infant

Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website

New screening tool helps identify children at risk

An exam, called the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS), has been created to identify newborns who may have problems with school readiness and behavior at age four. This opens up the possibility of early intervention to prevent these problems. The screening exam has been tested on 1248 babies, mostly black and on public assistance. Five discrete behavioral profiles were reliably identified; the most extreme negative profile was found in 5.8% of the infants. Infants with poor performance were more likely to have behavior problems at age three, school readiness problems at age four, and low IQ at 4 ½ — 40% had clinically significant problems externalizing (impulsivity and acting out), internalizing (anxiety, depression, withdrawn personalities), and with school readiness (delays in motor, concepts and language skills), and 35% had low IQ.

Liu, J., Bann, C., Lester, B., Tronick, E., Das, A., Lagasse, L., et al. (2010). Neonatal Neurobehavior Predicts Medical and Behavioral Outcome. Pediatrics, 125(1), e90-98. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-0204.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/bu-nst120709.php

New view of the way young children think

It seems that young children neither plan for the future nor live completely in the present — rather they call up the past as they need it. A study in which 3 ½ year-olds and 8-year-olds played a computer game that involved teaching children simple rules about two cartoon characters and their preferences for different objects has found that 8 year olds had no trouble remembering the preferences and clicking either a happy or sad face when the character had an object they liked or disliked, but 3 year olds found the task difficult. Measuring pupil dilation (a reflection of mental effort), it was found that the older children found the sequence easy because they could anticipate the answer before the object appeared, but preschoolers waited until they saw the object. The researchers suggest that rather than repeat something again and again that requires a young child to prepare for something in advance, you should try to highlight the problem that they are going to have.

Chatham, C.H., Frank, M.J. & Munakata, Y. 2009. Pupillometric and behavioral markers of a developmental shift in the temporal dynamics of cognitive control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 5529-5533.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/uoca-crp032409.php
http://www.physorg.com/news157123504.html

Infants have limited ability to draw on past to understand other people's behavior

We know that providing advance information about the goal of instruction helps people learn. Now it appears that this is true even for infants, but they need the additional prompt of the same location. The study involved infants first being shown, five times, an assistant reach for and pick up one of two plastic toys while saying "Wow!" The infants were then randomly selected to stay in the same room or go to a different one. It was found that those who stayed in the same room were more likely to show surprise when the assistant changed her mind about which toy she wanted.

Sommerville, J.A. & Crane, C.C. 2009. Ten-month-old infants use prior information to identify an actor's goal. Developmental Science, 12 (2), 314-325.

http://www.physorg.com/news151853797.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/uow-ido012209.php

Even toddlers can ‘chunk' information for better remembering

We all know it’s easier to remember a long number (say a phone number) when it’s broken into chunks. Now a study has found that we don’t need to be taught this; it appears to come naturally to us. The study showed 14 months old children could track only three hidden objects at once, in the absence of any grouping cues, demonstrating the standard limit of working memory. However, with categorical or spatial cues, the children could remember more. For example, when four toys consisted of two groups of two familiar objects, cats and cars, or when six identical orange balls were grouped in three groups of two.

Feigenson, L. & Halberda, J. 2008. Conceptual knowledge increases infants' memory capacity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105 (29), 9926-9930.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/jhu-etg071008.php

Toddlers can learn complex actions from picture-book reading

A study of preschool children has found picture books not only encourage reading development, but also help toddlers learn about the real world. However, very young children (18 months) were much less likely to be able to imitate specific target actions on novel real-world objects when the pictures were colored-pencil drawings rather than life-like color photographs.

Simcock, G. & DeLoache, J. 2006. Get the picture? The Effects of Iconicity on Toddlers' Reenactment from Picture Books. Developmental Psychology, 42 (6)

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/apa-tlc103006.php

Psychological reasoning begins earlier than had been thought

According to conventional wisdom, babies don't begin to develop sophisticated psychological reasoning about people until they are about 4 years old. A study of 15-month-olds proves otherwise. The study used a non-verbal approach, for obvious reasons, and the researchers suggest earlier studies that found 3 year olds unable to reason about what others believe used verbal tasks that were overly complex for the young children.

Onishi, K.H. & Baillargeon, R. 2005. Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs? Science, 308, 255-258.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/uoia-prb041405.php

Early learning leaves lasting changes in brain

An owl study points to the importance of early childhood education, by demonstrating that early learning experiences forever change the brain's structure. While some parts of the brain remain relatively flexible throughout life, other parts lose the ability to make large-scale changes in connections early in life. Those brain regions that help sense and interpret the world are most affected by early childhood experiences.

Linkenhoker, B.A., von der Ohe, C.G. & Knudsen, E.I. 2005. Anatomical traces of juvenile learning in the auditory system of adult barn owls. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 93 – 98.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-12/sumc-ell121704.php

Infants Don't Encode Long-Term Memories Until Second Year

It appears that the area of the brain thought to play a key role in encoding long-term memory matures in spurts. A new study demonstrates that a major spurt happens after a person's first year and then takes a second year to fully mature. Babies exposed to a series of actions when they were 9, 17 or 24 months old, were tested four months later. Those babies who had been 17 or 24 months old recalled the actions well, but the younger babies didn’t. The dramatic growth that occurs in the brain between 8 and 12 months may be required for long-term memory.

Liston, C. &Kagan, J. 2002. Brain development: Memory enhancement in early childhood. Nature, 419 (6910), 896.