Abstract. This study tested the hypothesis, derived from studies of normal infants, that experience with self-produced locomotion facilitates the development of two important spatial cognitive skills: a two-position object permanence manual search task, and a task assessing the infant’s following of the point/gaze gesture of the experimenter. Both of these tasks, as assessed in these studies, show median ages of onset between 7 and 9 months in normal infants, but very recent studies with normals have shown that, within this age group, locomotor experience, rather than age, forecasts the development of these skills. The specific question tested in this study concerned whether infants who were delayed in locomotor development due to meningomyelocele were also delayed in spatial skills until after the age at which locomotion was attained. The hypothesis was confirmed with both tasks.

SUMMARY Ten full‐term jaundiced infants were examined with the Brazelton Scale before, during and following phototherapy. They were compared with 10 non‐jaundiced control infants examined at the same post‐partum ages. All infants were appropriate for gestational age and free of perinatal complications other than hyperbilirubinemia. Differences on the orienting items of the Brazelton examinations (primarily visual orienting) were found prior to the onset of phototherapy or separation, and persisted for the length of the study. The greatest over‐all differences were noted during phototherapy and separation from the mother, at which times the treatment group had lower scores on four of the six orienting items. They also had lower scores on muscle tonus, pull‐to‐sit and cuddliness while undergoing phototherapy, and poorer scores on orienting items, self‐quieting and tremulousness were also evident three days following treatment. It is suggested that the differences found in mother‐infant interaction following separation for the management of minor medical problems may be related to changes in infant behaviour which are already evident prior to separation. In the cases of jaundiced infants requiring phototherapy, these changes appear to be related primarily to hyperbilirubinemia. The possibility of these effects being prolonged or confounded by phototherapy or separation cannot be discounted. RÉSUMÉ Comportement de nourrissons ictériques sous phototherapie Dix nourrissons icteriques nes a terme ont été examines a partir de l'échelle de Brazelton avant, durant et a la suite d'une phototherapie. lis ont été compares a dix nourrissons non‐icteriques exammines au meme age post‐natal. Tous les nourrissons etaient aparies pour l'âgé de gestation et sans complications perinatales autres que l'hyperbilirubinemie. Des differences aux items d'orientation de l'échelle de Brazelton (orientation visuelle principalement) ont été notées avant le debut de la phototherapie ou de la separation et ont persiste tout au long de l'etude. Les differences les plus importantes ont été notées durant la phototherapie et la separation d'avec la mere et a ce moment le groupe traite avait des reussites inferieures pour quatre des six items d'orientation. lis avaient aussi des scores inferieurs pour le tonus musculaire, le tire‐assis et le pelotonnement sous phototherapie; des scores plus pauvres aux items d'orientation, a l'aptitude a se calmer et a l'etat d'excitation etaient egalement evidents durant les trois jours suivant le traitement. Les auteurs suggerent que les differences trouvees dans les interactions mere‐enfant a la suite d'une separation pour le traitement de problemes medicaux mineurs peuvent etre liees a des modifications dans le comportement de l'enfant deja manifestes avant la separation. Dans le cas de nourrissons icteriques requerant une phototherapie, ces modifications apparaissent dues avant tout a l'hyperbilirubinemie. On ne peut evidemment eliminer le fait que ces effets soient prolonges ou renforces par la phototherapie ou...

A new inventory of 166 milestones and developmental tasks was designed and given to parents of 173 children with myelodysplasia to use over a 2 1/2-year period to record their children's development. The inventory included items in the categories of self-help (including independent toileting), personal-social development, and gross motor development. The children were placed in one of four subgroups according to their level of paralysis. For each motor-level group, the percentage of those performing each item at various ages was calculated. The ages of routine performance of selected self-help and personal-social items are reported for 20, 50, and 80 percent achievement for the children for whom the data were known. There was a tendency for the less paralyzed children to learn skills more quickly than their more paralyzed peers. However, the wide age ranges within groups for learning individual skills indicate that factors other than the level of paralysis affect the rate of development, and these factors need to be identified. The data provided represent a reasonable estimate of when children with varying degrees of paralysis can first be expected to perform developmental tasks. The tables can be used to establish learning objectives and programs so that more children with myelodysplasia can learn independence at an earlier age.

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A healthy newborn infant acquired a substantial body burden of mercury by inhaling mercury vapor originating from a broken mercury expansion switch in the heating unit of an infant incubator. Highly toxic mercury vapor is produced in quantity by heating otherwise harmless metallic mercury. Switches and thermometers that contain mercury should be removed from infant incubators.