Attempts to correlate developmental outcome with medical complications affecting the fetus and infant have focused on the prenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods. The time beyond the newborn stage has not been explored in detail. The aim of this study was to relate events occurring during the gestational and neonatal periods as well as the infancy periods to later performance by the use of four medical scales. A total of 126 preterm infants were followed up prospectively from birth to 2 years of age. Medical complications occurring during the prenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods as well as the first nine months of life were recovered. No relationship was found between obstetric and neonatal events and developmental outcome. Significant correlations were seen between medical events of later infancy and development at 2 years of age.
The development of a group of 100 preterm infants, mean birth weight 1,877 grams, from a broad range of social class and ethnic backgrounds was followed from birth to age 5. Assessments in infancy were directed at medical problems and early perceptual, motor, social, and cognitive development. The child's performance on the Stanford-Binet test at age 5 could not be predicted from early hazardous events in the obstetrical or neonatal period. The results indicate that developmental outcome at age 5 could be predicted moderately from a single measure, infant visual attention, administered as early as term date. Prediction was improved by using a combination of assessments given during the first 9 months. Furthermore, prediction was significantly better for girls than for boys. Although moderate stability in performance was found for the group as a whole, prediction of an individual's performance resulted in a substantial number of children being misclassified. Social factors were more important than any other set of factors in relating to the child's mental performance at age 5.
Maturation of respiration in prematures and young infants. Neuropadiatriie 3: 294-304 (1972). Changes in respiratory patterns were studied in prematures from 30 wks. oonceptional age to 8 mons. past term and in full term infants between 40 wks. conceptional age (and 8 tnons. past term. Regular respiration was found to increase greatly after 36 wks. concepuional >aige, while very little periodic breathing or lapnea were seen after this age. Irregular respiration accounted foir 5O°/o of each 2-3 hr. record, until 8 months past term, when it was less. In addition, the maturaioional increase in regular respiration was concurrent with increases in the simultaneous presence of other indicators of nervous system inhibition, specifically, the absence of eye and body movements.It is argued that these maturational changes could not be adequately explained by current theories. A model of the development of respiratory control is proposed, based on the concept that the neuronal complexity of interaction at each brain level increases at the same time that the hierarchical locus of control moves upward and the interaction between all brain levels becomes more complex.
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