Abstract
It has constantly been observed that cerebral palsy or mental retardation develops among premature and high risk infants. In order to improve the security of the early assessment and habituation of handicapped children, we assessed 21 AFD and 18 SFD infants whose normal development was anticipated and 21 mature infants using Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (B-NBAS) during the neonatal period, and longitudinal study on development was performed during one postnatal year at 6, 12 months using the Bayley Scale. The results were as follows: 1) SFD infants, in 40, 44, 48 weeks, showed lower score and poor recovery curve on Orientation, Motor and State regulation clusters when compared with mature and AFD infants. 2) Their neonatal behavior had individualities of hypersensitivity to stimuli, less responsiveness, rapid state change, depressed reflexes and hypotonus. Their individuality was understood as stressed sign dependent on unadaptability to the environment. 3) Moreover, infollow-up using Bayley scale, SFD infants had a tendency to be retarded mentally and to have poor psychomotor development at six and twelve months postnatal when compared with mature and AFD infants. This result is related to neonatal behavioral development.
