Pınar Doğan , Atiye Karakul , Defne Engür , Mehmet Yekta Öncel
{"title":"The effectiveness of music on pain during heel blood collection in premature infants: A randomized controlled trial","authors":"Pınar Doğan , Atiye Karakul , Defne Engür , Mehmet Yekta Öncel","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102157","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102157","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Newborns are exposed to pain during heel blood collection. The experience of pain in newborns can lead to both physiological and behavioral changes. The aim of this study was examine the effect of music (classical music and lullaby) on pain during the heel blood collection in premature infants. This single blind randomized controlled study was conducted between October, 2022 and April, 2023 in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a university hospital. A total of 60 premature infants were randomly allocated to three groups: the Control Group, the Classical Music Group, and the Lullaby Group. Pain, oxygenation saturation levels, heart rate and respiratory rate were measured before, during, after the heel blood collection procedure. There were no statistically significant differences in the demographic data of the infants in the classical music, lullaby, and control groups. After heel blood collection procedure, pain levels, heart rate and respiratory rate of premature infants in the lullaby groups measurement were lower than the classical and control group. No significant difference was found in terms of oxygen saturation between the groups. In premature infants, in the lullaby group listening to during heel blood collection was more effective in reducing pain compared to the control group and classical music. This indicates lullaby can potentially be an effective method in alleviating pain during heel blood collection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102157"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145318649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Büşra Kepenek-Varol , Osman Baştuğ , Ahmet Özdemi̇r , Özlem Menevşe
{"title":"Early spontaneous movements in full-term infants exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus","authors":"Büşra Kepenek-Varol , Osman Baştuğ , Ahmet Özdemi̇r , Özlem Menevşe","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102156","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102156","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) may influence fetal neurodevelopment, and early motor assessments could help identify at-risk infants before clinical symptoms emerge.</div></div><div><h3>Aim</h3><div>To examine early spontaneous movements in full-term infants born to mothers with GDM.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>Thirty-two full-term infants with prenatal exposure to GDM and 32 age-matched healthy controls were included in this case-control study. After recording maternal and infant demographic and clinical characteristics, video recordings were obtained for General Movements Assessment (GMA) at 52–54 weeks postmenstrual age. Detailed GMA was performed, and the Motor Optimality Score (MOS) was calculated for each infant.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Fidgety movements were observed as normal in both groups. There were no significant differences between the groups in demographic or clinical characteristics, except for birth weight, which was higher in the GDM-exposed group (p = 0.002). After adjusting for gestational age, birth weight, and treatment modality, total MOS scores were significantly lower in the GDM-exposed group (p = 0.038), and the movement character subcategory also remained significantly altered (p = 0.025). No significant associations were found between clinical variables and MOS within the GDM-exposed group.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>These findings suggest that intrauterine hyperglycemia may have subtle but measurable effects on early motor development in infants of mothers with GDM. Altered movement character and lower adjusted MOS scores highlight the potential vulnerability of this population, even in the absence of gross motor impairment. Early detection of such changes through GMA may help identify infants who could benefit from close developmental monitoring and timely intervention, thereby supporting better long-term outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102156"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145309607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Investigating the effects of age and autonomous locomotion on infant location use during the first year","authors":"Alicia L. Springfield , Do Kyeong Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102155","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102155","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated the influence of age and autonomous locomotion on infants’ use of physical spaces during the first year of life. A total of 18 healthy infants (8 male, 10 female) were observed longitudinally in their homes from an average starting age of 2.77 months through 12 months. Monthly, naturalistic video recordings captured approximately 30 min of uninterrupted spontaneous play per infant, with the researcher acting as a passive observer. Continuous coding quantified the frequency and duration of infants’ use of distinct locations (e.g., floor, crib, caregiver). Results revealed that infants experienced comparable affordances across households, validating true behavioral variation rather than differential access. Location frequency did not vary with age, but crawling infants visited more locations than pre-crawlers. Time in restrictive locations decreased with age, while floor time increased, particularly before crawling onset. Ultimately, developmental changes were characterized by reduced time in restrictive locations and greater time on the floor, with total frequency of explorations more closely tied to locomotor status than chronological age.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102155"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145266641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Youjung Choi , Eun Young Kim , Hyuna Lee , Hyun-joo Song
{"title":"Before first words: Infants’ ability to map words to goals","authors":"Youjung Choi , Eun Young Kim , Hyuna Lee , Hyun-joo Song","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102154","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102154","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated preverbal infants’ ability to associate novel words with referent objects. Forty-eight infants, aged 9 and 12 months, repeatedly observed an actor utter a novel word and then grasp one of two objects during the training trials. In the test trial, both age groups looked at the target object when she repeated the same word and directed their gaze to the non-target object when she uttered a different word. These results provide evidence that the foundations of novel word–object associations emerge before the onset of verbal communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102154"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Makenzy S. Turner, Lisa K. Boyce, Avery A. Briggs, Audrey C. Juhasz
{"title":"Early contributions of observed and parent-reported gesture to language development in children enrolled in early intervention","authors":"Makenzy S. Turner, Lisa K. Boyce, Avery A. Briggs, Audrey C. Juhasz","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102152","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102152","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Early gesture use has been shown to be predictive of later vocabulary development. Children at-risk for language impairments often use fewer gestures as toddlers than typically developing children. A deeper understanding of the nuances of gesture use in communication could aid in intervention efforts for children at risk for language delays. In the present study, 83 mother-child dyads were recruited from early intervention programs to describe early child gesture behaviors and investigate the influence of early gestures on later language development. Deictic and conventional gesture types were measured by parent report and observational frequency during play. Parent report and observed gesture variables were moderately correlated. Results indicate that 25-month gesture uniquely contributes to 36-month language, above and beyond control variables 25-month language, parent responsiveness, and household income. Specifically, parent report of child deictic gesture and observed conventional gesture were statistically significant predictors of 36-month language. Our findings support previous research documenting the importance of gesture in early language development. Encouraging parents to recognize and respond to gestures may be an effective intervention strategy to increase opportunities for positive parent-child communication with children at-risk for language delays.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102152"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gisella Decarli , Ludovica Veggiotti , Maria Dolores de Hevia
{"title":"Exploring size-action and number-action associations in infancy","authors":"Gisella Decarli , Ludovica Veggiotti , Maria Dolores de Hevia","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102153","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102153","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the last decades, a growing body of research has assessed the link between numerical and action processing. However, this relationship has not been widely explored in the early stages of development. In this study, we aimed to investigate the number-action mapping during infancy with a novel action and to extend previous research by examining both size-action and quantity-action mappings. In the context of our study, 'size' is related to the perceptual attribute of how big or small an object appears and 'quantities' are connected to the numerical aspect, representing the number of items in a set. Using the habituation technique, 7-month-old infants were presented with videos of a character performing mouth openings directed towards objects of different sizes (Experiment 1; N = 40; 14 females) or quantities (Experiment 2; N = 40; 18 females). The findings suggest that infants are sensitive to the congruency of the pairings, highlighting the early presence of both number-action and size-action mappings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102153"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145208059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Humour from 12 to 36 months: Insights into children’s socio-cognitive and language development","authors":"Chiara Mazzocconi , Béatrice Priego-Valverde","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102129","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102129","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The relationship between laughter, humour, and socio-cognitive development in infants has attracted scholarly attention, yet structured longitudinal studies remain sparse. This study examines humour appreciation and production in four North American children from the Providence Corpus (Demuth et al., 2006). We annotated 30 min of naturalistic mother–child interactions at six-month intervals (12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months). We identify 271 humorous episodes following two criteria (Archakis and Tsakona, 2005): (1) the presence of laughter and (2) the identification of an incongruity, i.e. <em>Script Opposition</em> (SO) (GTVH, Attardo (2001)). Each episode was analysed for SO type — im/possible, ab/normal, or non/actual—following Hempelmann and Ruch (2005) hierarchical framework. To explore the developmental relevance, we propose a classification of SOs by knowledge Domains: Natural World & Objects, Social-sphere, and Metalinguistic-sphere.</div><div>Findings reveal distinct SO and Domain distributions between mothers and children, developmental trajectories in SOs and Domains, and interactions between them. Between 12 and 30 months, children favoured humourous episodes involving multiple SOs, suggesting a need for multiple cues to interpret mothers’ humorous intent, potentially influencing maternal behaviour. Notably, our results contribute, together with previous studies, in refining McGhee (1979) humour developmental stages, showing that some types of humour emerge earlier than previously postulated. This study provides a detailed investigation of humour in child development from 12 to 36 months, illustrating how humour production and perception reflect cognitive, pragmatic, and linguistic development and offer insights into children’s knowledge acquisition — insights often challenging to access through experimental testing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102129"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145158337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Linda Polka , M. Fernanda Alonso-Arteche , Nicola K. Phillips , Samin Moradi , Lucie Ménard , Matthew Masapollo
{"title":"Infants’ attraction to infant vocalizations – A catalyst for infant development","authors":"Linda Polka , M. Fernanda Alonso-Arteche , Nicola K. Phillips , Samin Moradi , Lucie Ménard , Matthew Masapollo","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102150","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102150","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Infant vocalizations play a key role in infant behavior and development, yet we know very little about how infants perceive speech signals with infant vocal properties. In this perspective paper, we summarize recent developmental studies capitalizing on technical breakthroughs in speech synthesis that have allowed for rigorous exploration of this topic. The findings indicate that infants prefer to listen to speech signals with vocal resonances that specify a small, infant-sized vocal tract; this preference is robust and distinct in some ways from infants’ attraction to infant-directed speech. This <em>infant talker bias</em> may support infants’ speech recognition skills and there is growing evidence that it is also tied to infants’ own emerging vocal production abilities. These findings further validate prominent views of speech development, including the articulatory filter and the analysis-by-synthesis hypotheses. Related work in our lab shows that adults also display a strong attraction to infant vowel sounds, adding weight to calls for an expanded and multimodal infant schema. Converging evidence that both infants and adults find infant vocalizations appealing also provides critical support for the fitness-signaling perspective on infant endogenous vocalization. We argue that the infant talker bias has a positive impact on multiple levels, shaping receptive, expressive, and motivational aspects of infant development. The infant talker bias also plays a central role in caregiving behaviors and infant-directed speech. The perceptual potency of infant speech is a catalyst for infant development and also for meaningful and innovative research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102150"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145118048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gianina Pérez , Annie Aitken , Maggie Zhang , Moriah E. Thomason , Natalie H. Brito
{"title":"Exploring associations between maternal mental health and infant regulatory behaviors at 6 months in the home environment: Zooming in on maternal anxiety","authors":"Gianina Pérez , Annie Aitken , Maggie Zhang , Moriah E. Thomason , Natalie H. Brito","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102151","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102151","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Maternal mental health during the perinatal period has been linked to the development of infant emotion regulation capacity, largely through its impact on caregiver-infant interactions during the first year of life. The majority of studies have focused on the effects of maternal depression, even though maternal anxiety is more prevalent and its effects on infant outcomes are less well understood. The current study aims to 1) explore differences in infant affect and regulatory behaviors across two commonly implemented infant stress-induction paradigms and 2) evaluate the differential effects of depression and anxiety on infant regulatory behaviors. Six-month-old infants and their mothers (N = 126) completed two tasks remotely in the home: the Arm Restraint task and the Still-Face Paradigm. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) subscales. Within-person results indicated no significant associations among infant regulatory behaviors nor infant reactivity across the two paradigms. Additionally, no significant associations were found between maternal mental health and infant regulatory behaviors during the Still-Face Paradigm. However, higher EPDS composite scores were associated with fewer infant avoidance behaviors during the Arm Restraint task, and this result was driven by items on the anxiety subscale. These findings suggest that infant regulatory behaviors may differ depending on task used and may also be influenced by subclinical levels of maternal anxiety, but not maternal depression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102151"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145096415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking the study of newborn sociality: Challenges and opportunities","authors":"Elizabeth A. Simpson","doi":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102149","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102149","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Growing empirical evidence from the past quarter century reveals surprising sociality in newborns—infants in the first 28 postnatal days—including their ability to elicit and sustain contingent interactions with mutual gaze, social smiling, and sensitively timed, speech-like vocalizations. Newborns seem to have communicative expectations and behave as if they predict others’ goal-directed actions. Despite these discoveries, I review key barriers to progress in newborn developmental science. First, newborn social behavior research has almost exclusively focused on “average” development—based primarily on White, wealthy, English-speaking, Western, populations—treating interindividual differences as noise rather than meaningful, variability. Focusing almost exclusively on averages, especially with small sample sizes, ignores interindividual differences and hinders discoveries. Second, there are few studies of newborn sociality beyond the first postnatal week. In part, this gap in our understanding may be due to, and a consequence of, the mischaracterizations of newborns’ behaviors as passive, limited, disorganized, and low-level reflexes that are subcortically driven. Finally, researchers often assume that newborns’ behaviors are largely independent of experience. To the contrary, newborns’ need for nearly continuous social contact provides them with rich social learning opportunities, which have been shown to have lasting impacts on their development. Given the uniqueness and plasticity of this period, and their high vulnerability, developmental scientists are doing newborns a disservice by neglecting to characterize their social repertoires within and across diverse populations. Awareness of newborns’ social capacities will facilitate a more objective, accurate view of their social potential.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48222,"journal":{"name":"Infant Behavior & Development","volume":"81 ","pages":"Article 102149"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145092804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}