Search

This study examines the long-term impact of infant colic on Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis development and the moderating role of attachment security, in a low-risk Dutch sample of 193 children. We assessed infant colic at 6 weeks, circadian cortisol concentrations at ages 1, 2.5, 6, and 10 years, and attachment security at 1 year. Findings indicated that infant colic was associated with steeper diurnal cortisol slopes and slightly higher cortisol concentrations throughout childhood. Attachment security did not moderate these associations. This is the first study to reveal a link between infant colic and the development of the HPA axis in healthy children beyond infancy. These findings have important implications for understanding early risk and protective factors in the stress system's development. • Infant colic was linked with steeper diurnal cortisol slopes throughout childhood. • Infant colic was also linked with slightly higher cortisol concentrations. • Findings were not moderated by attachment security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

to verify the relationship between the level of trunk control and the acquisition of gross motor skills in the first year of life. a searching strategy was developed using the PICO tool and performed in the databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, Virtual Library in Health, Embase, and Scopus, from September 2020 to July 2022. The methodological quality of the articles was evaluated by the Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale Cohort Studies (NOS). six studies that evaluated the level of trunk control and gross motor development in infants aged 4 to 12 months were found. Four studies evaluated full-term infants, and only two studies evaluated preterm infants comparing them to full-term ones. Five studies showed high methodological quality and one study, low methodological quality. Most studies found significant correlation between the levels of segmental trunk control (static, active, and reactive), by the Segmental Assessment Trunk Control (SATCo), and gross motor development (prone, supine, sitting, standing, and walking) by the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS). trunk control is directly related to gross motor development in different postures in infants between 7 and 12 months. • Because of easy applicability and low cost, AIMS and SATCo are instruments used to direct the intervention in infants. • The assessment of gross motor development and segmental trunk control provides information that can help therapeutic decision-making. • The motor performance evaluated by AIMS can be related to the levels of trunk control [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are unconjugated glycans associated with infant health and development.Objectives: To investigate the associations between HMO concentrations at 1 month and infant development throughout the first year of life.Methods: A prospective cohort of Brazilian women between 18-40 years of age and their infants was studied from baseline (between 28-35 gestational weeks) and followed at 1 (n = 73), 6 (n = 51), and 12 months (n = 45). A total of 19 HMOs were quantified by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Infant development was evaluated by the Brazilian Ages and Stages Questionnaire. A directed acyclic graph was used to define the minimally sufficient adjustment (gestational age at birth, gestational weight gain, prepregnancy BMI, maternal age, parity, and the mode of breastfeeding at 1 month). Cox regression models with HRs and Benjamini-Hochberg multiple corrections were performed to estimate associations of HMOs with the cumulative risk of inadequate development for 5 developmental domains or for ≥2 developmental domains in all women and in the subset of secretor women (defined as the presence or near absence of 2'-fucosyllactose and lacto-N-fucopentaose I).Results: The multivariate models with multiple corrections revealed an inverse association between lacto-N-tetrose (LNT) and the risk of inadequate development for personal-social skills (0.06; 95% CI: 0.01-0.76) and for ≥2 developmental domains (0.06; 95% CI: 0.01-0.59). The secretor mothers analysis also showed inverse associations with slightly different results for personal-social skills (0.09; 95% CI: 0.02-0.84) and ≥2 developmental domains (0.05; 95% CI: 0.01-0.70).Conclusions: Higher concentrations of LNT HMOs in Brazilian women are associated with their infants being less likely to be at risk of inadequate development for personal-social skills or for ≥2 developmental domains during the first year of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal seafood intake during pregnancy is associated with child neurodevelopment. No randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have examined the effect of maternal lean fish consumption during pregnancy on child neurodevelopment.Objectives: The objective of the study was to examine the effect of increased maternal cod intake during pregnancy on infant general and socio-emotional development in the first year of life, and whether any effects observed were mediated by maternal iodine status.Methods: In an RCT, 133 pregnant women (≤19 weeks of gestation) were randomly assigned to receive 200 g cod fillet twice weekly (intervention) or to continue with their habitual diet (control) for 16 wk. The mothers completed the developmental screening questionnaires Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 2nd edition (ASQ-2) and Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE) when the infants were 3, 6, and 11 mo old. We compared scores between groups using linear mixed-effects models and examined whether iodine status postintervention mediated the effect on child development.Results: We found no difference between infants in the intervention and control groups on total ASQ-2 scores (P = 0.633), but a difference on the ASQ:SE scores in favor of the intervention group (20.9 and 20.5 in the intervention group and 26.1 and 26.8 in the control group for 3 and 6 mo, respectively; P = 0.020). There was no difference in change of the scores between the groups over time (P = 0.946). The effect of group on the total ASQ:SE scores was not mediated via maternal urinary iodine concentration postintervention (β = -1.03, SE = 0.68, P = 0.126).Conclusions: Our results provide no evidence for an effect of increased cod intake during pregnancy on general child development in the first year of life, but there was a positive effect on socio-emotional problems. More studies are needed to define the role of fish consumption during pregnancy and the effects on child neurodevelopment.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02610959. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food digestion is a complex process. It is difficult to investigate the multiple stages in humans and animals, due to technical and ethical issues. Therefore, in-vitro digestive models have been a useful approach to understand the digestive dynamics of food that mimics the digestive process in the body. The human digestive system is age-dependent, especially in infants and young children. As the physiological situation of infants is immature, the growth and development processes are relatively complex and the conditions change rapidly with time, and thus the physiological parameters in the in-vitro digestive models of infants at different ages should be altered accordingly. However, there is currently no reported in-vitro digestion model that are designed closely according to the development state of the infants and young children. It is really necessary to develop such models for the design and development of accessory food for infants and young children, as they provide necessary nutrition for them. This study summarizes the impact of the state and types of food on the digestive system in infants and young children of different ages. When applying an in-vitro digestion model, researchers need to select appropriate parameters based on the liquid or solid state and nutrients content of different foods, as well as the physiological characteristics of the study population. • The digestion system of infants and young children are immature, and simulating their digestion in-vitro is challenging. • Many factors affect the efficiency of the in-vitro digestion models, including food states and food types. • Parameters of in-vitro digestive models should be adjusted based on the state and nutrients of different foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-system theory as the dominant approach in the field of infant numerical representation is characterized by three features: precise representation of small sets of objects, approximate representation of large magnitudes and failure to compare small and large sets. Comparison of single- and multimodal numerical abilities suggests that infants' performance in multimodal conditions is consistent with these three features. Nevertheless, the influence of multimodal stimulation on infants' numerical representation is characterized by preventing the formation of perceptual overlaps across different sensory modalities which can lead to an understanding of numerical values of small sets and also by creating a conceptual overlap about numbers that increases infants' accuracy for discriminating quantities when numerical information is presented bimodally and synchronously. Such multisensory benefits provide numerical capabilities beyond what is depicted by the two-system view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An adequate maternal cobalamin status is crucial for fetal and infant neurodevelopment. Pregnancy-induced physiologic changes make evaluation of maternal cobalamin status in pregnancy difficult.Objective: We have investigated maternal cobalamin status during pregnancy in order to establish a maternal cobalamin concentration which secures an optimal infant cobalamin status during the first 6 mo of life.Methods: In an observational, prospective study, markers of cobalamin status including serum cobalamin, plasma total homocysteine (tHcy), and plasma methylmalonic acid (MMA) were assessed in healthy pregnant women (n = 114) from week 18 of pregnancy through 6 mo postpartum and related to infant cobalamin status at 6 mo. Healthy, never-pregnant women aged 18-40 y (n = 123) were included as controls.Results: Compared to controls, all markers of cobalamin status were lower in pregnant women. Median serum cobalamin concentration progressively decreased from week 18 to week 36 of pregnancy (356 to 302 pmol/L, P < 0.001) and increased by >40% by 6 wk postpartum (518 pmol/L). The metabolic markers increased from week 18 of pregnancy to 6 wk postpartum: median plasma tHcy 3.9 to 7.7 μmol/L (P < 0.001), and MMA 0.13 to 0.17 μmol/L (P < 0.001). The serum cobalamin concentration of infants at age 6 mo correlated with maternal serum cobalamin concentration during pregnancy and postpartum (rho = 0.36-0.55, P < 0.001). A maternal serum cobalamin concentration <394 pmol/L during week 18 of pregnancy was associated with an increased risk (OR: 4.2; 95% CI: 1.5, 11.5) of infant biochemical cobalamin deficiency at 6 mo (defined as tHcy ≥6.5 μmol/L).Conclusions: The maternal serum cobalamin concentration in early pregnancy is a strong predictor for later maternal and infant cobalamin status. To secure an optimal infant cobalamin status during the first 6 mo of life, we recommend a maternal serum cobalamin concentration >394 pmol/L at week 18 of pregnancy. This should be confirmed in an intervention study. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03272022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epidemiologic studies link maternal seafood and n-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) consumption with improved childhood cognitive development; trials show mixed results.Objective: We investigated effects of n-3 PUFA supplementation on child cognitive and visual outcomes.Methods: We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed randomized controlled trials of n-3 PUFA supplementation in mothers or infants (age ≤2 y) and evaluated standardized measures of cognitive or visual development up to age 18 y. Of 6286 abstracts and 669 full-text articles, 38 trials with 53 intervention arms were included. Data were extracted independently in duplicate. Findings were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis across supplementation periods (maternal, preterm, term infant); we also explored subgroup analyses stratified by supplementation period. Heterogeneity was explored using I2, stratified analysis, and meta-regression. Cognitive development was assessed by Bayley Scales of Infant Development mental and psychomotor developmental indexes (MDI, PDI) and intelligence quotient (IQ); visual acuity was assessed by electrophysiological or behavioral measures.Results: The 38 trials (mothers: n = 13; preterm infants: n = 7; term infants: n = 18) included 5541 participants. When we explored effects during different periods of supplementation, n-3 PUFA supplementation improved MDI in preterm infants (3.33; 95% CI: 0.72, 5.93), without statistically significant effects on PDI or IQ in different intervention period subgroups. Visual acuity [measured as the logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR)] was improved by supplementation in preterm (-0.08 logMAR; 95% CI: -0.14, -0.01 logMAR) and term infants (-0.08 logMAR; 95% CI: -0.11, -0.05 logMAR), with a nonsignificant trend for maternal supplementation (-0.02 logMAR; 95% CI: -0.04, 0.00 logMAR). In main analyses pooling all supplementation periods, compared with placebo, n-3 PUFA supplementation improved MDI (n = 21 trials; 0.91; 95% CI: 0.005, 1.81; P = 0.049), PDI (n = 21 trials; 1.06 higher index; 95% CI: 0.10, 2.03; P = 0.031), and visual acuity (n = 24; -0.063 logMAR; 95% CI: -0.084, -0.041 logMAR; P < 0.001) but not IQ (n = 7; 0.20; 95% CI: -1.56, 1.96, P = 0.83), although few studies assessed this endpoint. Potential publication bias was identified for MDI (Eggers P = 0.005), but not other endpoints. Significant differences in findings were not identified by world region, race, maternal education, age at outcome assessment, supplementation duration, DHA or EPA dose, DHA:AA ratio, or study quality score (P-interaction > 0.05 each).Conclusions: n-3 PUFA supplementation improves childhood psychomotor and visual development, without significant effects on global IQ later in childhood, although the latter conclusion is based on fewer studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental rotation (MR) involves the ability to predict how an object will look once it has been rotated into a new orientation in space. To date, studies of MR in infants have tested this ability using abstract stimuli presented using a single display. Evidence from existing studies suggests that using multiple displays may affect an infant's performance in some kinds of MR tasks. This study used Moore & Johnson's (2008) simplified Shepard-Metzler objects in a dual-monitor MR task presented to five-month-old infants. Evidence for MR in infancy was found. These findings have implications for MR testing in infancy and the influence of display properties on infant MR performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal and infant undernutrition is negatively associated with infant development.Aims: We tested the hypothesis that provision of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) to pregnant women and infants positively affects infant development.Study Design: In a partially double-blind randomized controlled trial, we compared the following daily maternal supplements during pregnancy and until 6months post-partum: iron/folic acid capsule (IFA), capsule containing 18 micronutrients (MMN), or 20g SQ-LNS. Children in the SQ-LNS group also received SQ-LNS from age 6 to 18months. The study is registered as NCT00970866.Subjects: 1320 pregnant women in Ghana enrolled in the trial; 1173 of their children participated in developmental assessment.Outcome Measures: We monitored the acquisition of 10 developmental milestones monthly by parental report, observed the attainment of 6 motor milestones at 6, 12, and 18months, and conducted detailed assessment of motor, language, socio-emotional, and executive function at 18months.Results: By researcher observation, a greater percentage of children in the SQ-LNS group (53%) was able to walk alone at 12months than in the IFA group (43%; RR=1.23, 95% CI=1.02-1.49; p=0.025). We found no significant differences between groups in milestone acquisition by parent report or in any scores at 18months. The difference in mean z-scores between groups ranged from 0.03-0.13 for motor (p=0.84), 0.01-0.08 for language (p=0.46), 0.01-0.02 for socio-emotional (p=0.75), and 0.00-0.02 for executive function (p=0.95).Conclusion: While provision of maternal and child SQ-LNS in Ghana may affect walking at 12months, it did not affect infant development at 18months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Infants' neurodevelopment standardized scales are needed in developing countries. • Standardized scales should be used with corrected age in preterm infant follow-up. • This study describes Bayley's and Griffiths' scales performance in Colombian preterm infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tendency of mothers to cradle their infant on their left side was first demonstrated by Salk back in 1960, but has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years. In this paper, I examine the different aspects of this tendency, making a short detour to explore this behavioral bias in other mammals and in nonhuman primates. The left cradling bias has been investigated not only in mothers, but also in fathers, children and students, as well as in different cultures. Moreover, the origins and causes of this behavior have been explored by examining its links to hemispheric specialization and to other motor asymmetries in mothers and infants. In recent years, researchers have also explored divergent patterns of cradling in groups of mothers exhibiting stress, anxiety, or depressive symptoms during pregnancy and after delivery, as well as in children with atypical development (e.g., autism spectrum disorder). The findings reported in the past 20 years open up promising avenues for anticipating potential difficulties in the relationship between mother and child, for given that a left cradling bias has been found in about 75% of the samples tested, cradling patterns could constitute natural behavioral markers of the socio-emotional harmony between cradler and cradled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined bidirectional effects between sleep problems (nocturnal awakenings and insufficient nocturnal sleep) and infant development (gross motor, fine motor, and cognition) in a sample of 182 infants (89 girls) and their parents living in Beijing (China). Using 3 waves of longitudinal data (at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years of age), this study (a) explored the differences in sleep patterns and developmental outcomes between infants in the current sample and infants from other cultures; and primarily examined (b) whether nocturnal awakenings and insufficient nocturnal sleep prospectively predicted infant development; (c) or whether infant development predicted sleep problems. Mothers reported their children's sleep problems, and infant development was assessed with Bayley III. Sleep patterns of Beijing infants were slightly different from those from Finland and Singapore, and most scores on Bayley III in this Beijing sample were higher than those in Danish, Dutch and Sri Lankan samples. Sleep problems and developmental measures were stable across the 3 times of assessments, but cross-lagged associations were limited in number and strength. High scores on the Bayley at 6 months predicted less nocturnal awakenings at 1 year of age. Insufficient nocturnal sleep at 1 year predicted poor fine motor development at 2 years. Thus, findings suggest some bidirectional associations between infant development and sleep problems and further highlight the need to understand these relations within specific cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges of developmental psychopathology is to determine whether identifiable pathways to developmental disorders exist in the first months or years of life. Early identification of such disorders poses a similar challenge for clinical services. Using data from a large contemporary birth cohort, we examined whether psychopathology at age seven can be predicted from clinician observation at one year. Two groups of clinical raters observed videos of caregiver–infant interaction. Neither group of raters could reliably identify any precursors of later development of psychopathology in the one-year-old infants in this setting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Deficits in auditory processing have been posited as one of the underlying neurodevelopmental consequences of maternal smoking during pregnancy that leads to later language and reading deficits. Fast auditory brainstem responses were used to assess differences in the sensory processing of auditory stimuli among infants with varying degrees of prenatal cigarette exposure. Maternal report of consumption of cigarettes and blood samples were collected in the hospital to assess exposure levels and participants were then seen at 6-months. To participate in the study, all infants had to pass the newborn hearing exam or a clinically administered ABR and have no known health problems. After controlling for participant age, maternal smoking during pregnancy was negatively related to latency of auditory brainstem responses. Of several potential covariates, only perinatal complications and maternal alcohol use were also related to latency of the ABR responses and maternal smoking level accounted for significant unique variance after controlling for these factors. These results suggest that the relationship between maternal smoking may lead to disruption in the sensory encoding of auditory stimuli. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The goal of this study was to investigate some of the visuo-motor factors underlying an infant''s developing ability to grasp a laterally-moving object. In particular, hand preference, midline crossing, and visual-field asymmetry were investigated by comparing performance as a function of the object''s direction of motion. We presented 6-, 8-, and 10-month-old infants with a graspable object, moving in a circular trajectory in the horizontal plane. Six-month-old infants reached for the object with the ipsilateral hand and grasped it with the contralateral hand. Eight-month-old infants showed a strong right-hand bias for both reaching and grasping. Ten-month-old infants showed a greater diversity of strategy use including bimanual and successful ipsilateral grasping following ipsilateral reaching in both directions of motion. Thus, motor constraints due to spatial compatibility, hand preference and bimanual coordination (but not midline crossing) must be taken into account to understand age differences in grasping a moving object. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Researchers agree that infants must learn from prior sensory-motor experiences to plan, perform, and fine-tune their actions to the environment. Yet, little is known about the actual influences of these experiences on the development of infants’ perception and action. This study investigated how repeated experiences of seeing, reaching for, touching, grasping, and manipulating objects of same sizes and textures contributed to the refinement of subsequent object-oriented motor responses in 6–9-month old infants. In addition, to understand whether infants relied on vision, touch, or both to tailor their motor response to objects, we analyzed the reach-to-grasp sequences. Results show that the youngest infants did not benefit from the repeated experiences. Seemingly stereotypical motor responses appeared to interfere with the process of perceptual-motor mapping. The older infants relied more effectively on prior experience, on touch initially and then vision, to match their motor responses to objects. Consistent with a dynamic systems approach, we interpret the observed developmental progression as a change in tensions between perception and action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Infants’ visual processing of objects is characterised by a developmental trend from a predominantly analytical to a configural processing mode. In two studies with 6- and 8-month-old infants, we sought to replicate this finding in a purely visual condition (inspecting objects), and to examine how far redundant visual-haptic information present in a visual-haptic condition influences the processing mode. Infants were familiarized with two objects differing in three dimensions (texture, size and shape). At test, infants were presented with a familiar object, a switch object consisting of a recombination of familiar dimensions, and a novel object, and looking times were measured. Results indicate a transition from analytical processing at 6 months to configural processing at 8 months in the visual condition. In the visual-haptic condition, both age-groups displayed configural processing. Thus, redundant visual-haptic information seems to enhance object processing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: The Ages and Stages Questionnaire Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE) is a parent-report screening instrument designed to assess children's social-emotional development and detect those at risk for delay or problems. Psychometric properties of this questionnaire have been studied before, but the ASQ-SE has never been compared to the Social-Emotional Scale of the Bayley-III (Bayley-III-SE).Aim: To compare the Dutch ASQ-SE (ASQ-SE-NL) to the Dutch Bayley-III-SE (Bayley-III-NL-SE; criterion measure).Method: A Dutch community sample of mothers with children aged 3-41 months (n = 1014) filled out both questionnaires. Cut-off scores for the ASQ-SE-NL were determined using: 1) >1 SD above the mean and 2) ROC curves. For the Bayley-III-NL, Dutch norm scores were used.Results: Specificity (70.8% and 88.5%) and screen-out accuracy (0.65 and 0.77) of the ASQ-SE-NL were good. Sensitivity was only sufficient (70.6%) when using ROC curves and only for the ASQ-SE-NL ≥18 months age versions. Screen-in accuracy was insufficient (<0.49). Positive predictive value was 34.7% and 32.7%, and negative predictive value was 87.5% and 92.3%. False positive cases on the ASQ-SE-NL scored significantly lower on the Bayley-III-NL-SE than true negative cases.Conclusion: Using the Bayley-III-NL-SE as the criterion, the ASQ-SE-NL performed well in identifying children not at risk for delay or problems. The ASQ-SE-NL sufficiently detected children at risk for delay or problems in the ≥18 months ASQ-SE-NL age versions when cut-off scores were determined by ROC curves. The ASQ-SE-NL can be used in a monitoring routine, but early rescreening is advised after a positive test result, given the number of false positive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social interactions are known to be an essential component of infant development. For this reason, exploring functional neural activity while infants are engaged in social interactions will enable a better understanding of the infant social brain. This in turn, will enable the beginning of disentangling the neural basis of social and non-social interactions as well as the influence that maternal engagement has on infant brain function. Maternal sensitivity serves as a model for socio-emotional development during infancy, which poses the question: do interactions between parents and their offspring present altered electrophysiological responses in comparison to the general population if said parents are at risk of mental health disorders? The current research aimed to observe the oscillatory activity of 6-month-old infants during spontaneous free-play interactions with their mother. A 5-minute unconstrained free-play session was recorded between infant-mother dyads with EEG recordings taken from the 6-month-old infants (n = 64). During the recording, social and non-social behaviours were coded and EEG assessed with these epochs. Results showed an increase in oscillatory activity both when an infant played independently or interacted with their mother and oscillatory power was greatest in the alpha and theta bands. In the present 6-month-old cohort, no hemispheric power differences were observed as oscillatory power in the corresponding neural regions (i.e. left and right temporal regions) appeared to mirror each other. Instead, temporal estimates were larger and different from all other regions, whilst the frontal and parietal regions bihemispherically displayed similar estimates, which were larger than those observed centrally, but smaller than those displayed in the temporal locations. The interactions observed between the behavioural events and frequency bands demonstrated a significant reduction in power comparative to the power observed in the gamma band during the baseline event. The present research sought to explore the obstacle of artificial play paradigms for neuroscience research, whereby researchers question how much these paradigms relate to reality. The present manuscript will discuss the strengths and limitations of taking an unconstrained free-play approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Infant massage, in which mothers stroke their infant's skin slowly and gently, can cause pleasant sensations in the infant that can be affected by the velocity of massage. However, the massage velocity at which infants feel the most pleasant sensations remains unclear.Objective: To investigate the effects of massage velocity on heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV) in healthy infants.Method: Twenty-two infant-mother dyads two to seven months of age were recruited. Mothers stroked their infant's skin at three massage velocities (5.0, 7.5, and 10.0 cm/s) in a randomized order for 15 min. The rhythm of massage velocity was calculated according to the length of three body areas. The massage velocity of the mothers was regulated using a metronome. HR and HRV (high frequency [HF] and low frequency [LF]) were measured at rest and during massage for each velocity. The effects on pleasantness were evaluated using percent change in median baseline value compared with median values for the three massage velocities. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance mixed effect models to exclude "period" and "carryover" effects during massage.Results: When measuring HF, massage (7.5 cm/s) caused a significant increase in pleasantness compared with 10.0 cm/s (p = 0.04). The HR and LF/HF ratio were not significantly changed between velocities.Conclusion: Results of this study suggested that a massage velocity of 7.5 cm/s was the most pleasant for infants. Future research should investigate the relationship between an infant massage by optimal velocity and infant development in longitudinal studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent research has demonstrated that parents’ beliefs about their children''s minds constitute an important environmental factor affecting children''s development. One difficulty with this area of investigation is that beliefs are often implicit, unconscious, and not always accessible through direct questioning. This study addresses this difficulty by developing a conceptual framework for determining mothers’ beliefs from the ways that they described their 12- to 24-month-old infants. Grounded theory techniques were used to analyze the language used by 25 Australian mothers during semi-structured, open-ended interviews. Their descriptions of their infants’ behavior and personal attributes were analyzed according to the mind-related constructs that they contained and the various ways in which these descriptions communicated their beliefs. A model was then developed to represent the psychological and inferential complexity associated with particular infant descriptions. The use of mothers’ own words to derive and illustrate their beliefs adds authenticity and ecological validity to the model, and provides a means of situating children''s acquisition of particular ways of thinking within the psychological context of the family. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Human infants possess powerful learning mechanisms used for the acquisition of language. To what extent are these mechanisms domain specific? One well-known infant language learning mechanism is the ability to detect and generalize rule-like similarity patterns, such as ABA or ABB [Marcus, G. F., Vijayan, S., Rao, S. B., & Vishton, P. M. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77–80.]. The results of three experiments demonstrate that 7-month-old infants can detect and generalize these same patterns when the elements consist of pictures of animals (dogs and cats). These findings indicate that rule learning of this type is not specific to language acquisition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the field of developmental psychology, there is speculation that pointing gestures by infants are good precursors of infant language acquisition, and some researchers have found correlations between these pointing gestures and some indices of language acquisition. Infants’ pointing gestures are presumably related to language acquisition because they provoke verbal responses from adults. To test this, seven boys and six girls were observed during free play time in a nursery classroom, and post-pointing and matched-control data were collected. Comparison between these data confirmed that the nursery staff spoke to infants at a significantly earlier stage in post-pointing sequences, compared with control sequences, indicating that pointing gestures elicit verbal responses from adult caregivers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Early immunization to protect infants against hepatitis A (HA) is recommended in intermediate or high endemic areas of the world, but little is known of the effects of maternal antibodies on the immune response. We studied the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of an inactivated HA vaccine administered in two different schedules to 2-month-old infants in an intermediate/high endemic area in Argentina. Methods: In this double-blind, randomized study 131 infants received either three doses (at 2, 4, 6 months of age [Group A]) or one dose (at 6 months of age [Group B]) of the pediatric inactivated HA vaccine, Avaxim 80™, and a booster dose at 15–18 months. HAV antibodies were measured (ELISA) at 2, 7, 15–18 and 16–19 months of age. Immediate (30min after injection) and solicited local and systemic reactions were recorded for 7 days after each injection. Results: Of 107/131 subjects (81.6%) who completed the study and who provided final serum samples after booster dose, 94 (87.8%) were seropositive at enrolment (>20mIU/mL) with geometric mean concentrations (GMC) of 2989 and 3637mIU/mL in Groups A and B, respectively. One month post-booster GMCs were 8236mIU/ml (95% CI; 6304, 10760) and 1687mIU/ml (1148, 2479) in Groups A and B, respectively, with 100% seroprotection. Conclusions: The HA vaccine was well tolerated and induced immunological priming in both groups during the first year of life in spite of the presence of maternal antibodies. Post-booster GMCs achieved after one or three primary doses suggest a long-term protection against HA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To understand infants’ learning of the contingency between their actions and events, we studied inter-limb movement patterns of 48 infants aged 2–4 months when they attempted moving a mobile using a string attached to their arm. The session was composed of baseline, acquisition, immediate retention test, re-acquisition, interference, and delayed retention test periods. The analysis revealed motor pattern dependence on age—infants exhibited increased movement over base line of all limbs (2-month-olds), both arms (3-month-olds), and the connected arm (4-month-olds). The acquired patterns were produced during immediate and delayed test periods across age groups. The results suggest that 2-month-olds can acquire and retain general body movements that induce contingent changes in a mobile, while 3- and 4-month-olds form memories that serve as a constraint enabling highly specific movement of their arm to effectively activate the mobile. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In a recent cross-sectional study, we found that young infants changed their spontaneous arm movements in the presence of a toy, termed ‘toy-oriented changes’, in systematic ways beginning many weeks before their first consistent reaches [Bhat, A. N., Heathcock, J. H., & Galloway, J. C. (2005). Toy-oriented changes in hand and joint kinematics during the emergence of purposeful reaching. Infant Behavior and Development, 28(4), 445–465]. The purpose of the present study was to test specific hypotheses regarding toy-oriented changes in a longitudinal design. Methods: Thirteen infants were observed every other week from 8 weeks of age up to the onset of reaching. At each session, hand and joint motions were observed with and without a toy present using a high-speed motion capture system. This paper focuses on the toy-oriented changes in hand variables. Results: As predicted, infants displayed a meaningful pattern of toy-oriented changes, which systematically changed as infants approached the first week of reaching. During the Early phase (8–10 weeks before reaching), infants scaled down their movement length and speed in the presence of a toy. During the Mid phase (4–6 weeks before reaching), infants scaled up movement number and speed, increased movement smoothness, and decreased their hand–toy distance in the presence of a toy. During the Late phase (within 2 weeks of reaching), infants continued to change their hand''s position to get closer to the toy and began contacting it. Interestingly, movement number and smoothness displayed similar developmental patterns, where movement length and speed displayed similar patterns. Conclusion: Toy-oriented adaptation of arm movements emerges in the first months of life and forms a complex, yet tractable continuum with purposeful reaching. These results provide a foundation to test more specific hypotheses of hand and joint coordination in both typically developing infants and those infants born at risk for coordination impairments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recent research has indicated that, particularly under conditions of inertial disorientation, mammals may be sensitive to landmark configuration geometry at the expense of individual featural information when locating hidden goals. The current study sought to establish whether landmark use could be demonstrated in 12–18-month-old infants with and without a disorientation procedure, and with geometrically ambiguous landmark configurations. A peekaboo paradigm was employed in which infants learned to anticipate a peekaboo event after a cue from two locations within a circular arena, followed by a test trial from a novel position in which no peekaboo occurred after the cue. In all conditions, an isosceles triangle arrangement of landmarks was used, with peekaboo occurring between the landmarks of one of the two equal “sides”, thus being geometrically ambiguous. In two conditions, the landmarks were distinctive, and in two further conditions, they were identical. In one of the distinctive conditions and one of the identical landmark conditions, infants underwent a disorientation procedure in between training and test trials. Only oriented infants with distinctive landmarks were successful in test trials, thus suggesting that infants are able to use the individual features of landmarks to locate a goal, but can only do so if oriented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Three-month-old infants of depressed (n =16) and non-depressed mothers (n =16) were habituated to video clips of a female model reciting phrases while posing happy or sad facial/vocal expressions and dishabituated to the alternate expressions. Overall, infants of depressed mothers took longer to habituate the video clips compared to infants of non-depressed mothers, and those assigned to habituate the sad video clips displayed a novelty response or dishabituated to the happy expressions. These findings suggest that 3-month-old infants of depressed mothers discriminate sad from happy expressions, however, they do not appear to perceive sad expressions as novel. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present work investigated whether by the end of the first year, infants interpret actions performed by a mechanical device as goal-directed and why they would do so. Using a modified version of the Woodward (1998) habituation paradigm, 9- and 12-month-old infants were tested in a condition in which they saw a mechanical claw performing an action (Study 1). When infants viewed the claw grasping and transporting objects to the back of a stage, 12-month-old but not 9-month-old infants interpreted the action as goal-directed. In Study 2, 9-month-olds received prior to habituation an information phase showing infants how a human held and operated the claw. This enrichment of infants’ knowledge enabled 9-month-old infants to interpret the action display as goal-directed. The role of the developing means-end understanding and tool-use for infants’ interpretation of actions performed by a mechanical device is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Infant cognitive development may be associated with maternal social support, although these relations have not been well-examined for infants living in poverty. We explore whether maternal social support is associated with cognitive development for 113 infants living in poverty. Infant cognition was measured at age 9-12 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development 3rd edition. Mothers provided information regarding perceived social support received from fathers, family, friends, and community members. Controls included maternal race and infant sex. Linear regression revealed no significant relationships between maternal social support and infant cognition in this sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Taking care of infants in conditions of war is highly demanding and a few studies reveal the negative impact of war trauma on maternal and infant well-being. Yet, little is known regarding the influence of trauma on infant development and the potential explanatory mechanisms. First, the present study examines how mothers' prenatal exposure to traumatic war events is associated with infant cognitive, motor, and socioemotional development. Second, it analyses the mediating roles of maternal postpartum mental health problems, quality of dyadic mother-infant interaction, and earlier infant development (at six months) in the association between prenatal traumatic war events and infants' developmental skills at 18 months.Method: This prospective three-wave study involved 502 Palestinian pregnant females in their first trimester during the 2014 Gaza War and participated at delivery (T1) and when the child was six (T2;N = 392) and eighteen (T3; N = 386) months of age. Mothers reported their exposure to traumatic war events (human and material losses, horrors, and threat to life) at T1 and T2, and researchers photo-documented the extent of destruction at T1. Mothers reported infants' language, fine- and gross-motor, and socioemotional skills at T2 and researchers tested infants' motor, cognitive-language and socioemotional skills using the Bayley Scales of Infant development (BSID-II) at T3. Mothers reported their mental health problems (symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], depression and somatization) at T2 and T3 as well as dyadic interaction quality (the emotional availability self-report, [EA-SR] brief) at T2.Results: First, the structural equation model (SEM) on direct effects indicated, in contrast to our hypotheses, that maternal prenatal exposure to traumatic war events did not associate with infants' developmental skills at T2 and predicted higher level of developmental skills at T3. Second, as hypothesized, we found two negative underlying mechanisms (paths) between high exposure and low levels of motor, cognitive-language, and socioemotional skills at T3: (1) through increased maternal mental health problems at T2, which then were associated with problems at T3, and (2) through increased maternal mental health problems at T2, which then were associated with a low quality of mother-infant-interaction and low level of infant developmental skills at T2.Conclusion: Improving maternal mental health and encouraging close and positive dyadic interaction can be critical for infant sensorimotor, cognitive, and socioemotional development in war conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) has been developed in Canada in the 90ies. The AIMS and its Canadian norms are frequently used across the world to monitor infants' gross motor development. Currently, it is disputed whether the Canadian norms are valid for non-Canadian infants.Aims: To compare scores on the AIMS of Dutch infants with that of the Canadian norms, to compare the sequence of motor milestones in Dutch and Canadian infants, and to establish Dutch AIMS norms.Study Design: Cross-sectional study.Subjects: 1697 infants, aged 2-18 months, representative of the Dutch population (gestational age 39.7 weeks (27-42)).Outcome Measure: AIMS assessments, based on standardized video. Perinatal and social information was obtained by questionnaire and medical records. To create Dutch reference values quantile regression with polynomial splines was used.Results: 1236 Dutch infants (73%) scored below the 50th (P50) percentile of the Canadian norms, 653 (38%) below the P10 and 469 (28%) below the P5. In infants aged 6 to 12 months these values were: 567 infants (81%) < P50, 288 infants (41%) < P10, 201 infants (29%) < P5. The sequence of achievement of motor milestones of Dutch and Canadian infants was similar. Dutch norm-reference values of the AIMS were calculated.Conclusions and Implications: Gross motor development of Dutch infants is considerably slower than that of the Canadian AIMS norms sample. To prevent overdiagnosis of developmental delay and overreferral to paediatric physiotherapy Dutch AIMS norms are required. The paper introduces these norms, including percentile ranks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]