with Iron-Deficiency Anemia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lozoff, Betsy; And Others

1998-01-01

Compared behavior of 52 Costa Rican 12- to 23-month-olds with iron-deficiency anemia to that of 139 infants with better iron status. Found that iron-deficient infants maintained closer contact with caregivers; showed less pleasure and playfulness; were more wary, hesitant, and easily tired; made fewer attempts at test items; and attended less to…

The Preservation of Two Infant Temperaments into Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kagan, Jerome; Snidman, Nancy; Kahn, Vali; Towsley, Sara

2007-01-01

This "Monograph" reports theoretically relevant behavioral, biological, and self-report assessments of a sample of 14-17-year-olds who had been classified into one of four temperamental groups at 4 months of age. The infant temperamental categories were based on observed behavior to a battery of unfamiliar stimuli. The infants classified as high…

Being Mimicked Increases Prosocial Behavior in 18-Month-Old Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carpenter, Malinda; Uebel, Johanna; Tomasello, Michael

2013-01-01

Most previous research on imitation in infancy has focused on infants' learning of instrumental actions on objects. This study focused instead on the more social side of imitation, testing whether being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in infants, as it does in adults (van Baaren, Holland, Kawakami, & van Knippenberg, 2004).…

Distribution of Auditory Response Behaviors in Normal Infants and Profoundly Multihandicapped Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flexer, Carol; Gans, Donald P.

1986-01-01

A study compared the responsiveness to sound by normal infants and profoundly multihandicapped children. Results revealed that the profoundly multihandicapped subjects displayed relatively more reflexive than attentive type behaviors and exhibited fewer behaviors per response. (Author/CB)