Evening star., 1940-01-02
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory !
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

BIZ Thomas r. Henry.
Babies born too soon come into yell
low world
Premature infants show strange COM
plexes of behavior when compared with
normal children and these may persist
into school years, according to study
just reported to the Child Development
Society Of the National Research Council
by DR.. Mary Shirley of Harvard Uni
versity.
The differences, she finds, are both Of
body and mind. The premature is not
necessarily inferior to the full-term baby
but it is different, and gets a quite
different start In life.
DR.. Shirley reports:
I'm hearing sensitivity the premature
child either is more keenly aware of
sounds or more interested in their mean
ing. Such children are highly distracted
by footballs or voices in the corridor, and
by the sound of other babies crying on
the floor below. There is some evidence
that they attach meaning to sounds very
early.
"Older premature children often
manifest the 'hark' response-suddenly
stopping in their play and whispering in
startled voice at the hiss of a radiator,
cricket chirp, or a fire siren blocks
away. Premature babies and young
children also seem to be more interested
in general visual phenomena than term
children-in shadows smoke plumes,
dancing notes in a sunbeam, reflections
thrown by mirror"
One of the most curious phenomena
found by DR.. Shirley is the extreme at
traction for such children of yellow
colored objects They will turn from
the most attractive toys to grab at the
stub OF yellow pencil. Anything yellow
that is seen tends to linger in the men,
ory into adult life-yellow cats, dogs,
birds, flowers, houses. They either do
not see or fail to notice objects OF other
colors.
While the prematures learn to talk
and to understand words about as quickly
as normal babies they are delayed in
correct pronunciation. They persist
longer in baby talk They show greater
tendency to use substitute sounds in
words such as pray" for play "gwocks"
for blocks etc. Often they utter long
sentences which apparently are mean
ingful, but only one or two words can be
distinguished in the tumble.
In hand activities and control of fine
movements Dr. Shirley found the prema-
ture babies retarded by several weeks.
This retardatlon is particularly notice.
able in the use of the index finger for
pointing and grasping. They are likely
to have stubby, spade-like hands with
the third and fourth fingers of about the
same length. In several prematures pc
culiar gestures with the hand, described
as "fipper or paddle-like" have been
noted. They often show a pronounced
tremor after a prolonged effort. They
handle their toys with sloppy, slap
dash movements. They over-reach, spill
and scatter. The older prematures are
often found to be awkward clumsy and
having lunging gait.
In the amount of activity" says DR..
Shirley, premature children seem to 60
to two extremes. On the one hand are
tense, jumpy, Imperative little crea-
lures that seem to be mounted on springs.
On the other are f1oppy, soggy lazy babies
and sluggish, clumsy children, slow and
deliberate in their motions.
"Emotionally the premature child is
more irascible, petulant and more often
shy and negativistic than the term
baby Prematures are upset by slighter
stimuli. They are capable of standing
just so much before exploding in tan
trUm or "a panic. More of them hide
their faces in the mothers bosom. The
premature is often shy and much at
tached to the mother. He is prone to
seek help from her or from any friendly
adult when he encounters slight diff
Guilty, appealing to have things done that
he could do, or easily learn to do, him.
SELF
THE attention span of the premature
is very short. 1t often is difficult to get
him to stick to a hard task. Conversely,
and this seems contradiction, the pre-
mature sometimes works to the point of
nervous exhaustion. He continues work.
ing at a high level of interest and con-
centration until he collapses in rage from
fatigue and Illustration. Premature chill
dren seem to have an appreciation of the
beautiful and desire to create artis-
tically. Many of them demand to paint
but their motor co-ordinations are so
poor that their paintings are meaning
less blobs''
These behavior traits have a definite
physical basis, DR.. Shirley believes. A
few weeks before the birth of the full
term baby there is an enormous develop
ment of the cortex of the adrenal gland,
which regulates potassium metabolism
This in turn has great influence on
the conductivity of nerves. This has not
happened in the premature baby. Hence
he is unable to make the movements
directed by the brain as we'll as the fully
developed infant. This in turn leads to
Illustration and temper tantrum. The
potassium element may have something
to do with the vividness of yellow and
the apparent insensitiveness to other
bright colors.
In addition, she points out, there may
be psychoanalytica factor involved
which would explain the shyness and the
frequent appeals for help. The premature
infant has come too soon out of the
most sheltered of all environments, and
has more difficult time adjusting to the