Infant/Child Development by The National Library of Medicine

This program describes and illustrates steps being taken by the Plymouth State Home and Training School, Northville, Michigan, to bring mentally retarded children out of the wilderness into the mainstream of life. The wilderness is considered the rather bleak institutions in which society has attempted to isolate these children. At the Plymouth State Home and Training School, the children are encouraged to become involved in meaningful goals, not just in passing the time. Their daily activities are carefully structured but not regimented.

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the role of the medical examiner and describe and demonstrate clinical findings which should alert the medical examiner to the possibility that death has resulted from battering. This objective is achieved with the aid of photographs of clinical examples and views of gross specimens. In this presentation Dr. Milton Helpern first discusses the role of the medical examiner investigating the cause of death.

This film examines child psychology through the story of a boy named Tommy Randall who has behavioral issues and has been caught stealing in school. The principal suggests to Tommy's mother, Mrs. Randall, that she send him to counseling. She reluctantly agrees, and she, too, speaks with a social worker about their home life. The counseling sessions are enjoyable and helpful for Tommy. The therapist and social worker suspect that Tommy's mother and his home life are the cause of his troubles. Mrs. Randall's mother lives with the family, and still treats her daughter like a child. Mrs.

This film illustrates how quickly the pleasures of the beach, lake, pool, and water sports can turn dangerous when safety practices are not followed, such as wearing a life jacket, maintaining a close eye on small children, and learning how to swim, preferably when young. The film notes that drowning is second only to auto accidents as a cause of fatal accidents. The film also urges that one never swim alone, nor overestimate stamina. A swimmer can overdo it and become weak.

Focusing on Bogotá, Colombia as a case study, this film discusses reasons for rural-to-urban migration, and the consequences of that population shift. Homes and land are scarcer, and rural farming skills don't suit urban factory jobs. Large families aren't the asset they might be in other settings. The film profiles a successful "community-based distribution" (CBD) program sponsored by Profamilia, which assures easy access to contraceptives, providing an alternative to a large family that may not be the best choice for all households.

The necessity of family planning and population control in India are presented. Children suffer in families that cannot fully support them, and the country as a whole cannot achieve prosperity when jobs, food supplies, medical care, and housing are not plentiful enough for a large and rapidly growing population. The film urges planned parenthood as one element of the solution to healthier children and a healthier nation.

This film profiles a Homemaker Service that provides assistance to families and individuals in their own homes. The camera follows one homemaker as she cares for the families assigned to her. She is shown as she shops, prepares meals, and does light housework for an elderly couple who would otherwise be unable to live on their own. The homemaker works under the supervision of a public health nurse. When a Puerto Rican mother of six is injured, the homemaker looks after the children and helps with the housework as the mother recuperates.

This film stars a young boy named Michael Thompson, who begins as a healthy baby. As he ages, the narrator explains the many people and places in his life that will be influential. He introduces the parents, and explains that they have two very different dreams for Michael - his mother wants him to stay young and needy forever, and his father wants him to grow up and become a better, more accomplished man than himself. When Michael is a toddler, he wakes up in the night afraid, and the narrator wonders if Michael's mother will baby him or if his father will scold him for being afraid.

This film was created as a professional educational extension of the American Radium Society on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The film stresses the need for multiple disciplines to work together to treat childhood cancer. The three disciplines represented on this panel discussion were: surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Three childhood cancer cases were discussed: a 9-month old with a tumor on the right kidney, a 7-month old with a tumor in the left groin, and a 10-year-old boy with a tumor on the arm.

The development of the auditory apparatus in the fetus is illustrated in labeled drawings. Congenital nerve deafness is due to arrested development of the otocyst during the second and third fetal months or to prenatal degeneration of the organ of Corti. Charts show hearing loss and deafness in babies born to mothers who had rubella during the third month of pregnancy. Congenital nerve deafness cannot be corrected medically or surgically.