Objective
To use details to make accurate inferences about your nonfiction reading.

Step 2: Read the following excerpt from the textbook Lifespan Development, and then answer the questions that follow it. Your instructor will tell you whether to write your answers in your book or to submit your answers online for electronic grading.

Streissguth's Study of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

     The best single study of the consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure has been done by Ann Streissguth and her colleagues, who have followed a group of over 500 women and children beginning early in the woman's pregnancy. Because the study was begun before there were widespread warnings about the possible impact of alcohol during pregnancy, the sample includes many well-educated middle-class women with good diets who did not use many other recreational drugs but who did drink alcohol in moderate or even fairly heavy amounts while pregnant—a set of conditions that would be impossible to duplicate today, at least in the United States or other countries in which the risks of alcohol in pregnancy are well advertised.

     Streissguth tested the children repeatedly, beginning immediately after birth, again later in infancy, at age 4, at school age, and again at ages 11 and 14. She found that the mother's alcohol consumption in pregnancy was associated with sluggishness and weaker sucking in infancy, lower scores on a test of infant intelligence at 8 months, lower IQ at age 4 and 7 years, and problems with attention and vigilance at 4, 7, 11, and 14. Teachers also rated the 11-year-olds on overall school performance and on various behavior problems, and on both measures those whose mothers had consumed the most alcohol during pregnancy were rated significantly worse.

     Streissguth also was careful to obtain information about other drug use in pregnancy, including smoking, and asked mothers about their diet, education, and life habits. She found that the links between alcohol consumption and poor outcomes for the child held up even when all these other variables were controlled statistically.

     —Bee, p. 67

What are the effects on children aged 4 years and up of their mothers' use of alcohol during pregnancy?

		6. Effect:   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.
		7. Effect:   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.
		8. Effect:   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.
		9. Do the news story "Alcohol While Pregnant Stunts Kids" and the textbook excerpt "Streissguth's Study of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure" address the same effects of alcohol use during pregnancy?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.
		10. Based on your understanding of the news article and the textbook excerpt, what conclusion do you draw about alcohol use and pregnancy?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.