Assignment: An Infant Case Study

  Assignment: An Infant Case Study—Sam

Many changes happen from conception to birth. A single-celled zygote multiplies and grows over approximately 9 months into a living, breathing human being composed of trillions of cells. That’s quite an amazing feat! With such rapid growth occurring, it is not surprising that the developing fetus is vulnerable to a number of different environmental influences.

For this Assignment, you will examine an infant case study to determine short-term developmental outcomes.

Refer to the following Case Study about Sam, a male infant:

An infant male, Sam, was born to Jane and Roberto. Jane works in the city as a medical transcriptionist, but requested 12 weeks of family leave effective immediately upon Sam’s birth.

Sam was born 6 weeks premature, by Cesarean delivery. His Apgar score at 1 minute was 5; after receiving oxygen, his Apgar score at 5 minutes was 8. Apart from the first few minutes after birth, Sam has not required oxygen or respiratory assistance. Because of his prematurity, Sam stayed in the hospital for 72 hours before he was discharged.

Jane drank occasionally throughout the pregnancy, but reported drinking most heavily during the last trimester of her pregnancy, which was about the time Roberto got laid off from his job. There is suspicion, although not confirmed, that Sam has Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Sam is a fussy eater, requiring short and frequent feedings. He has been home for 2 weeks and wakes up hungry every 2 hours. He does not sleep through the night.

Roberto and Jane live in a house in a rural area. They do not have a network of friends and family who live nearby who can help, but Jane’s mother has offered to move in with them temporarily. Roberto and Jane’s mother get along very well. Jane is debating whether she should reduce her family leave and go back to work earlier than she had planned.

Many of the details in the above case study have purposely been left ambiguous (e.g., ethnicity, geographic location, etc.) so that you can make some conjectures of your own and relate that to Sam’s short-term and long-term prognosis.

To prepare for this Assignment:

· Review the Learning Resources for this week and consider any environmental factors that might affect the infant’s development.

· Search the Internet and/or the Walden library to find articles related to the case study that might support your findings.

For this Assignment:

Write a 2- to 3-page paper and include the following:

· Explain the environmental factors presented in the Case Study, as well as others that may be present but not specifically identified in the Case Study that might affect Sam’s development.

· With the environmental factors you explained, further explain what you think the best case scenario and the worst case scenario might be for Sam’s short-term developmental outcomes and explain why.

· Be specific, provide examples, and justify your response with citations from the Learning Resources/literature.

Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course. Use proper APA format and citations.

Berk, L. E. (2014). Development through the lifespan (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

• Chapter 2, “Genetic and      Environmental Foundations” (pp. 44–77)
• Chapter 3, “Prenatal Development, Birth, and      the Newborn Baby” (pp. 78–117)

Charness, M. E., Riley, E. P., & Sowell, E. R. (2016). Drinking during pregnancy and the developing brain: Is any amount safe? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(2), 80–82. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.09.011

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Entringer, S., Buss, C., & Wadhwa, P. D. (2015). Prenatal stress, development, health and disease risk: A psychobiological perspective—2015 Curt Richter Award Paper. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 62, 366–375. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.08.019

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Tzouma, V., Grepstad, M., Grimaccia, F., & Kanavos, P. (2015). Clinical, ethical, and socioeconomic considerations for prescription drug use during pregnancy in women suffering from chronic diseases. Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science, 49(6), 947–956. doi:10.1177/2168479015589820

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.