Recent investigations into infants' intersensory perception suggest a specific developmental pattern for infants' attention to visible and auditory attributes of dynamic human faces. This work has proposed that infants' perception seems to progress along a sensory continuum: beginning with multimodal sensory cues (e.g., auditory and visual), then visual-cues alone, and finally auditory-cues alone. Additionally, research has proposed that amodal or invariant sensory information directs infants' attention to specific redundant aspects in the surrounding environment (e.g., temporal synchronicity). The current research attempted to clarify the potential methodological confounds contained in previous investigations into infant intersensory development by contrasting infant behavior within fixed trial and infant-controlled habituation procedures. Moreover, the current research examined infants' attention to auditory manipulations within multimodal displays when redundant sensory information (synchronicity) was or was not available. In Experiment 1, 4-month-old infants were habituated to complex audiovisual displays of a male or female face within an infant controlled habituation procedure, and then tested for response recovery to a change in voice. For half the infants, the change in voice maintained synchronicity with the face, and for the other half, it did not. The results showed significant response recovery (i.e., dishabituation) to the change in voice regardless of the synchronicity condition. In Experiment 2, 4-month-old infants received the same face+voice test recordings used in Experiment 1, but now within a fixed trial habituation procedure. Again, synchronicity was manipulated across groups of infants. In contrast to Experiment 1, the infants in the fixed-trial experiment failed to show evidence of voice discrimination. These results suggest that infant controlled procedures may be more sensitive to infant attention, especially in terms of complex social displays. In addition, synchronicity appeared to be unnecessary in terms of infants' ability to detect vocal differences across multimodal displays. In sum, these results highlight the importance of research methodology (e.g., infant control) and overall stimulus complexity (e.g., discrete vs. complex) involving studies of infants' intersensory development. / Ph. D.

The temporal organization underlying durational components of naturally occurring infant cries was examined in 46 1-month-old infants, half of whom had been diagnosed as having colic. In a standard 90-sec crying bout for each infant, the presence or absence of expired cry sound was determined at .05-sec intervals. Binary spectrum analysis of the data detected between 8 and 23 reliable cycles in the expiration of sound in the cries of all infants. The data were characterized by a wide range of individual differences in the frequencies at which these cycles occurred and in other characteristics of the spectra. Although infants with and without colic did not reliably differ in the mean, variability, or range of the durations of expirations or bursts, the two groups were distinguished by their distributions of the total number of peaks in the power spectrum and by the frequencies at which the highest power peak, slowest cycle, and fastest cycle occurred. This study provides the first known systematic examination of the rhythmicities underlying infant crying. / Master of Science

Purpose: To characterize the environment in both ground and aerial ambulances in an effort to identify and quantify the risk factors associated with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in preterm infants, with the goal of developing a device to mitigate this problem. Methods: A small, stand-alone battery operated device was developed to characterize the environment inside neonatal transports. This device included an array of sensors to measure acceleration forces, sound levels, temperature, pressure, and light intensities. Two of the data acquisition devices were used to collect data inside and outside the transport incubator simultaneously for a period of thirty minutes during a test flight in a transport helicopter. Real-time digital signal processing was performed for the sound signals to reduce data. Furthermore batch digital signal processing was performed on an external computer to calculate the vibration spectrograms, occurrence of impulsive forces, and variations in ambient temperature, pressure and luminance. The results were compared between the two devices to determine whether the current transport incubator design is reducing or increasing the suspected risk factors. Results: The vibration levels registered in the transport incubator during flight were five times greater than in the crew cabin in the vertical direction. High vibration levels were registered in the horizontal direction in the transport incubator, which were not registered in the crew cabin. In contrast, vibration in lateral direction was nearly half of that registered in the crew cabin. Sound levels were on average 70 dBA in the transport incubator. Luminance levels reached values up to 6920 Lux. No major changes in temperature and pressure were registered. Conclusions: IVH is a serious consequence of transporting preterm infants from one health care facility to another and occurs in roughly one out of three infants. To address this problem, a transport monitoring device can help characterize the environment in these transports in an effort to design a new state of the art transport incubator to mitigate this problem. / Master of Science

The purpose of this thesis was to review findings regarding human touch and positive and negative effects on preterm infants. The review and synthesis of findings included data from research articles published from 2000-2006. Studies showed positive outcomes associated with infant massage, kangaroo care, gentle human touch, and facilitated tucking. One study noted negative effects ofbradycardia/hypoxia during kangaroo care. Positive effects included increases in weight gain, improved bone formation and mineralization, ability of infants to maintain temperature, and decreased pain responses. Limitations included the small number of studies within the US in comparison to other countries and small sample sizes. This work provides a single source for nurses in regard to the care of preterm infants using these interventions.

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)

published_or_final_version / Paediatrics / Master / Master of Philosophy

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A descriptive design was used in this study to describe the feeding behaviors (as defined by changes in body position) in infants with congestive heart failure secondary to congenital heart disease. In addition, short term physiologic changes associated with the behaviors were measured through the use of pulse oximetry and cardiorespiratory monitors. Nine infants were observed in this study as they were being fed by their nurses. The method chosen was naturalistic observation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic data and the measured physiologic variables. A point by serial correlation was conducted to describe any relationships between the position changes and the measured physiologic variables. Statistically significant relationships were found between certain positions and oxygen saturation, heart rate and respiratory rate. The results indicate that infants do experience position changes that are accompanied by changes in physiologic variables during feeding. These position changes can be categorized as infant-mediated or nurse-mediated.