Comparison of Active Motor Items in Infants Born Preterm and Infants Born Full Term

Abstract

Infants born VPT-VLBW who are at "low risk" performed at term age similarly to healthy infants born FT on four active motor items. The reliability of the measurement method supports the method's further development.

Motor development evaluated by Test of Infant Motor Performance: comparison between preterm and full-term infants

“…These findings are similar to those of other authors investigating preterm newborns similar in age to the sample in this study 24,10 . One of these studies 24 used specially-developed software to assess motor response in preterm and full-term newborns and compared video of four items tested in both groups (PTN and FTN at the same age), verifying that the preterm newborns had poorer motor performance than the full-term newborns. Another study 10 using a goniometer to assess muscular tone showed that it was lower in preterm than in full-term newborns.…”

“…There are other instruments [20][21][22][23] for assessing the development of newborns, but they are designed for infants with over 40 weeks of corrected gestational age or those at least four months of age. Although studies 10,[24][25][26][27] assessing the motor development of preterm infants below this age group have been conducted, few have investigated motor skills in detail with the TIMP 26,27 , and the latter did not study preterm and full term infants comparatively.…”

Fatores associados ao atraso do desenvolvimento motor de crianças prematuras internadas em unidade de neonatologia

“…16,18,20 Segundo Aylward, 3 crianças prematuras extremas e/ou de extremo baixo peso ao nascer também estão sujeitas a alterações mais leves do comportamento motor, mesmo não apresentando lesões neurológicas graves. Em avaliações precoces, esses neonatos tendem a apresentar atraso no controle da cabeça e nas reações posturais, 21 déficits da coordenação motora e distúrbios do tônus muscular. 5 Contrariamente ao relatado por outros autores, 1,2,10 no presente estudo a idade gestacional não mostrou associação significante com o atraso do desenvolvimento motor.…”

Altered white matter diffusion anisotropy in normal and preterm infants at term‐equivalent age

“…It is important to highlight that this finding is in contrast to other DTMRI studies of preterm infants imaged at term‐equivalent age compared to normal term infants (1, 7), which reported no significant difference in anisotropy indices within the corticospinal pathways. Evidence from behavioral studies would suggest that the finding of increased FA within corticospinal tracts of the preterm infants may be artifactual because these studies showed either no significant difference in motor responses in preterm infants tested at term‐equivalent age (27), or some significant deficits in specific motor performance tasks in the preterm infants (28). Interestingly, Als et al (11), reported increased anisotropy measures within the left internal capsule corticospinal tracts in preterm infants enrolled in a neurodevelopmental intervention (NIDCAP) trial.…”