Josephine V. Brown

Maternal drug use during pregnancy: Are preterm and full-term infants affected differently?

This study examined whether preterm infants are more vulnerable to the effects of prenatal drug exposure than are full-term infants. The sample of 235 low-income African American mothers and their infants included 119 cocaine-polydrug users, 19 alcohol-only users, and 97 nonusers; 148 infants were full term and 87 were preterm. Direct effects of exposure on birth weight, birth length, ponderal index, and irritability were moderated by length of gestation: Fetal growth deficits were more extreme in later-born infants, whereas increases in irritability were more extreme in earlier born infants. Effects of exposure on cardiorespiratory reactivity to a neonatal exam were not moderated by length of gestation. In general, effects of exposure occurred for both cocaine-polydrug and alcohol only users and so could not be unambiguously attributed to either of these drugs alone.

Asthma Management by Preschool Children and Their Families: A Developmental Framework

Sixty-one low-income, African-American mothers of preschool children with asthma were interviewed about asthma management. Additionally, 15 nurses provided information for a developmental schedule of asthma self-management activities. Most children had been diagnosed with asthma prior to age 18 months. Children participated in asthma management by 20 months, yet their mothers did not expect them to be able to manage their asthma by school age. Mothers expended considerable effort in coordinating asthma management with others. We suggest that asthma education with this population promote developmentally appropriate parent-child partnerships and effective involvement of family members and secondary settings.

A computer-controlled language training system for investigating the language skills of young apes

A computer-controlled language training system was designed and constructed to enhance the objectivity and efficiency of inquiry into the language-relevant behaviors of apes. The system allows the S to gain control over the events of the 24-h day in direct correspondence with its competence in using a keyboard on which each key represents a word. Various incentives can be obtained through the selection and depression of appropriate keys in accordance with rules of sentence structure monitored by a computer. The system is flexible and allows for eventual conversation between man and ape, with the computer as the intermediary. A Teletype records all that transpires. Achievements of the chimpanzee S over the course of the first 8 months of the system’s operation attest to the worth of the system and training methods.

A Home Visiting Asthma Education Program: Challenges to Program Implementation:

This study describes the implementation of a nurse home visiting asthma education program for low-income African American families of young children with asthma. Of 55 families, 71% completed the program consisting of eight lessons. The achievement of learning objectives was predicted by caregiver factors, such as education, presence of father or surrogate father in the household, and safety of the neighborhood, but not by child factors, such as age or severity of asthma as implied by the prescribed asthmamedication regimen. Incompatibility between the scheduling needs of the families and the nurse home visitors was a major obstacle in delivering the program on time, despite the flexibility of the nurse home visitors. The authors suggest that future home-based asthma education programs contain a more limited number of home visits but add telephone follow-ups and address the broader needs of low-income families that most likely function as barriers to program success.

Instrumental control of the sucking response in human newborns

Abstract Two hypotheses relating to the instrumental characteristics of nonnutritive neonatal sucking were tested with regular (preferred) and blunt (nonpreferred) nipples: (1) the rate of blunt-nipple sucking (sucking on a nipple from which the elongated portion has been cut) is higher when access to a regular rather than a blunt nipple is contingent on sucking the blunt nipple; (2) the rate of regular-nipple sucking is lower when access to a blunt rather than a regular nipple is contingent on sucking the regular nipple. The design was a 2 × 2 factorial with one factor the type of nipple used first and the second factor the type of nipple presented contingent on sucking the first nipple. A specified number of sucks on the first nipple (Fixed Ratio) produced 30 sec access to the second nipple. The results indicate that both hypotheses were confirmed, and it was concluded that the obtained changes in nonnutritive sucking were produced by the contingencies rather than by the mere alternation of the sucking stimuli.

chapter 14 – The Conversation Board

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the conversion board (CB) in an attempt to acquire language training in a different normal environment. The CB was designed to serve chiefly as a language training adjunct, it may prove valuable as a device for conversation between subject and experimenter or perhaps even between one subject and another after elementary and intermediate language training with the stationary facility. During operation of the CB, both parties in the conversation use the same row of projectors. When the CB is employed indoors, a separate power supply connected to the building mains is used. One hopes that the CB communication will serve as a reinforcer in such a way that it will foster language usage in many different situations. An increase in preference for the CB over time should indicate an increase in the subjects preference for communication via the route provided by the CB. Thus, the CB should provide a means to take advantage of the desire for communication potential so that the gap from language facility in the computer environment to language facility in the subjects regular environment can be bridged.

Differential Accuracy of Aimed Movements to Visual and Somatic Targets in Young Children

Children, aged 2.5-8 years, were required to touch accurately a target located either on their bodies or on the chair in which they sat. Movements were made when visual information was: 1. complete (target lit for 3 s, room illuminated); 2. partial (target lit for 3 s, room dark); 3. reduced (target lit for 0.7 s, room dark); and finally, when the target was somatically specified. Movements to visible targets did not differ in any important way as a function of target location with respect to on/off body. Accuracy improved with age to visually but noto somatically specified targets, decreased with decreasing availability of visual information, and was poorest to somatically specified targets. We conclude that during development, the sense-modality through which the target is specified and the visibility of the arm/hand during the movement, but not the personal/extra personal visible space in which the target is located, are important determinants of reaching performance.

Tactile recognition of laterally inverted mirror images by children: intermanual transfer and rotation of the palm.

Intermanual tactile recognition of laterally inverted mirror shapes was studied, with special reference to the role of the thumb. Children were allowed to feel the shapes either with the whole hand, with only four fingers (excluding the thumb), or with only the index finger. Intramanual recognition was also studied after rotation of the hand from the palm down/up to the palm up/down orientation. The thumb was found not to be important for intermanual mirror reversals, and only of limited importance for intramanual reversals. There was no evidence that coding with reference to the hand is of importance for either inter- or intramanual reversals. The explanations for the two kinds of reversals are quite different.

Comparison at 32–37 Weeks Postconception of Infants Born 1983–1989 and 1995–2004 on the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant

In spite of numerous recent outcome studies of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants, no data exist on their development prior to term. In this study we traced and compared the neurobehavioral development of 251 ELBW (< 1,000 g) and 240 low birth weight (LBW; 1,000 g–2,500 g) preterms born between 1995 and 2004 from 32 to 37 weeks postconceptional age (PCA), using the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant (NAPI; Korner & Thom, 1990). Compared to the original NAPI cohort of 521 infants (born 1983–1989), the ELBW and LBW infants were at higher medical risk, displayed weaker motor development, a tighter scarf sign and popliteal angle at all or most PCAs, and a weaker cry at older PCAs; they did not differ in irritability and percent asleep ratings. Few differences were noted between the ELBW and LBW groups. Research is now needed to determine whether the 1995 to 2004 NAPI values of ELBW and LBW infants at 32 to 37 weeks PCA are predictive of later outcome of high-risk preterms.

Tactile Recognition of Mirror Images by Children: Intermanual Transfer and Rotation of the Palm

In order to evaluate the importance of the axis of stimulus presentation, inter- and intramanual recognition of mirror pairs was studied with the stimulus materials aligned along the front/back axis (whereas in previous work the mirror pairs were aligned along the left/right axis). Children were allowed to feel shapes with the whole hand, with only four fingers (excluding the thumb), or with only the index finger. After learning with one hand, recognition was tested in experiment 1 with the other hand; after learning with one orientation of the hand (palm down or up), recognition was tested in experiment 2 with the other orientation (palm up or down) of the same hand; after learning with one coronal alignment of the hand (to the left or right), recognition was tested in experiment 3 with the other alignment (to the right or left), but without rotation, of the same hand. Significantly fewer intermanual recognition errors were made on mirror pairs with the materials oriented along the front/back axis than in previous work when oriented along the left/right axis. This supports the suggestion that such errors arise when the stimuli are oriented along the left/right axis during formation of the memory trace. The same trend was unexpectedly obtained for intramanual recognition errors (after rotation of the hand). These errors (after hand rotation) are largely due to coding with respect to the hand; they are reduced when the hand is not aligned with the body axis, since then coding can also occur in relation to the environment.