Vocal responsiveness of preterm infants to maternal infant-directed speaking and singing during skin-to-skin contact (Kangaroo Care) in the NICU
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Maria Eduarda S. Carvalho, João M.R.M. Justo, Maya Gratier, Teresa Tomé, Esmeralda Pereira, Helena RodriguesAbstractVocalizations of full-term newborns occur in a short latency time during the neonatal period. Contingent response time of preterm babies is still unknown. An increase of preterm babies’ vocalizations following exposure to parental speech was also observed. Mothers and babies co-modulate their vocalizations in preterm dyads. Purpose: To observe temporal features of maternal and infants’ vocalizations in speaking a...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - August 15, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Perinatal maternal mental health and infant socio-emotional development: A growth curve analysis using the MPEWS cohort
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Elisa Porter, Andrew J. Lewis, Stuart J. Watson, Megan GalballyAbstractPregnancy and the early post partum period are widely understood as a critical period for the infant’s emotional development and the earliest influence shaping social interaction. The present study aims to understand the potential influence of both antenatal and postnatal maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms on socio-emotional outcomes in offspring aged 12 months. The study used longitudinal data from a prospective cohort study on Australian pregnant women ...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - August 10, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Infants’ perception of goal-directed actions: A multi-lab replication reveals that infants anticipate paths and not goals
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Kerstin Ganglmayer, Manja Attig, Moritz M. Daum, Markus PaulusAbstractInfluential developmental theories claim that infants rely on goals when visually anticipating actions. A widely noticed study suggested that 11-month-olds anticipate that a hand continues to grasp the same object even when it swapped position with another object (Cannon, E., & Woodward, A. L. (2012). Infants generate goal-based action predictions. Developmental Science, 15, 292–298.). Yet, other studies found such flexible goal-directed anticipations only from ...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - August 4, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Increased visual interest and affective responses to impossible figures in early infancy
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Christina Krause, Danielle Longo, Sarah ShuwairiAbstractThis research evaluated infants’ facial expressions as they viewed pictures of possible and impossible objects on a TV screen. Previous studies in our lab demonstrated that four-month-old infants looked longer at the impossible figures and fixated to a greater extent within the problematic region of the impossible shape, suggesting they were sensitive to novel or unusual object geometry. Our work takes studies of looking time data a step further, determining if increased look...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - August 3, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
An overview of issues in infant and developmental research for the creation of robust and replicable science
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Pamela E. Davis-Kean, Alexa EllisAbstractIn the last few years, the field of psychology has been challenged with a crisis in the rigor and reproducibility of the science. The focus of these issues has primarily been in social, cognitive, and cognitive neuroscience psychology, however, the area of developmental research is not immune to these issues. This paper provides an overview of the “replication crisis” and the choices made by researchers that are often not noted in methods, thus making the replication of studies more diffi...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - July 24, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Analysis of infant physical activity in the childcare environment: An observational study
This study utilized behavior-mapping to describe behavior and levels of activity in infants attending Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Descriptive statistics were used to determine proportion of time spent in certain locations, body positions, activities and engagement with others. To establish whether location, the presence of equipment or engagement with others influenced levels of activity, a paired t-test was used. Results indicated that of all locations, infants spent the greatest amount of time in the meals area (35%), with half of this period spent physically inactive (sedentary). The indoor play area was ...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - July 16, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Spontaneous visual search during the first two years: Improvement with age but no evidence of efficient search
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Emily J. Goldknopf, Kristen Gillespie-Lynch, Adrian D. Marroquín, Bryan D. Nguyen, Scott P. JohnsonAbstractEfficient visual search, wherein reaction times to acquire targets are largely independent of array size, is commonly observed in adults. Evidence for efficient search in infants may imply that selective attention to visual features is similar across development. In the current cross-sectional eye-tracking study, we examined spontaneous visual search at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Infants were presented with Random arrays (one t...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - July 13, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Motor activity and spatial proximity: Relationships to infant emotions and maternal postpartum depression
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Ida Egmose, Mette Skovgaard Væver, Johanne Smith-Nielsen, Giovanna Varni, Simo KøppeAbstractThe ability to express emotions is a protective factor for infant development. Despite the multimodal nature of emotion expression, research has mainly focused on facial expressions of emotions. The present study examined motor activity and spatial proximity in relation to positive and negative infant facial expressions and maternal postpartum depression during face-to-face interactions at four months. Video cameras and a motion capture sys...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 27, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Reaching skills of infants born very preterm predict neurodevelopment at 2.5 years
In conclusion, for extremely preterm infants, basic problems on how motion information is incorporated with action planning prevail, while in very preterm infants the coordination of bimanual reaches is more at the focus. We conclude that the results reflect GA related differences in neural vulnerability and that early motor coordination deficits have a cascading effect on neurodevelopment. (Source: Infant Behavior and Development)
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 24, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Fixations and Fixation Shifts in Own-Race and Other-Race Face Pairs at Three, Six and Nine Months
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Ina Fassbender, Arnold LohausAbstractCaucasian infants were presented 15 pairs of Caucasian own-race faces and 15 pairs of African other-race faces. The infants were assessed longitudinally at ages three, six and nine months. Two measures were obtained from the infants’ eye-movements: (1) the length of fixations on either stimulus of a pair presented for 5.5 s (fixation duration) and (2) the amount of fixation shifts between the two stimuli (shift frequency). The study analyzes the changes in both measures with age and across th...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 21, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Delayed development of phonological constancy in toddlers at family risk for dyslexia
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Marina Kalashnikova, Usha Goswami, Denis BurnhamAbstractPhonological constancy refers to infants’ ability to disregard variations in the phonetic realisation of speech sounds that do not indicate lexical contrast, e.g., when listening to accented speech. In typically-developing infants, this ability develops between 15- and 19-months of age, coinciding with the consolidation of infants’ native phonological competence and vocabulary growth. Here we investigated the developmental time course of phonological constancy in infants at...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 21, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Parent mind-mindedness, sensitivity, and infant affect: Implications for attachment with mothers and fathers
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Elizabeth M. Planalp, Molly O’Neill, Julia M. Braungart-RiekerAbstractPrevious research examining links between parenting and attachment has focused on behavioral aspects of parenting such as sensitivity. However, by assessing how parents reflect on infants’ mental states (mind-mindedness) we gain a broader understanding of parenting and how it impacts attachment. Mothers, fathers, and their infants (N = 135) participated in the Still Face Paradigm (SFP) at 3-, 5-, and 7- months of age, and the Strange Situation with mothers...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 21, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Why won’t she sleep? Screen exposure and sleep patterns in young infants
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Andrew D. Ribner, Gabrielle G. McHarg, The NewFAMS Study TeamAbstractThe American Academy of Pediatrics recommends infants’ exposure to electronic screen-based media be minimized; however, more research is needed to understand effects of viewing screen-based media. Here, we examine relations between media use and sleep. Data were collected from mothers when their infants (N = 429) were four months of age. Mothers answered questions about the time their infants spent watching electronic screen-based media. Exposure to electroni...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 21, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Using automation to combat the replication crisis: A case study from controlled-rearing studies of newborn chicks
Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Samantha M.W. Wood, Justin N. WoodAbstractThe accuracy of science depends on the precision of its methods. When fields produce precise measurements, the scientific method can generate remarkable gains in knowledge. When fields produce noisy measurements, however, the scientific method is not guaranteed to work – in fact, noisy measurements are now regarded as a leading cause of the replication crisis in psychology. Scientists should therefore strive to improve the precision of their methods, especially in fields with noisy measure...
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - June 21, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
Developmental and mental health characteristics of children exposed to psychosocial adversity and stressors at the age of 18-months: Findings from a population-based cohort study
ConclusionsIn a general population sample of children aged 18-months, exposure to psychosocial adversity and stressors was associated with poorer development and mental health in cognitive and affective domains. These findings highlight an avenue for further research with potential implications for early preventative practices. (Source: Infant Behavior and Development)
Source: Infant Behavior and Development - May 31, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research
