ABSTRACT
A series of reports from studies have found that neurological, physical, and mental characteristics of the infant during the first year of life have little relation to later behavior. The Rochester Developmental Psychopathology Study was designed to translate sociological variables into psychological variables. When populations with specific perinatal complications have been studied longitudinally abnormalities have been found, but these tended to disappear with age. When infants born prematurely were followed through school age, the deficits in their intelligence at earlier ages were greatly reduced in later years. The major impact of biological defects associated with reproductive casualty appears to occur in the first weeks of pregnancy when spontaneous abortions produce many fetal losses. When change and transformation are seen to be the rules of development rather than the exceptions, then a new perspective can be given to developmental prediction.
