This project was designed to explore the relationship between school achievement and birth weight in a population of poverty black school children in the hope that the assumptions about environmental similarity might be approximated, and that the relatively advanced age of the subjects would allow examination of the lasting effects of birth…

Part of a longitudinal investigation of social support and mothers, this study examined how prenatal maternal social support affected the mother-child relationship in 38 low socioeconomic status mothers and their two-year-olds. Maternal social support correlated positively with level of stimulation provided to children and negatively with level of…

Reports on a longitudinal study of cognitive and motor development among infants born to adolescent and adult mothers when race, parity, socioeconomic status and prenatal care were controlled and home environment evaluated. (HOD)

Noting prenatal and early childhood home visitation by nurses has had positive effects on birth outcomes in several at-risk populations, this study examined the impact of weekly home visits by systematically trained visitors on birth outcomes of high-risk pregnant women within the context of a Florida Healthy Start project. Participating were…

A sample of 25 children exposed prenatally to cocaine was compared with a control group of 18 children not exposed to any drugs prenatally. Using the AGS (American Guidance Service) Screening Profile, results indicated that the control group was significantly superior on all subtests except for the Motor Coordination and Speech Articulation…

Reports on the assessment of 636 children who were identified in a 1984 Scottish low birth weight study. Discusses adaptations of standardized tests that made it possible to test 27 children who had been judged as impossible to test because of developmental disabilities. (CFR)

Investigated taboos and beliefs about the nutritional value of foods among pregnant women from Nigeria's Hausa and Yoruba tribes. Found that Hausa women had greater nutritional anemia than Yoruba women; their babies had greater incidence of low birth weights and smaller chest and head measurements. Hausa women learned food-related beliefs from…

The relationship between prenatal drug exposure, emotional and behavioral disorder (E/BD) identification in Head Start, and subsequent special education kindergarten placement in 145 Head Start children (ages 3-4) was examined. Results showed that 47% of the drug-exposed group versus 35% of the non-drug-exposed group met classification criteria…

A study of 458 6-year olds (204 prenatally exposed to cocaine), found low language children (n=57) were more likely to be cocaine exposed (63.1 percent), with cocaine-exposed children 2.4 times more likely to be in the low language groups compared with control children after adjustment for covariates. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This article reports on data collected as part of a four-phase study initiated to strengthen practice in the field of smoking cessation during pregnancy. It focuses on the perceived support pregnant smokers would receive for quitting smoking and how this support could be effectively used by incorporating the education of partners/family in smoking…

Maternal prenatal smoking, birth weight and sociodemographic factors were investigated in relation to cognitive abilities of 1544 children (aged 3.5 years) participating in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Children's Development. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was used to assess verbal ability, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale…

Thirty-four children (ages 5-16) born to alcoholic mothers were assessed on measures of intelligence, reading, receptive vocabulary, memory for sentences, visual memory, and visual-motor integration. The children were found to be least deficient on intellectual measures and most deficient on memory for sentences and silent and oral readings.…

Objective: To identify factors that predict or are correlated with symptoms of depression and anxiety in 10-year-olds. Method: Women and their offspring were followed from the fourth prenatal month through 10 years. There were 636 mother-child pairs at 10 years, a follow-up rate of 83% of the birth cohort. Cognitive, psychological,…

Despite years of concern about the toxic effects of high lead exposure and recent knowledge about the less apparent effects of exposure to low doses of lead, a total of 3 to 4 million children in the United States are still being exposed to concentrations of lead that could compromise their cognitive and social development. This paper discusses:…

Ten high-risk, special education adolescents were given an instructional program for five days in health education on crack cocaine and its effects on the fetus. Students included five with learning disabilities, three with emotional impairments, and two with educable mental impairments. All of the subjects live and attend school in a primarily…