Acoustic features and auditory perceptions of the cries of newborns with prenatal and perinatal complications.

This article describes 2 experiments which examine the relation between neonatal cry features and obstetric histories. Experiment 1 shows that 24 clinically healthy, normal newborns who may be at risk due to a high number of prenatal and perinatal complications can be distinguished from 24 low-complications infants by harmonic and durational features of the cry. High-complications infants required more stimulation to elicit the cry, had a longer latency to cry onset, a shorter first cry expiration, a higher cry pitch, and cried less in total time than low-complications infants. In experiment 2, naive adults rated the high-complications infant cries as more aversive, grating sick, urgent, distressing, piercing, discomforting, and arousing than low-complications infant crues. Factor analyses showed that although the low-complications infant cries were described along one dimension of discomfort, a second factor emerged conveying the "sick" nature of the sound of the cry of the high-complications infants. It was suggested that certain cry features may reflect the risk status of the infant.

[1]  P. Peltzman,et al.  Cries of a Trisomy 13–15 Infant , 1970, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[2]  P. Ostwald,et al.  The Sounds of Infancy , 1972, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[3]  Barry M. Lester,et al.  Brazelton scale and physical size correlates of neonatal cry features , 1978 .

[4]  O. Wasz‐Höckert,et al.  Spectrographic analysis of pain cry in hyperbilirubinemia. , 1971, Biology of the neonate.

[5]  R. Illingworth.  Crying in Infants and Children* , 1955, British medical journal.

[6]  Hugh Jolly,et al.  Clinics in Developmental Medicine , 1965 .

[7]  D. Gil.  Violence against Children: Physical Child Abuse in the United States , 1973 .

[8]  B. Lester,et al.  Spectrum analysis of the cry sounds of well-nourished and malnourished infants. , 1976, Child development.

[9]  R. Q. Bell.  Stimulus Control of Parent or Caretaker Behavior by Offspring. , 1971 .

[10]  R. Q. Bell.  A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization. , 1968, Psychological review.

[11]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Cry analysis in congenital hypothyroidism. , 1976, Folia phoniatrica.

[12]  C. Osgood,et al.  The Measurement of Meaning , 1958 .

[13]  Philip Lieberman,et al.  Intonation, Perception, And Language , 1967 .

[14]  R. Phibbs,et al.  Diagnostic use of infant cry. , 1968, Biologia neonatorum. Neo-natal studies.

[15]  O. Wasz‐Höckert,et al.  Spectographic Analysis of Vocal Response to Pain Stimuli in Infants with Down's Syndrome , 1970, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[16]  S KARELITZ,et al.  The cry latencies of normal infants and those with brain damage. , 1963, The Journal of pediatrics.

[17]  A. H. Parmelee.  SELECTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES FOR INFANTS AT RISK , 1976 .

[18]  P. Holinger,et al.  The infant with respiratory stridor. , 1955, Pediatric clinics of North America.

[19]  T. Brazelton,et al.  Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale , 1973 .

[20]  C. Ramey,et al.  Fetal malnutrition: an experimental study of its consequences on infant development in two caregiving environments. , 1978 .

[21]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Spectrographic analysis of pain cry in neonates with cleft palate. , 1975, Biology of the neonate.

[22]  H. Prechtl,et al.  Neurological Findings in Newborn Infants After Pre- and Paranatal Complications , 1968 .

[23]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Sound Spectrographic Cry Analysis of Infants with Bacterial Meningitis , 1977, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[24]  J. Lind.  The infant cry. , 1971, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[25]  J Lejeune,et al.  Spectrographic analysis of cries from children with maladie du cri du chat. , 1966, Annales paediatriae Fenniae.

[26]  A Gramsbergen,et al.  A Statistical Analysis of Cry Patterns in Normal and Abnormal Newborn Infants , 1969, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[27]  A. Inkeles,et al.  International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. , 1968 .

[28]  C. Collmer,et al.  Child Abuse: An Interdisciplinary Analysis , 1976 .

[29]  J. Osofsky.  Neonatal characteristics and mother-infant interaction in two observational situations. , 1976, Child development.

[30]  S KARELITZ,et al.  The cry thresholds of normal infants and those with brain damage. An aid in the early diagnosis of severe brain damage. , 1962, The Journal of pediatrics.

[31]  T. Brazelton.  Crying in infancy. , 1962, Pediatrics.

[32]  J. M. Dobbs.  Determinants of infant behavior , 1964 .

[33]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Sound-spectrographic cry analysis of normal and abnormal newborn infants. A review and a recommendation for standardization of the cry characteristics. , 1976, Folia phoniatrica.

[34]  H. Hollien,et al.  Perceptual responses to infant crying: identification of cry types , 1974, Journal of Child Language.

[35]  T. Field.  Effects of Early Separation, Interactive Deficits, and Experimental Manipulations on Infant-Mother Face-to-Face Interaction. , 1977 .

[36]  J. Lind,et al.  First mothers rooming-in with their newborns: its impact upon the mother. , 1973, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[37]  O. Wasz‐Höckert,et al.  Vocal response to painful stimuli in newborn and young infant. , 1966, Annales paediatriae Fenniae.

[38]  Judy Bernal,et al.  Crying During the First 10 Days of Life, and Maternal Responses , 1972, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[39]  D. Klisz,et al.  Synchronous reinforcement of vocal responses in failure-to-thrive infants. , 1972, Child development.

[40]  D Formby,et al.  Maternal Recognition of Infant's Cry , 1967, Developmental medicine and child neurology.