Of particular interest, and warranting
further discussion, is the preterm infant’s
responses after the touch intervention.
There appeared to be a
carryover effect, occurring approximately
by day 4 and remaining throughout
the touch period, for several significant
behavioral distress cues including
no movement, quiet sleep, and drowsiness.
Examination of the plots of these
variables (by day and phase; Figure 1)
revealed a probable novelty effect for
day 1 (similar percentages during and
after touch) but a return to baseline (after
touch) on days 2 and 3. On day 4 and
thereafter, however, mean percentages
on these four behaviors remained comparable
both during and after the touch
intervention. These findings support
similar results by Harrison et al. (1992,
1996, 2000), Jay (1982), and Tribotti
(1990). However, the research findings
reported here reflect a greater quantification
of the dependent variables and a
greater control of extraneous variables
than in other studies.