Cognitive development and behavioral style of the infant with myelomeningocele

Judy Dell Morrow, Purdue University

Abstract

This study explored cognitive development and behavioral style of the infant born with myelomeningocele. Infants with myelomeningocele were less likely to demonstrate visual recognition memory, as indexed by novelty preference, than normal matched controls. The mean novelty preference score of the infants with myelomeningocele, however, was not statistically significantly different than the mean novelty preference score of matched controls. Infants with myelomeningocele demonstrated more verbal imitation during assessment with the Uzgiris-Hunt than their normal counterparts. This behavior may be the precursor to the later characteristic "cocktail party" speech of this population. Although the infants with myelomeningocele did score lower than their matched controls on object permanence, this difference was not statistically significant, suggesting that infants with delayed locomotion use alternate developmental pathways to develop spatial search skills. Infants with myelomeningocele showed performance comparable to their normal matched controls on both the Schemes and Objects in Space subscales of the Uzgiris-Hunt. Results on the cognitive measures as a whole suggest that infants with myelomeningocele do differ in their information processing capacities and sensori-motor abilities from normal infants. The two groups did not differ on the majority of the demographic and environmental variables, suggesting that the group differences may be due to differences in the biomedical variables examined, since these latter variables did differentiate the two groups. On the other hand, within the myelomeningocele group, the environmental variables correlated with the majority of the cognitive measures, while correlations between the cognitive variables and both demographic and biomedical variables were sparse. The fact that cognitive abilities of the infants with myelomeningocele showed correlations with the home environment while environment showed no such correlations in the normal matched controls suggests differential sensitivity of the two groups, an organism environment-interaction. Group differences were also present on temperament ratings of the infants by the mothers. Mothers of infants with myelomeningocele rated their infants as less active, more adaptable, more approachable, and more positive in mood than mothers of normal infants. The infants with myelomeningocele were also more likely to be classified as "easy" than were normal infants.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Wachs, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Developmental psychology

COinS