ABSTRACT
General agreement exists today among infant development scholars, or so it seems to me, that the typical human neonate emerges into the extrauterine world with all systems functioning, with a capacity for self-regulating its rudimentary body systems, and even with a modicum of learning ability. This is particularly likely if the life and intrauterine milieu of the fetus involves no physical stigmata, and when the birth occurs under conditions of no special risk. When I began studying the development and behavior of infants almost 30 years ago, fresh out of my University of Iowa training, such assertions as these could not be made with much confidence.
