Motor trajectories of preterm and full‐term infants in the first year of life

Abstract

Background: Motor development occurs throughout periods of motor skill acquisition, adjustment and variability. The objectives of this study were to analyze and compare biological and health characteristics and motor skill acquisition trajectories in preterm and full-term infants during the first year of life. Methods: Two thousand, five hundred and seventy-nine infants (1,361 preterm) from 22 states were assessed using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. Multivariate General Linear Model, t-tests, ANOVA, and Tukey tests were used. Results: An age 9 group significant interaction was found for motor scores. On follow-up tests full-term infants had higher scores in prone, supine, sitting and standing postures that require trunk control from 9 to 10 months of age; although this advantage was observed for sitting from the second month of life. Conclusion: During the first trimester of life, preterm infants have higher scores in the supine and standing postures. Regarding motor trajectories, from newborn to 12 months, the period of higher motor acquisition was similar between full-term and preterm infants for prone (3-10 months), supine (1-6 months), and standing (6-12 months). For the sitting posture, however, full-term infants had a period of intensive motor learning of acquisition from the first to 7 months of life, whereas for preterm infants a shorter period was observed (3-7 months). Conclusion: Although the periods of higher motor acquisition were similar, full-term infants had higher scores in more control-demanding postures. Intervention for preterm infants needs to extend beyond the first months of life, and include guidance to parents to promote motor development strategies to achieve control in the higher postures.

Maternal Folic Acid-Containing Supplement Use in Relation to Offspring Motor Function. A Prospective Study of 503 Mother-Child Dyads

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Do 6-Month Motor Skills Have Cascading Effects on 12-Month Motor and Cognitive Development in Extremely Preterm and Full-Term Infants?

“…Therefore, detecting motor delay at an early stage, and, in particular, motor delays in gross motor skills, and implementing effective interventions could reduce the impact of impaired early motor skills on later development, both within the motor domain, and across other domains ( Spittle et al, 2008 ). As underscored recently, interventions on preterm infants should be carried out beyond the first months of life and should include guidelines for parents and caregivers on motor development ( Valentini et al, 2019 ). Along these lines, a meta-analysis by Spittle et al (2012) suggested that interventions focusing on preterm infants (e.g., physiotherapy), and their parents (e.g., parent–infant relationships) had a positive impact on motor development and cognitive development, improving outcomes in these domains during infancy and preschool age.…”

Motor development in non-microcephalic infants born to mothers with Zika Virus infection during pregnancy

“…Many studies describe developmental outcomes among infants born with microcephaly whose mothers were infected by ZIKV during pregnancy 12,[16][17][18] . Yet, little is known about these children's long-term development, raising concern particularly for their mothers [19][20][21] .…”

“…We obtained raw scores by centile ranks, concerning infant's age and total score (abnormal if lower than 5 th ; suspected if between 5 th and 25 th ; typical if above 25 th ) 16 . The test took on average 20 minutes per child and was recorded for further analysis of children's motor performance in the four positions.…”