Description: In the 31 years that I have been teaching courses in child development I have said a number of things that, in the face of more recent research, discussion, and intervention designs and outcomes, have turned out to have been wrong (or at least in need of adjustment). One of these is the statement… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Prenatal Development
Touch: Developmentally Important?
Description: Can you think of a time when someone put their hand on your shoulder in a reassuring manner? Human touch is a positive experience. What about newborn infants? Or what about preterm (premature) infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU’s)? how might touch relate to development? Think about it and then read the linked… Read more »
Skin to Skin Contact with Premature Their Infant in NICU and Mother’s Stress Levels
Description: Research has consistently shown positive effects of skin to skin contact between parents and premature infants while the infants are being cared for in neonatal intensive care units or NICU’s. The study discussed in this article looked at the possible effects of this practice on mothers rather than infants. What do you think they… Read more »
The Impact of Prematurity on Brain Connections
Description: We know that stimulation provided by postnatal experience and perhaps also through dream state sleep plays an important role in the development of neural connections in the newborn brain. With this in mind what would you predict about the complexity of neural connections in the brains of infants born 10 weeks early and who… Read more »
Maternal Stress and Infant Motor Development
Description: While it might not surprise you to hear that research has consistently demonstrated a relationship between the maternal stress during pregnancy and later cognitive and emotional difficulties among the children born of those pregnancies what might you expect in the way of a possible relationship between maternal stress during pregnancy and the level of… Read more »
Frances Kelsey: Canadian Who Blocked Thalidomide from Approval for Use in the United States
Source: The Globe and Mail Date: November 24, 2014 Links: Video: http://bcove.me/q1bb3zon Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-doctor-averted-disaster-by-keeping-thalidomide-out-of-the-us/article21721337/ The drug Thalidomide, which was found to be a powerful teratogen, was approved for use in Canada in the 1960’s largely on the strength of it already having been approved for use in the UK, other commonwealth countries and Germany. It… Read more »
Canada’s Thalidomide Babies are Aging, Struggling and Looking for Support
Description: Read the article describing the long term developmental effects on Canadians whose Mothers were given the drug Thalidomide to treat insomnia and nausea early in their pregnancies (in the 1960’s). Source: The Globe and Mail Date: November 21, 2014 Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-aftermath-of-thalidomide/article21689771/ Thalidomide is a textbook teratogen. Prescribed as a sleeping pill or an anti-nausea… Read more »
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