INFANTS AND MOTHERS: Differences in Development

Copies of this should dangle from all maternity shop windows, not only to acquaint experienced and neophyte parents with some fascinating work in the field of infant behavior, but also to calm -- as Gesell has for two generations -- anxious mothers certain that the Presence is acting in strange and uncertain ways. Dr. Brazelton chooses as his models three newborns -- Louis, Laura and Daniel -- following their activities from birth through the twelfth month. Louis, who took each step in his development in a ""normal"" way, was blessed with a ""rich and rewarding"" environment -- an experienced mother who reenforced the baby's own exhilaration in achievement in a stable home. Laura, unusally alert to stimuli, yet slow in motor development, was a puzzle to her mother who would have responded better to a more satisfyingly demanding child. Daniel, the hyperactive, was a ""challenge"" to his mother, who also faced the conflict of home and career. All the newborn personalities are different and these differences influence the babies responses to their environment, and in turn elicit unique and formative responses from the family. All along Dr, Brazelton gives advice to all parents as the model babies wail, catch fevers, sleep (or don't), bring delight or raise the roof -- matters that seem to embrace the variety of most nursery traumas. Dr. Brazelton teaches at Harvard Medical School, and is on the teaching staff of Children's Hospital in Boston and the Boston Lying In Hospital.