Intellectual stimulation of young children is crucial, because it helps to break the cycle of poverty by giving each child the skills needed to reach his or her maximum potential. There is a growing need for more extensive early childhood development programmes in South Africa. Several studies in early childhood development have been shown to directly draw a parallel with enhanced student achievement at school and in life (Ackerman, 2005; Bueno, Darling-Hammond, & Gonzales 2010; Frede, Jung, Barnett, & Figueras, 2009). This study therefore explored the effects of an intervention programme introducing numbers, shapes and colours to infants between the ages of three months and 12 months. The sample consisted of 63 infants, with a control group of 34 and an experimental group of 29. The participants were selected from the middle-income group and consisted of infants from three different ethnic groups (black, white and coloured). Nine participants from the experimental group formed part of the focus group, which met every two weeks to give feedback and discuss the development of the infants and experiences of the parents involved in the intervention programme. In this study quantitative and qualitative data was collected. This data was assessed and analysed in order to achieve the four aims of the research study. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development (III) was used to assess three areas of development, namely cognitive ability, language skills and motor skills for the quantitative part of the study. The adaptive behaviour and social-emotional functioning of the infants was also assessed using the BSID (III), and this data was used in conjunction with the focus group feedback and problem-solving scenarios for the qualitative part of the study. Gender and the two age categories (3–7 and 8–12 months) for both the experimental and the control groups were examined and excluded from possible explanations for any significant findings. It was also determined that the control and experimental groups were well matched at the start of the intervention programme. The findings for aim A, the pre-test and post- test results showed that an average of 60 days involved in intervention programme had a statistically significant effect (z = -4.32, p < 0.001) on the cognitive ability of the infants. The findings for aim B, for the comparison between the control and experimental groups after the intervention programme, indicated significant results for the cognitive subscale (U = 732, p < 0.01, r = 0.42). Although the language and motor scores showed an increase in the descriptive statistics for the experimental group after the intervention, the Mann-Whitney U test did not show a significant difference. The findings for the qualitative study for aim C revealed that there was no effect on the adaptive behaviour of the infants. The findings for the social-emotional scales descriptive statistics for the qualitative study in aim D showed that there was a fairly large increase in the composite score means of the experimental group in comparison with the control group. The large increase in results complements the social-emotional functioning theme that emerged from the focus group. Three main themes emerged from the focus group, namely the cognitive ability, communication skills and social-emotional functioning of the infants.The increase in the social-emotional scale for the intervention group and the increase in the cognitive scale as mentioned in aim B were interrelated. These early social-emotional experiences are linked to long-term positive outcomes in both the social and cognitive areas of development (Landry, Smith, Swank, & Miller-Loncar, 2000). The parents all reported the ability to interpret the communication from their infants when participating in the flashcard sessions. This communication forms a foundation for establishing language development. Relationships between an infant’s nonverbal communication skills and subsequent language development have been reported (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2005). The problem-solving scenarios that were assessed during the second assessment showed that the infants who participated in the intervention programme were able to correctly identify a flashcard 73% of the time in comparison with the control group who were only able to identify a flashcard 1.4% correctly. The results of the study show that an early intervention programme has the potential to increase an infant’s cognitive ability and enhance his or her social-emotional functioning. However, the long-term impact of these findings would have to be explored in a longitudinal study. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Studies have shown that human infants can integrate the multisensory attributes of their world and, thus, have coherent perceptual experiences. Multisensory attributes can either specify non-arbitrary (e.g., amodal stimulus/event properties and typical relations) or arbitrary properties (e.g., visuospatial height and pitch). The goal of the current study was to expand on Walker et al.'s (2010) finding that 4-month-old infants looked longer at rising/falling objects when accompanied by rising/falling pitch than when accompanied by falling/rising pitch. We did so by conducting two experiments. In Experiment 1, our procedure matched Walker et al.'s (2010) single screen presentation while in Experiment 2 we used a multisensory paired-preference procedure. Additionally, we examined infants' responsiveness to these synesthetic-like events at multiple ages throughout development (four, six, and 12 months of age). ... In sum, our findings indicate that the ability to match changing visuospatial height with rising/falling pitch does not emerge until the end of the first year of life and throw into doubt Walker et al.'s (2010) claim that 4-month-old infants perceive audiovisual synesthetic relations in a manner similar to adults. / by Nicholas Minar. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Our everyday world consists of people and objects that are usually specified by dynamic and concurrent auditory and visual attributes, which is known to increase perceptual salience and, therefore, facilitate learning and discrimination in infancy. Interestingly, early experience with faces and vocalizations has two seemingly opposite effects during the first year of life, 1) it enables infants to gradually acquire perceptual expertise for the faces and vocalizations of their own race and, 2) it narrows their ability to discriminate the faces of other-race faces (Kelly et al., 2007). It is not known whether multisensory redundancy might help older infants overcome the other-race effect reported in previous studies. The current project investigated infant discrimination of dynamic and vocalizing other-race faces in younger and older infants using habituation and eye-tracking methodologies. Experiment 1 examined 4-6 and 10-12-month-old infants' ability to discriminate either a native or non-native face articulating the syllable /a/. Results showed that both the 4-6- and the 10-12-month-olds successfully discriminated the faces,regardless of whether they were same- or other-race faces. Experiment 2 investigated the contribution of auditory speech cues by repeating Experiment 1 but in silence. Results showed that only the 10-12-month-olds tested with native-race faces successfully discriminated them. Experiment 3 investigated whether it was speech per se or sound in general that facilitated discrimination of the other-race faces in Experiment 1 by presenting a synchronous, computer-generated "boing" sound instead of audible speech cues. Results indicated that the 4-6-month olds discriminated both types of faces but that 10-12-month-olds only discriminated own-race faces. These results indicate that auditory cues, along with dynamic visual cues, can help infants overcome the effects of previously reported narrowing and facilitate discrimination of other-race static, silent faces. Critically, our results show that older infants can overcome the other race-effect when dynamic faces are accompanied by speech but not when they are accompanied by non- speech cues. Overall, a generalized auditory facilitation effect was found as a result of multisensory speech. Moreover, our findings suggest that infants' ability to process other- race faces following perceptual narrowing is more plastic than previously thought. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

No description available.

This dissertation explores the nature and ontogeny of infants' ability to match phonetic information in comparison to non-speech information in the face and voice. Previous research shows that infants' ability to match phonetic information in face and voice is robust at 4.5 months of age (e.g., Kuhl & Meltzoff, 1982; 1984; 1988; Patterson & Werker, 1999). These findings support claims that young infants can perceive structural correspondences between audio and visual aspects of phonetic input and that speech is represented amodally. It remains unclear, however, specifically what factors allow speech to be perceived amodally and whether the intermodal perception of other aspects of face and voice is like that of speech. Gender is another biologically significant cue that is available in both the face and voice. In this dissertation, nine experiments examine infants' ability to match phonetic and gender information with dynamic faces and voices. Infants were seated in front of two side-by-side video monitors which displayed filmed images of a female or male face, each articulating a vowel sound ( / a / or / i / ) in synchrony. The sound was played through a central speaker and corresponded with one of the displays but was synchronous with both. In Experiment 1,4.5-month-old infants did not look preferentially at the face that matched the gender of the heard voice when presented with the same stimuli that produced a robust phonetic matching effect. In Experiments 2 through 4, vowel and gender information were placed in conflict to determine the relative contribution of each in infants' ability to match bimodal information in the face and voice. The age at which infants do match gender information with my stimuli was determined in Experiments 5 and 6. In order to explore whether matching phonetic information in face and voice is based on featural or configural information, two experiments examined infants' ability to match phonetic information using inverted faces (Experiment 7) and upright faces with inverted mouths (Experiment 8). Finally, Experiment 9 extended the phonetic matching effect to 2-month-old infants. The experiments in this dissertation provide evidence that, at 4.5 months of age, infants are more likely to attend to phonetic information in the face and voice than to gender information. Phonetic information may have a special salience and/or unity that is not apparent in similar but non-phonetic events. The findings are discussed in relation to key theories of perceptual development.

With increases in medical technology, infant mortality has decreased, while infant morbidity has increased over the past half century. Moreover, the definition of high-risk pregnancy continues to lack true universal acceptance. Thus, continued research in the area of perinatal complications is warranted. There have been studies that have suggested short-term and long-term deficits considered to be secondary to perinatal complications. Psychologists often gather information about a given child’s perinatal history, but do not always have means to interpret how those complications may impact the child later in life. The Maternal Perinatal Scale (MPS) has been shown to have good reliability and validity in past studies, but a scoring system has yet to be established. This project consisted of two studies. The first study created a preliminary scoring system for the developmental questionnaire, the Maternal Perinatal Scale. This questionnaire has proven to have potential for good clinical utility, but prior to this study, had nothing beyond item-by-item analysis for interpreting the results. To test the validity of the proposed scoring system, a second study was conducted to determine cutoff scores and classification rates for the scoring system on data previously collected with children in elementary school. Results revealed proposed scores for each item on the MPS and classification rates associated with certain developmental disorders later in life. / Department of Educational Psychology

Orientador: Olga Maria Piazentin Rolim Rodrigues / Banca: Ana Lúcia Rossito Aiello / Banca: Ligia Ebner Melchiori / Resumo: A avaliação do desenvolvimento de bebês e a investigação de possíveis variáveis que influenciaram neste processo são medidas importantes na tomada de decisão para ações futuras. O presente projeto teve como objetivos descrever o desenvolvimento mensal de bebês, identificando os comportamentos típicos a cada mês em cinco áreas específicas (Linguagem, Autocuidados, Cognição, Socialização e Desenvolvimetno Motor) e avaliar o desenvolvimento dos mesmos, relacionano com as variáveis: idade materna, escolaridade materna e tipologia familiar. O estudo, transversal, contou com a participação de 212 mães e seus bebês de até seis meses de idade que foram avaliados recentemente. Foi realizada uma entrevista inicial com as mães e o Inventário Portage Operacionalizado (IPO) foi aplicado nos bebês. Os testes estatísticos ANOVA e de correlação de Pearson foram implementados. Os resultados apontaram comportamentos típicos nos primeiros seis meses de vida dos bebês. As analises realizadas com a amostra geral apontaram que na área de Linguagem, os bebês filhos de mães com idade acima de 24 anos (p=0,001), ensino médio completo e/ou ensino superior completo e/ou incompleto (p=0,034) e integrantes de famílias nucleares (p=0,002) apresentaram melhor desempenho. Em autocuidados, bebês de mães com até 17 anos e 11 meses, ensino fundamental incompleto e integrantes de famílias estendidas (p=0,002), apresentaram as maiores médias. Nas demais áreas Cognição, Socialização e Desenvolvimento Motor as maiores médias foram dos bebês filhos de ma~es com idade acima de 24 anos, ensino médio completo e/ou superior completo e/ou incompleto e integrantes de famílias estendidas, existindo diferenças estatisticamente significativas. As análises realizadas subdividindo o total de avaliações mês a mês... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The evaluation of babies' development and the investigation of possible variables that affect on this process are very important for implement future actions. This project aimed to describe the monthy development of babies, identifying typical behavior every month in five specific areas (Language, Self-Care, Cognition, Socialization and Motor Development) and assess their development, relating to the variables: maternal age, maternal education and family typology. The transversal study was conducted with 212 mothers and their babies on the age until 6 mnths who where evaluated monthly. An initial interview was realized with the mothers and for evaluation of babies development was been assessed Operating Portage Inventory (IPO). The statistical tests ANOVA and Pearson correlation were applied. The results showed typical behavior on the first six months of the babies. The analysis conducated with the general sample have indicated that on Language, the best performance was of babies children of mothers older than 24 years (p=0,001), graduated from high school and/or higher complete and/or incomplete (p=0,034) and nuclear family members (p=0,002). On Self-Care, babies children of mothers up to 17 to 17 years old and 11 months, not graduated from elementary school, and members of extended family (p=0,002) showed better development. On the other areas (Cognition, Socialization and Motor Development) the babies children of mothers old than 24 years, graduated from high school and/or higher complete and/or incomplete and members of extended family showed the highest averages. The analyzes carried out by subdividing the total of the assessments monthly, considering the variable maternal age, showed that on language, babies children of older mothers older than 24 years showed the highest averages oll months, there were statistically significant differences on fifh month... (Complete abstract click electronic acce / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-07-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:06:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 altafim_erp_me_bauru.pdf: 431290 bytes, checksum: 6fe8a0303254cb7bdfce907248c37446 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / As práticas parentais possuem uma função primordial no desenvolvimento das crianças e uma estreita relação com os seus repertórios comportamentais. O presente estudo pretendeu descrever, comparar e correlacionar as práticas parentais de mães de bebês de até 12 meses de idade, com as variáveis: idade e a escolaridade da materna, sexo e a idade dos bebê. O estudo foi realizado com 250 mães de bebês de 0 a 12 meses. Foi aplicado o Inventário de Estilos Parentais para Mães de Bebês (IEPMB) (adaptado de Gomide, 2006). A coleta de dados foi realizada no Centro de Psicologia Aplicada, da UNESP, campus de Bauru. Os resultados revelaram que as mães utilizam-se com frequencia da prática parental positiva Monitoria Positiva, no entanto as práticas negativas, também são presentes no repertório das participantes, principalmente a prática Disciplina Relaxada. Com a maioria das práticas negativas ainda não são frequentes no repertório comportamental das mães, esta fase seria portanto, um ótimo momento para a realização de intervenções preventivas. Ao comparar as práticas de acordo com o sexo do bebê, foi verificada diferença significativa para a prática Monitoria Positiva, mais utilizada pelas mães de meninas. Esse resultado demonstra, que diferenças nas práticas parentais relacionadas ao sexo da criança, podem ser observadas desde as primeiras relações que as mães estabelecem com os seus bebês. Analisando a idade do bebê verificou-se diferença significativa entre mães de bebês mais novos e mães de bebês mais velhos para a prática Monitoria Positiva, Punição Inconsciente e na somatória das práticas negativas, que são mais utilizadas mães de bebês de sete a 12 meses de idade. Quando os bebês são mais velhos as mães utilizam-se mais das práticas parentais positivas, e por outro lado passam a utilizar mais... / Parenting practices have a major role in the development of children and a close relationship with their behavioral repertories. The presente study aimed to describe , compare and correlate the parenting practices of babies' mothers, with the variables of maternal age and education, age and sex of the baby. A total of 250 mothers of babies 0-12 months participated of the study. The data were collected by the Parental Styles Inventory for Mothers of Babies (IEPMB) (adapted from Gomide, 2006), at the Center for Applied Psychology, UNESP, Bauru Campus. The results revealed that mothers use the positive parental practice Monitoring Positive, however the negative practices, are also present in the repertorie of the participants, especially the practice Discipline Relaxed. The negative practices are not common in the behavioral repertorie of the mothers, so this phase is an appropriate stage to promote preventice interventions. By comparing the practices according to the sex of the baby, there was a significant difference to the practice Positive Monitoring, most often used by mothers of girls. This result demonstrates that differences in parenting practices related to the sex of the child, can be observed from the first relationships that mothers have with their babies. Looking at the age of the baby there was a significant difference between mothers of younger babies and mothers of older babies to the practices Monitoring Positive, Punishment Inconsistent and in the sum of the negative practices, that are used more by mothers of babies aged seven to 12 months. When babies are older mothers use more positive parenting practices, and more negative parenting practices. There were significant differences between adolescent and adult mothers in the practice Monitoring Positive that is mostly used by adult mothers. Significant... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-07-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:38:42Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 tirelli_ra_me_bauru.pdf: 1262897 bytes, checksum: 20133e0f1d23b3f39e2345fb5502a872 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / A avaliação do desenvolvimento de bebês e a investigação de possíveis variáveis que influenciaram neste processo são medidas importantes na tomada de decisão para ações futuras. O presente projeto teve como objetivos descrever o desenvolvimento mensal de bebês, identificando os comportamentos típicos a cada mês em cinco áreas específicas (Linguagem, Autocuidados, Cognição, Socialização e Desenvolvimetno Motor) e avaliar o desenvolvimento dos mesmos, relacionano com as variáveis: idade materna, escolaridade materna e tipologia familiar. O estudo, transversal, contou com a participação de 212 mães e seus bebês de até seis meses de idade que foram avaliados recentemente. Foi realizada uma entrevista inicial com as mães e o Inventário Portage Operacionalizado (IPO) foi aplicado nos bebês. Os testes estatísticos ANOVA e de correlação de Pearson foram implementados. Os resultados apontaram comportamentos típicos nos primeiros seis meses de vida dos bebês. As analises realizadas com a amostra geral apontaram que na área de Linguagem, os bebês filhos de mães com idade acima de 24 anos (p=0,001), ensino médio completo e/ou ensino superior completo e/ou incompleto (p=0,034) e integrantes de famílias nucleares (p=0,002) apresentaram melhor desempenho. Em autocuidados, bebês de mães com até 17 anos e 11 meses, ensino fundamental incompleto e integrantes de famílias estendidas (p=0,002), apresentaram as maiores médias. Nas demais áreas Cognição, Socialização e Desenvolvimento Motor as maiores médias foram dos bebês filhos de ma~es com idade acima de 24 anos, ensino médio completo e/ou superior completo e/ou incompleto e integrantes de famílias estendidas, existindo diferenças estatisticamente significativas. As análises realizadas subdividindo o total de avaliações mês a mês... / The evaluation of babies' development and the investigation of possible variables that affect on this process are very important for implement future actions. This project aimed to describe the monthy development of babies, identifying typical behavior every month in five specific areas (Language, Self-Care, Cognition, Socialization and Motor Development) and assess their development, relating to the variables: maternal age, maternal education and family typology. The transversal study was conducted with 212 mothers and their babies on the age until 6 mnths who where evaluated monthly. An initial interview was realized with the mothers and for evaluation of babies development was been assessed Operating Portage Inventory (IPO). The statistical tests ANOVA and Pearson correlation were applied. The results showed typical behavior on the first six months of the babies. The analysis conducated with the general sample have indicated that on Language, the best performance was of babies children of mothers older than 24 years (p=0,001), graduated from high school and/or higher complete and/or incomplete (p=0,034) and nuclear family members (p=0,002). On Self-Care, babies children of mothers up to 17 to 17 years old and 11 months, not graduated from elementary school, and members of extended family (p=0,002) showed better development. On the other areas (Cognition, Socialization and Motor Development) the babies children of mothers old than 24 years, graduated from high school and/or higher complete and/or incomplete and members of extended family showed the highest averages. The analyzes carried out by subdividing the total of the assessments monthly, considering the variable maternal age, showed that on language, babies children of older mothers older than 24 years showed the highest averages oll months, there were statistically significant differences on fifh month... (Complete abstract click electronic acce

D.Cur. / The feeding of low birth weight babies remains a challenge. Mother's milk is deficient in protein, calcium, magnesium and phosphate. These elements need to be supplemented in order for the low birth weight baby to grow under optimal conditions. The objective of the study was to compare the growth of the low birth weight baby, who was only fed mothers milk, to the low birth weight babay who was fed mother's milk with a commercial fortifier, using mass, lenght and head circumference as a guide. The literature study has shown that there are different methods which can be used to compliment the deficiencies in mothers's milk, for example: premature milk formula, alternating mother's milk with premature milk formula, additional additives to mother's milk and commercial fortifiers. Previous research of mother's milk fortifiers has shown that the biochemistry has positvely influenced their growth. Six patients were used in the experimental group and received 25% mother's milk and 75% fortifier. The control group consisted of eight babies who only received mother's milk. All the babies met the criteria and reached the 1600 gram weight by the time the study was completed. The Mann Whitney U test was used to calculate the results. No significant statistical growth was seen in any of the areas tested. It was concluded that mother's milk should be fortified, despite the results of the study, as mother's milk is definitely deficient in certain nutrients. It is possible to use mother's milk fortifiers in a stronger consentration.