ABSTRACT
The author combines the condition of the organism at birth with his later development he arrive at four possible permutations: the aberrant development of the normal infant, the aberrant development of the aberrant infant, the normal development of the normal infant, and the normal development of the aberrant infant. Dr. Evelyn Thoman pointed out that normal infants at birth exhibit reliable individual differences in their behavioral states which are assumed to reflect basic neurophysiological differences and that organization of state behaviors develops in most cases in an orderly fashion. A close examination of underlying processes seems to the author the most promising avenue to a better understanding of the crucial differences between normal and aberrant infants. The key to the normal development of the aberrant infant then seems to be the quality of the very early mother-infant interaction. As Gilbert W. Meier points out, styles of mother-infant interaction are established right after birth.
