ABSTRACT

This chapter identifies infants at biological risk for later sensory, motor, or mental handicaps on the basis of pregnancy, perinatal, and postnatal factors related to infant mortality. It focuses on more comprehensive "risk" events such as prematurity and neonatal asphyxia or anoxia that have demonstrated greater incidence of disabling sequelae among infants who have suffered such trauma than among control infants. The majority of the infants in any "risk" group so far identified do sufficiently well on all outcome measures later in childhood that they cannot be considered truely handicapped. The significance of the cumulative risk score system can only be established through validation studies which relate scores at nine months to later performance. The cumulative risk system was designed to feature the use of multiple measures. The subjects in the longitudinal sample include infants from all socioeconomic groups, so the relationship between socioeconomic status, biological risk, and mother—infant interaction can be examined.