The article describes FEED (Facilitative Environments Encouraging Development), a junior high child development curriculum for potential mothers, intended to result in improved childrearing practices that will in turn offset all or most of the negative effects of the low birthweight and prematurity that are associated with teenage pregnancies.…

Examines the early development of low birthweight infants and its relationship to five categories of medical and environmental variables: (1) health; (2) family status; (3) family context; (4) family process; and (5) parenting. Results indicated that scores on the Bayley Mental Development Index at 18 months were related to all five categories of…

Examines the mental development scores for two groups of at-risk infants throughout their childhood--those classified as small for gestational age (SGA) and those twins falling below 1,750g birth weight--and determines that SGA twins showed only a modest deficit in IQ scores as compared to the full twin samples. (HOD)

Infant novelty scores correlated significantly with measures of cognitive outcome beginning at 24 months of age and continuing at 34, 40, and 72 months of age. Parental education was strongly correlated with cognitive outcome beginning at about two years of age. (RH)

Examined the relationship between responsiveness to auditory novelty in full-term and preterm infants and subsequent intellectual performance at five years of age. Results suggest that measures of early perceptual-memory development may reflect early cognitive processes necessary for later intellectual performance. (Author/RH)

This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis between full term typical infants and those born micropremature in the developmental construct of mastery motivation. The sample consisted of 10 micropremature infants with developmental levels within the normal limits and 10 full term 9- to 12-month-olds (adjusted for prematurity) matched…

Music therapy is an established health care and human services profession that is dedicated to the implementation of controlled research studies to determine the underlying mechanisms in music that are responsible for therapeutic change, as well as clinical research to direct and guide the work of the music therapist. This growing body of research…

Assessed whether the timing of prenatal care related to low birth weight delivery, adjusting for sociodemographic and behavioral risk factors. Data on births to white and African American women showed no benefits for early initiation of prenatal care in reducing the risk of low birth weight.(SM)

Investigated shifts of gaze to peripheral targets in full-term and very preterm infants with transient periventricular echogenicity, a type of short-term brain damage, between 6-26 weeks old. Found that differences between full- and preterm infants was small, but after 16 weeks, there were subtle differences between them as preterms took longer to…

High-risk infants may exhibit hearing impairments which can subsequently impede speech/language development. Discussed are prenatal risk factors, including environmental toxins and infections; and perinatal factors such as prematurity, asphyxia, intracranial hemorrhage, bilirubin, ototoxic drugs, and environmental noise. A table summarizes factors…

Reports that mothers' responsiveness to young infants' distress predicts language capacity at two years. Mothers' responsiveness to older infants' nondistress vocalizations predicts cognitive performance, perceived self-esteem, social competence, and family relations in preadolescents. (PCB)

Finds that mothers high in responsiveness in the infant's first year have more secure infants and have children who are more likely to use prosocial interaction strategies with peers, are rated by teachers as having fewer school problems, and score higher on the Stanford-Binet. (pcb)