INFANT COMPETENCE: BEHAVIOR AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

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A large number of infants born prematurely will enter the learning disabled population, yet, a significant number will have good outcomes. Moreover, a certain number of neonates with good medical histories will become learning disabled. Statistical examination of medical variables has not discriminated more competent from less competent infants. We have developed measures of infant behavior (APIB) and electrophysiological functioning (BEAM) designed to get at issues of neuro-behavioral integration so as to provide a basis for prediction from the newborn period to the school age years. We have now studied, in the newborn period, 98 full term and preterm newborns free of neurological impairment and have found 1) highly consistent behavioral subgroupings of infants, 2) highly consistent electrophysiological subgroupings of infants, and 3) impressive correspondence of behavioral to electrophysiological group status. This finding strongly supports our hypothesis that newborn functioning as assessed by our 2 methods can be classified into stable subgroups. The questions at hand now are: 1) Can the 98 study infants be subgrouped and predicted behaviorally and electrophysiologically at the 9 months data point (to be completed in the 03 year of our current grant)? 2) Can our measures identify subcategories of behavioral functioning in a population having suffered a known neurological insult, namely, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). 3) Is there consistency of functional cluster membership from the newborn to the 9 months period in this group? 4) Can we identify and predict patterns of functional competence of the current 98 healthy study infants at the preschool period, behaviorally and electrophysiologically? In future studies we plan further follow-up of the healthy as well as the IVH children. Successful identification of patterns of functional competence will provide (1) a benchmark for prediction and (2) a target for more efficient utilization of scarce intervention resources.