Karen J. O'Donnell

Preparing Infant Interventionists: Interdepartmental Training in Special Education and Maternal and Child Health

The provision of services to handicapped newborns, Infants, and their families challenges traditional approaches to preparing special educators. Early childhood special educators working with handicapped infants increasingly must assume new roles and work In a variety of settings, Including homes, daycare centers, and medical settings. Furthermore, they work intensively with families and must work within the context of broader community systems. This article describes one alternative approach to preparing infant Interventionists by providing Interdepartmental training In Special Education and Maternal and Child Health. The program recognizes the transactional nature of Infant development, the fact that Infants are a part of a family system, and the ecological notion that the family system is nested within larger systems.

The effect of physical status on the affective expression of handicapped infants

This study investigated the ability of handicapped infants to express laughter in response to specific stimuli and examined the effect of physical impairment in limiting an individual childs ability to laugh. Results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that as the degree of muscle tone involvement increased from normal to mild, moderate or severe, the childs ability to laugh decreased. The associated decrement in laugh responses occurred whether the child was classed as hypotonic or hypertonic. The authors suggest that consideration of this physical component is important if one is to use the number of laughing responses to specific stimuli as a gauge of a muscle involved infants cognitive status.

PRENATAL INTERVENTION FOR CHILDREN WITH IN UTERO EXPOSURE TO MATERNAL DRUG USE. 643

In our Infant Care Project we integrate prenatal, substance abuse, and child services for pregnant women who are abusing drugs and their children. Three groups are identified to study the intervention and the relative contributions of biological and environmental factors: women recruited prenatally (early intervention), those identified postnatally (late), and a matched comparison group with no known drug use.

1348 CAVITARY PERIVENTRICULAR LEUKOMALACIA (PVL): INCIDENCE AND SEQUELAE

Recent real-time ultrasonographic studies have shown that the diagnosis of cavitary PVL can be made in vivo. From 1-31-82 to 6-30-84 all infants weighing ≤ 1200 g were screened for intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) using real-time ultrasonography at 1, 2, and 4 weeks postnatal age and at least monthly through term corrected age. PVL was diagnosed in 6/119 survivors. ICH was seen in 45/119 including 4 of 6 infants with PVL. Cavitary lesions of PVL were first diagnosed at 4-6 weeks postnatal age in all. Some lesions were undetectable by 10-12 weeks. Follow-up data is presented below.Poor visual attention at term was noted on the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale in all patients.*Age corrected for prematurity in months.Conclusion: PVL is a marker for cerebral palsy and may occur in the absence of ICH. Careful longitudinal scanning, past the usual time of ICH is mandatory for diagnosis.