Lawson,
Daum, and Turkewitz (1977) studied the
quality and quantity of the stimulation that
preterm infants received in the intensive care
unit and concluded that it is inappropriate
in both its extreme intensity and in its lack
of rhythmicity and contingency. Therefore,
later developmental deficiencies in these infants
may be due to a combination of the
medical complications of prematurity, the
degree of central nervous system abnormalities at birth, and the developmentally deficient
environment of the intensive care
nursery.