Newborn Characteristics

9 Key excerpts on "Newborn Characteristics"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  Infant Development

  Ecological Perspectives

  • Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Katherine Karraker, Tom Luster(Authors)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  INFANTS' CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIORS HELP SHAPE THEIR ENVIRONMENTS Katherine Hildebrandt Karraker & Priscilla Coleman      

  7

  Our understanding of the behavioral and psychological repertoires of the human infant has changed dramatically over the course of the twentieth century. In the early 1900s researchers viewed the infant as an essentially vegetative, reflexive organism; whereas today researchers are very aware of the perceptual, intellectual, emotional, and social competencies of the young infant. Much empirically derived information about infants, as well as the general view that infants are competent and active, has been shared with parents and professionals. Acknowledgment of the general competency of infants has been accompanied by recognition that infants are capable of influencing those around them. However, despite this widespread recognition, researchers and parents alike are generally more concerned with how variations in infants' physical and social environments impact infant outcomes than with how infants themselves affect their own environments. Thus, while most of the chapters in this volume reflect the predominant orientation—addressing environmental determinants of development—the present chapter provides a counterpoint, serving to remind us that infants play an integral role in forming their own caregiving environments.

  This chapter begins with a review of infant competencies and individual differences, followed by a brief historical overview of literature relevant to the belief that the infant plays an active role in constructing his or her own environment. In the next section, the general mechanisms by which infant characteristics and behaviors produce environmental variations are described. The discussion then proceeds to a more specific consideration of genetic influences on infants' environments. The distinction between shared and nonshared environmental influences on infant outcomes also is discussed. Illustrations of the influence of specific infant characteristics and behaviors on the infant's social environment are then provided, with an emphasis on infant temperament. Next, the importance of considering infants' effects on their environments for theorists, researchers, interventionists, and parents is discussed. The chapter concludes with a plea for the adoption of increasingly comprehensive and dynamic approaches to the study of infant and environmental effects on infant developmental processes.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Examination of the Newborn

  An Evidence Based Guide

  • Anne Lomax(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 11 Newborn Behavioural Aspects Jeanette Appleton

  Key points

  • The addition of a behavioural approach to the newborn examination is recognised as being of significant benefit to both parents and professionals.
  • By highlighting behavioural cues, the health care professional can show parents that their infant is someone who can communicate their needs and preferences.
  • The more the parents see and learn about their infant, the more realistic and appropriate they will be in their caregiving, interactions and expectations.

  Introduction

  Newborn behavioural status and its significance in the newborn examination are discussed in this chapter in the context of the trainee practitioner, or health care professional working with the newborn infant. The reader is encouraged to make use of the references at the end of the chapter to further develop their knowledge and to spend time observing baby behaviour to develop their skills in behavioural observation.

  The examination of the newborn infant used to be a system of procedures undertaken by the doctor within 72 hours of birth to ensure that the infant is healthy and also to screen for certain conditions. It is now recognised that this time provides an early and important opportunity to introduce the parents to their baby at a time when they are open to forming new attachments, not only with their child but also with health care professionals. Guidelines published by NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) lay out a framework whereby the health care professional can collaborate with the parents with the aim to promote the child's development and well-being (NICE 2003, Department of Health 2007). Organisations including ‘Parenting UK’ have produced National Occupational Standards for working with parents which provide a model for service providers and individuals whose role involves working with parents. These resources provide the practitioner with a model to develop skills in collaborative working (Parentline Plus 2006, UK National Screening Committee 2008).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Understanding Newborn Behavior and Early Relationships

  The Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) System Handbook

  • J. Kevin Nugent, Constance Keefer, Susan Minear, Lise Johnson, Yvette Blanchard(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Brookes Publishing

    (Publisher)

  behavioral states provides the clinician and the parents with a frame, or a lens, to enable them to organize their own observations about the infant and to learn to read the infant's behavioral cues.

  The body of research described previously has yielded an impressive catalogue of newborn competencies that have transformed scientific understanding of the human newborn. This understanding also has enabled a new generation of clinicians to help parents recognize that their newborn infants can see and hear and are capable of organized responses and thus to support the development of the relationship between the parent and the infant from the beginning (Klaus et al., 1995; Nugent & Brazelton, 2000). Understanding the newborn's more complex organizational capacities and the ability to describe and recognize the developmental agenda and adaptive challenges for both term and preterm infants during the first months of life is critical in informing the clinical approach to working with parents. In this way, clinicians can provide developmentally appropriate information and individualized guidance to parents during this important life transition.

  The Newborn Period and the Development of Self-Regulation

  The first 3 months of life can be called a period of rapid developmental transition, as the infant's behavior and physiology shift from intrauterine to extrauterine regulation. The developmental agenda now centers on the regulation of the infant's states (Brazelton, 1992; Emde & Robinson, 1979; Mirmiran & Lunshof, 1996; Sander, Stechler, Burns, & Lee, 1979). This period is characterized by changes that are pervasive and enduring and involves major reorientations in person–environment relations (Emde & Robinson, 1979, 1987). There also is evidence that this is a special period of developmental change and reorganization in the patterns of infant attention and emotion (Lavelli & Fogel, 2005). Although there is a wide range of variability, simple attention during the first month seems to dominate face-to-face interactions, whereas during the second month, infants show a wide range of facial expressions and emotional responses, from interest to concentration to astonishment and pleasure. From the fourth through the sixth week of life, the earlier simple gaze now is accompanied by more active positive emotional expressions, by expressions of effortful concentration, and by smiling and often motor excitement. By the third month, the duration of smiles and cooing increases as smiles become more open and cooing more playful. This more active pattern of attention is accompanied by excited attention during face-to-face interactions. Clearly, the infant's response to the parent's face is emotional, so gaze/attention is not merely neutral or cognitive.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Earliest Relationship

  Parents, Infants and the Drama of Early Attachment

  • T. Berry Brazelton, Bertrand G. Cramer(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The newborn's responsiveness to human stimuli— for example, the voice and the face— and to inanimate stimuli— for example, a soft rattle, a bell, a bright red ball, a bright light, handling, and temperature changes— are assessed. Estimates of vigor and excite-ment are measured as well as the kind of motor activity, the muscle tone, and color changes as the infant changes from one state to another. There are twenty-eight behavioral items. These assess the new-born's capacity (1) to organize states of consciousness, (2) to habituate to disturbing events, (3) to attend to and process simple and, in some cases, complex environmental events, (4) to control motor tone and activity while attending to these events, and (5) to perform integrated motor acts, such as putting a hand in the mouth, maintaining the head upright while sitting, or knocking off a cloth which covers the face. All of these reflect the range of the behavioral capacities of the normal newborn. They seem to demand control over cardiac and respiratory systems and to be dependent on either the cortex or higher brain centers. For newborns to achieve this control, they must have suc-cessfully managed the physiological demands of the early adjustment period after delivery. The newborn's ability to attend to, to differen- T H E N E W B O R N A S P A R T I C I P A N T tiate, and to habituate to the complex stimuli of an examiner's ma-neuvers may be an important predictor of future central nervous system organization, as well as of individual temperament. The behavioral items are: 1. Response decrement to light (a flashlight shone briefly into infant's eyes) 2. Response decrement to rattle (shaken 10-12 inches from infant) 3. Response decrement to bell (rung 12-15 inches from infant) 4. Response decrement to a light pinprick on heel 5. Orienting response to inanimate visual stimulus (a red ball) 6. Orienting response to inanimate auditory stimulus (a soft rattle) 7.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Development of Children and Adolescents

  An Applied Perspective

  • Penny Hauser-Cram, J. Kevin Nugent, Kathleen Thies, John F. Travers(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Table 4.4 Newborn Behavioral States Kidstock/Blend Images/ Getty Images Siri Stafford/Getty Images Matthew J. Lee 142 Chapter 4 Birth and the Newborn various cultural settings has highlighted the fact that even cultural differences can be observed in newborn behavior. Thus, whereas the basic organizational processes in infancy may be universal, the range and form of these adapta- tions are shaped by the demands of each individual culture (Brazelton & Nugent, 1995, 2011; Lester & Sparrow, 2010; Nugent, Lester, & Brazelton, 1989, 1991; Nugent, Petrauskas, & Brazelton, 2009). Research generated by the NBAS can be said to have played a major role in expanding our understanding of the remarkable capacities of the newborn. It established the fact that babies are different from one another and that each newborn is an individual with his or her own sen- sibilities and capabilities. Furthermore, the use of the NBAS as an educational tool for parents (Nugent, 1985; Nugent & Brazelton, 2000) led to the development of the more clinically oriented Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system. The NBO is being used more and more in hospital, clinic and home settings around the world to help parents learn more about their baby’s unique character- istics and overall adaptation during the first months of life. While the NBAS is typically used by researchers, the NBO is used by nurses, doctors, and other health-care and early intervention professionals to help parents become more aware of their baby’s capacities and temperament, and promote the bond between parents and their infant (McManus & Nugent, 2011, 2012; Nugent & Alhaffer, 2006; Nugent, Keefer, Minear, Johnson, & Blanchard, 2007; Sanders & Buckner, 2006). CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN NEWBORN BEHAVIOR Intrigued by the question of when and how individual differences emerge and develop, T.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Psychology of Early Childhood

  A Study of Mental Development in the First Years of Life

  • C.W. Valentine(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter VEndowment and Behaviour of the New-born Infant

  The neonate . The terms ‘new-born infant’ and ‘the neonate’ are somewhat vague ones. Professor Arnold Gesell uses ‘neonate’ as referring primarily to the first month, but covering in a general way the first three months.1 On the other hand, Miss Evelyn Dewey, in her extensive survey of the literature, physiological and psychological, of the neonatal period, says that this is usually taken to cover the interval from birth until the umbilicus is healed—about two weeks. The most careful studies, she says, indicate that, while ‘behaviour growth is taking place in these first weeks, the changes are slight’ and that ‘no emergence, marked development or regression of patterns takes place’.2 This statement is certainly not true according to my own observations.

  Individual infants seem to vary in this respect; and, as we shall see, some decided progress may take place even in two weeks—partly, no doubt, because the mere raining of many new impressions upon the senses, the suddenly increased supply of oxygen and other changes have a stimulating effect on the nervous system of the child, and partly, perhaps largely, because of mere maturing.3

  The appearance of activities in these first days is, of course, valuable positive evidence as to their innateness, though the absence of certain activities in the first weeks or even months is no conclusive evidence against their innateness; for as we saw in the third chapter, the need for maturing must always be borne in mind.

  It will be convenient to give a general report on the first few weeks of an infant’s life before taking up the lines of special development in detail. We should first remark that any general statements here are not to be taken as holding for prematurely born infants, though there is evidence that an infant born, say, a month before its proper time, matures more rapidly in the new environment than he would have done if he had remained in the womb the full term: 4

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook

  • Stephen F. Davis, William Buskist, Stephen F. Davis, William F. Buskist(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  10 • DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Contemporary researchers vary in their language and classifications; however, several characteristics appear to capture differences in initial temperament. These include irritable distress (i.e., frustration/anger), fearful distress, positive affect, activity level, attention span and persis-tence, and rhythmicity (Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Other dimensions identified as informative include sociability (Buss & Plomin, 1984), agreeableness/adaptability and effortful control (Rothbart, 004); the latter reflects one’s self-regulatory capacity to manage reactivity (i.e., inhibit impulses, control arousal, shift attention). Some dimen-sions (such as fearful distress, self-regulation) take longer than others (such as irritability) to emerge but are never-theless thought to be biologically rooted. Along with variability in defining aspects of tempera-ment, researchers have used a number of approaches to measurement. Verbal reports, particularly from parents, have been widely used because they provide information about infants across a variety of situations. Unfortunately, they can be subject to bias due to factors such as state (e.g., anxiousness, depression), limited points of comparison, and expectations. Laboratory observations of behavioral reactions during particular contexts/tasks also have been employed because they enable objectivity. They also readily allow for physiological measures (e.g., heart rate, cortisol, electroencephalographic brain waves) to comple-ment behavioral observations and better inform us of the biological bases of temperament. Unfortunately, a limita-tion of laboratory data is that they sample from a restricted range of conditions. Since all approaches have advantages and disadvantages, a multimethod approach is considered the most comprehensive (Rothbart & Bates, 1998).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  The PSYCHOLOGY OF THE INFANT

  • Siegfried Bernfeld(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Accordingly—omitting the reflexes—we shall construct two large groups of movements: the discharge phenomena and the activities. The activities of the new-born are instinctual: they come to pass without experience, knowledge, or reflection. Above all, there are four important groups of activities of the new-born: crying as its universal activity; sucking activities from swallowing, etc., to defæcation; all the movements, which wish to “ reinstate ” the fœtus situation (closing the eyes, embryonic hand and feet positions, etc.); those movements which seek pleasure “ from themselves,” so to speak: pleasure-sucking, gazing into the light, etc. The activities serve the regressive or progressive tendency and the nutritional instinct, if one prefers to separate the nutritional instinct from the regressive tendency. The R.T. I movements could be quite generally classified as defence-activities, the R.T. II movements as offence-activities.

  THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW-BORN

  A comprehensive presentation of the psychic phenomena of the new-born, one by one, is justifiable, because these are the starting-point of its development. My task will be to describe these phenomena in the following chapters and in later books, especially since they have been so much neglected in the previous explanations of child-psychology. Such a presentation of the psychology of the new-born contains a considerable difficulty—namely, that its subject is in the highest degree undifferentiated, so that the descriptions will appear in some places subtle, much too interpretative, and theoretical. But this difficulty makes more cogent and obvious a demand which is slowly beginning to filter into the psychology of all stages of development, but which seems essential for the new-born. The demand is for a consideration of the whole after the investigation of the parts, for the observation of the relationships of all those phenomena which the investigator must study separately for a long time in order to recognize them. He misses the full recognition of them if he does not eventually appreciate that isolation is only an economical device of investigation, if he does not remember that perceptions, conceptions, movements as such do not exist, and that the fruit of his method only ripens when he destroys this isolation as soon as it has served his purpose. The new-born is as little as any other living creature a mere sum of sense stimuli and reactions; it is a self-contained organic whole. The whole is not intelligible from the sum of the parts, but rather every part is intelligible in the light of the whole. Such methods for psychological study are becoming more and more recognized. It is a fundamental idea of this book, and I close every chapter with it. Nevertheless, an analysis of the very different ideas and tendencies, which are generally designated as structure, will be necessary. At present I shall term “ structure ” only the reciprocal relation of the separate phenomena to each other, a feasible and much less pretentious task even so than Spranger’s idea of Struktur or the notions of the Gestalt

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Child Psychology

  A Canadian Perspective

  • Alastair Younger, Scott A. Adler, Ross Vasta(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  For example, one investigator placed a “breathing” teddy bear in the baby’s bed, which the baby could either contact or avoid. Premature babies who had the breathing bear tended to stay near it more than those who had a non-breathing bear, and they spent a longer amount of time in quiet sleep (Thoman, 1993). Discuss the stages of labour, the social and cultural factors that influence childbirth, and the assessment of factors affecting newborn health. 1. What happens during the three stages of childbirth? 2. What societal attitudes influence the experience of childbirth in Canada today? 3. How does culture affect the survival rate of mother and newborn? 4. What are some indicators of babies at risk? 5. What are some common birth complications? 6. What are the common tests for assessing newborns’ behavioural and physical health? 7. Discuss the reasons for low birth weight in infants. 8. What are some environmental factors that affect at-risk infants’ development? LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.1 THE ORGANIZED NEWBORN Look at a newborn baby and you will see that the baby’s face, if he is awake, changes expression rapidly for no apparent reason, and his legs and arms often flail around with no seeming purpose or pattern. A sleeping baby is less active, but her sleep is punctuated by twists, turns, startles, and grunts—a fairly unorganized picture. Seeing these behaviours, you can understand why, during most of the history of child psychology, people considered the newborn a passive and helpless crea- ture whose activity was essentially random. Any organized behaviour was thought to depend on external stimulation. Is it true that the newborn comes into the world with no organized patterns of behaviour for sleeping, eating, getting the caregiver’s attention, or even moving? Must caregivers teach the baby all these things? Research on newborn behaviour since the 1960s has drastically changed these views.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book