A recent study by Polka, Rvachew, and Molnar (2008) found that 6- to 8-month-old infants do not discriminate a simple native consonant-vowel contrast when familiarized to it in the presence of distraction noise (i.e., recordings of crickets and birds chirping), even when testing was conducted in quiet. Because the distraction noise did not overlap with the phonemes' frequencies, failure to encode the familiarization phoneme could be due more to a disruption in infant attention than to direct masking effects. Given that infants learn speech under natural conditions involving noise and distraction, it is important to identify factors that may 'protect' their speech perception under non-ideal listening conditions. The current study investigated three possible factors: speech register, face information, and speaker gender. Six-month-old infants watched a video of a female speaker producing a native phoneme in either an adult-directed or infant-directed manner accompanied by the same background noise as in Polka et al. (2008). After habituation, infants were tested with alternating trials of the familiar phoneme and a novel phoneme in quiet. Phoneme discrimination was measured by recording infants' heart rate and looking times during familiar and novel trials. Discrimination was poor in infants who viewed a female speaker using adult-directed speech but was significantly improved (as seen in both dependent measures of attention) when the female speaker used infant-directed speech. Results indicate that common factors in the typical environment of infants can promote speech perception abilities in noise. / Master of Science

A Dissertation submitted to the faculty of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Medicine in paediatrics. / The aims of this study were to establish the incidence of perinatally and nosocomially acquired bacteraemia and funqaemia as determinad by blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) isolates in the neonatal population seen at the Baraqwanath Neonatal Unit; to identify risk factors for infection and record the outcome. Other aims were to analyze tha susceptibility patterns of the organisms isolated with respect to changing antimicrobial policies and to compare these with previously reported studies. (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2018

Context: Despite the many initiatives implemented over the past decades as part of the global priority on child survival, there still exists high infant mortality in Southern Africa. Although studies have examined factors contributing to poor child health outcomes including the effect of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is paucity of studies on the possible effect of infant feeding practices on infant mortality in the region. This study examines the association between infant feeding practices and infant mortality in Southern Africa. The need to reduce infant mortality is a global health concern hence the United Nations through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) declared the reduction of infant and child mortality as one of its major targets by the year 2015. Methods: A merged dataset from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys for Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe was analysed in this study. A total number of 13, 218 infants born in the last five years preceding the surveys whose information on infant feeding practices was available formed the analysis sample. The outcome variable was infant mortality and infant feeding practices which had the categories, no breastfeeding, partial breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding was the main explanatory variable of the study. Other explanatory variables used in the study pertained to maternal demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as the infants’ bio-demographic characteristics. The Cox Hazard Regression Model was employed to examine both the unadjusted and adjusted effect of infant feeding practices on infant mortality in Southern Africa. Results: Although, exclusive breastfeeding was quite low (12%), its mortality reduction effect was significant, and infants who were exclusively breastfed exhibited a 97% lower risk of dying during infancy compared to no breastfeeding in the region. Further, variations exist by country in the levels and patterns of both infant mortality and infant feeding practices. Country, highest educational level, marital status, sex of child, preceding birth interval and birth weight were the significant predictors of infant mortality in Southern Africa. Conclusions: Overall, the study found that any form of breastfeeding whether exclusive or partial breastfeeding greatly reduces the risk of infant mortality, with the mortality reduction effect being higher among exclusively breastfed infants in the Southern African region. Thus, in order to reduce the upsurge of infant mortality, there is need to step up the effectiveness of child nutrition programmes that promote breastfeeding and put emphasis on exclusive breastfeeding of infants in the region.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Many developmental changes occur across the first year of life, including areas of cognitive, social, emotional, and physical growth. One challenge of developmental research is to understand the complex set of factors that influence behavior within and across these domains of functioning and change. The present research attempts to illuminate the effects that parent relationships and interactions have on infants’ ability to explore non-obvious object properties during free play. In our findings, the role of attachment, parents’ actions on objects, parental sensitivity during play, and synchronous interaction all related to an increase in infants’ object exploration when playing alone versus playing with a parent. These parent relationship and interaction factors affected infants’ exploration differently at 6 months than 12 months. Overall, relational factors appeared of greater important for infants’ more thorough object exploration than simply parents’ actions on objects. The social context was important for the cognitive outcome of infants’ object exploration.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-162).

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/01/12). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis equivalent (M.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1947.

Thesis (M.S.)--Washington State University, May 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-47).