Grasping and fingering (active or haptic touch) in healthy newborns

The traditional view that the activity of the baby's hands are triggered by a stimulus in an automatic, compulsory, stereotyped way and persisting view that fingering does not occur prior to 4 months of age, have led percpetion researchers to the assumption that the processing, encoding, and retainment of sensory information could not take place through the manual mode. This study aims to investigate whether fingering and different types of grasping occur before 3 months of age and can be modulated by surface texture of three objects. Using naturalistic observations, this small sample developmental study applied the AB experimental design to achieve aims above. Babies were video taped every week for 12 weeks. Three special manual stimuli were developed for this study.Focal sampling method with either zero-sampling or instantaneous sampling recording rules were used to analyse data with the Observer Video Pro. Each session comprising baseline and 3 experimental conditions lasted for four minutes. Fingering or 'proto fingering' as it is suggested in this article emerges as early as the first week of postnatal life; texture of a handled object modulates both 'proto-palm' and hand-grasp behaviour of healthy newborns. Results suggest that texture also modulates 'proto fingering' and challenge persisting current assumption that fingering does not occur before four months of age, and further validates the phrase 'neo-haptic' touch to describe hands-on exploration of the newborn. The authors suggest that some 'mental representation' of the stimulus is present during 'neo-haptic' recognition of the objects which is in accordance to a constructivist approach to (touch) perception

Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy (PMP S-E) tool: development and validation with mothers of hospitalized preterm neonates.

Metadata only. Full text available at links above.AIM: This paper is a report of a study to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy tool. BACKGROUND: Mothers' perceptions of their ability to parent (maternal parenting self-efficacy) is a critical mechanism guiding their interactions with their preterm newborns. A robust measure is needed which can measure mothers' perceptions of their ability to understand and care for their hospitalized preterm neonates as well as being sensitive to the various levels and tasks in parenting. METHODS: Using a mixed sampling methodology (convenience or randomized cluster control trial) 165 relatively healthy and hospitalized mother-preterm infant dyads were recruited in 2003-2005 from two intensive care neonatal units in the United Kingdom (UK). Mothers were recruited within the first 28 days after giving birth to a preterm baby. The Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy tool, which is made up of 20 items representing four theorized subscales, was tested for reliability and validity. RESULTS: Internal consistency reliability of the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy tool was 0.91, external/test-retest reliability was 0.96, P<0.01. Divergent validity using the Maternal Self-Report Inventory was r(s)=0.4, P<0.05 and using the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale was r(s)=0.31, P<0.01. CONCLUSION: The Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy tool is a psychometrically robust, reliable and valid measure of parenting self-efficacy in mothers of relatively healthy hospitalized preterm neonates. Although application outside the UK will require further cross-cultural validation, the tool has the potential to provide healthcare professionals with a reliable method of identifying mothers of preterm hospitalized babies who are in need of further support