Effects of Contingent Reinforcement of Actions on Infants' Object‐Directed Reaching

Needham, Amy; Joh, Amy S.; Wiesen, Sarah E.; Williams, N. Rankin

doi:10.1111/infa.12058

Cited by 15 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…According to this argument, any kind of contingent experience is arousing and may serve to activate infants' exploratory systems. However, according to a recent experiment, this seems unlikely to be the case (Needham, Joh, Wiesen, & Williams, 2014). In this study, infants in the experimental condition were able to control the movement of a nearby mobile via a ribbon attached to their wrist and to the mobile.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Specifically, the infants in the experimental condition, who could control the movement of the mobile, should have explored objects more than the infants the control condition, who could not control the mobile's movement (Needham et al, 2014). However, there were no statistically significant differences in object exploration between the experimental and control groups.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characteristics of brief sticky mittens training that lead to increases in object exploration

Needham

Wiesen

Hejazi

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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The onset of independent prehension marks the beginning of infants' direct interaction with the physical world. The success infants have contacting objects with their hands and arms can have both visual and auditory consequences: objects may move and collide with other objects or fall onto table surfaces. Seeing and hearing these events could have important consequences for infants' learning about objects and their subsequent behavior towards objects. The current research assesses the effects of brief object manipulation experiences and how a specific characteristic of training, auditory feedback produced by hard plastic toys colliding with a tabletop surface, affects pre-reaching infants' subsequent object exploration. In Experiment 1, infants participated in either active “sticky” mittens training or passive “non-sticky” mittens training with a set of toys; before and after this experience, infants explored a teether. Results showed that infants participating in active training increased looking toward and sustained touching of the teether from pre- to post-training, whereas infants receiving passive training decreased their looking toward and touching of the teether following training. To investigate whether infants' exploration behaviors were related to the amount of auditory feedback produced by the objects during training, in Experiment 2 data were collected from infants who received active sticky mittens training that had either more or less auditory feedback potential. Results showed more robust increases in infants' exploratory activity from pre- to post-training in the more-auditory feedback condition compared to infants' exploratory activity in the less-auditory feedback condition. These findings support the idea that active control of objects, including experiencing contingent feedback through multiple sensory modalities, promotes the development of object exploration during early infancy

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of brief sticky mittens training that lead to increases in object exploration

Needham

Wiesen

Hejazi

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These movement experiences have been used as induced trainings to advance or enhance the amount and duration of object-directed manual behaviors in typically developing infants and at-risk infants over 1-2 brief-term sessions or daily sessions. In general, authors have suggested these trainings provide infants with opportunities to improve upper limb control 8,9,11 , select more efficient movement patterns 6,8,9,11 , become motivated and engaged 10,12 , and learn to couple object perception and movement action 6,10 . These trainings, therefore, can be considered interesting tools to potentiate early manual development in typical infants and to prevent or minimize manual impairment in infants at risk for developmental disorders during early intervention practice.…”

Section: What Did the Researchers Do And Find?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The other approach used to train infants' manual behavior was contingent reinforcement, in which infants were induced to notice the consequences their upper limbs' actions have on nearby objects by means of a mobile 12 or moving/sounding toys 11 . Active training moving a mobile with the arm during a single session of 9 minutes benefited the number of hand-toy contacts in pre-reaching typically developing infants 12 . Three-month-old infants' hand-toy contacts were also benefited from a daily 10-minute training actively boosting a sounding and moving toy with the hand over 2 weeks 11 .…”

Section: What Have These Studies Found?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of training influence on infant manual behavior: a systematic review

Nascimento

Tedesco

Soares

2019

jhgd

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Introduction: Researchers have widely investigated how interventions by means of training can improve manual behaviors in infants. However, no systematic review has been found on this topic. Objective: To analyze the quality of scientific evidence considering the methodological quality and level of evidence by type of study in research on training of object-directed manual behaviors in infants in the first 18 months of life. Methods: National Library of Medicine (PubMed/MEDLINE), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS), Virtual Health Library (BIREME/BVS), Science Direct, SciELO, and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) databases were used. Only clinical trials that assessed the benefits of manual object-directed training in infants and were published up to February 2018, in English, were included. The Cochrane Collaboration Model was adapted to extract bibliographical data from the articles and their methodological quality was assessed using the PEDro scale and the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine’s Levels of Evidence. Results: Twenty one clinical trials were included. Studies investigated typically developing full-term infants, preterm infants, and infants at risk for autism spectrum disorders. Trainings were administered to infants by means of “sticky mittens” paradigm, task-specific practice, or contingency reinforcement. Most of the studies presented fair or poor methodological quality. Only studies that used task-specific active practice presented high methodological quality. Conclusions: The results indicate there is high quality evidence that task-specific training improves object-directed manual behaviors in typically developing infants and preterm infants in the first 2-4 months of life. Studies addressing infants with established diagnoses of developmental dysfunction are lacking.

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“…67 Typically developing 3-month-old infants also exhibited increased reaching movements when provided with contingent reinforcement. 68 It is unknown whether these mechanisms will operate in a similar fashion for children with DS. Pending future evidence, early intervention services may be able to shape how children with DS respond to therapeutic tasks to increase their growth trajectory across multiple domains.…”

Section: Addressing Child Behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pursuing Precision Speech-Language Therapy Services for Children with Down Syndrome

McDaniel

Yoder

2016

Semin Speech Lang

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The behavioral phenotype of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) offers one avenue for developing speech-language therapy services that are tailored to the individual's characteristics that affect treatment response. Behavioral phenotypes are patterns of behavioral strengths and weaknesses for specific genetic disorders that can help guide the development and implementation of effective interventions. Nonetheless, individual differences within children with DS must be acknowledged and addressed because behavioral phenotypes are probabilistic, not deterministic. Developing precision speech-language therapy services to maximize learning opportunities and outcomes for children with DS calls for increased collaboration among clinicians and researchers to address the needs, challenges, and opportunities on three interconnected themes: (1) moving effective interventions from research to practice, (2) making evidence-based, child-specific treatment intensity decisions, and (3) considering child motivation and temperament characteristics. Increased availability of intervention materials and resources as well as more specific recommendations that acknowledge individual differences could help narrow the research-practice gap. Clear descriptions of disciplined manipulations of treatment intensity components could lead to more effective intervention services. Last, addressing motivation and temperament characteristics, such as the personality-motivation orientation, in children with DS may help maximize learning opportunities. Focused attention and collaboration on these key themes could produce substantial, positive changes for children with DS and their families in the coming decade.

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Effects of Contingent Reinforcement of Actions on Infants' Object‐Directed Reaching

Cited by 15 publications

References 70 publications

Characteristics of brief sticky mittens training that lead to increases in object exploration

Characteristics of brief sticky mittens training that lead to increases in object exploration

Evidence of training influence on infant manual behavior: a systematic review

Pursuing Precision Speech-Language Therapy Services for Children with Down Syndrome

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