The effect of additional weight load on infant reaching

Rocha, Nelci Adriana Cicuto Ferreira; Costa, Carolina Souza Neves da; Savelsbergh, Geert Jp; Tudella, Eloísa

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2008.12.012

Cited by 15 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This result is not in line with the study by Rocha et al (2009), in which it was found that a weight of 10% the arm mass did not influence the grasping movement in full-term infants. The authors concluded that the amount of weight used was insufficient to change the dynamics of this variable.…”

Section: Graspingcontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…There is a consensus in literature that additional weight leads to increased neural activation (Fleck & Kraemer, 2004;Rocha et al, 2009;Thelen, Skala, & Kelso, 1987) by increasing the motor units involved in the action to support the additional weight, thus leading to increased muscle fiber recruitment. A fact that remains unclear in literature is how much weight is required for the neural activation caused by the additional weight to modify the reaching parameters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the main approaches concerns how full-term infants adjust their movements when submitted to context manipulations such as change of body orientation (Carvalho, Tudella, & Savelsbergh, 2007), different physical properties of objects (Rocha, Silva, & Tudella, 2006), and use of additional weight (Out, Savelsbergh, Van Soest, & Hopkins, 1997;Rocha, Costa, Savelsbergh, & Tudella, 2009). Additional weight has a great clinical relevance because it helps in better understanding the complex adaptability of the infant's motor system to environmental influences, besides its therapeutic applicability.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additional weight has been used in different motor skills such as kicking (Chen, Fetters, Holt, & Saltzman, 2002;Thelen et al, 1987;Vaal, Van Soest, Hopkins, & Sie, 2002), gait (Adolph & Avolio, 2000), fidgety movements (Dibiasi & Einspieler, 2004), and reaching (Out et al, 1997;Rocha et al, 2009;Van der Fits & Hadders-Algra, 1998). Despite the growing interest in the effects of weight on different motor skills of healthy infants, there is still no consensus in literature about its real effects.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Additional Weight Influences the Reaching Behavior of Low-Risk Preterm Infants

Toledo

Soares

Tudella

2012

Journal of Motor Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The authors investigated the influence of additional weight in the reaching behavior of preterm infants. Nine low-risk preterm and 10 full-term infants age 5-7 months participated. A toy was presented in two procedures: (a) baseline and (b) additional weight (bracelet with weight of 20% of the infant's upper limb mass). The additional weight reduced the straightness index at 5 months, increased the mean velocity and decreased the movement units at all months, and increased unsuccessful grasps at 5 and 7 months in preterm infants. Preterm infants showed less movement units at all months and less unsuccessful grasps at 6 months compared with full-term infants. Weight disturbance seems to change the intrinsic dynamics involved in reaching movements of 5-7-month-old preterm infants.

show abstract

Section: Graspingcontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Additional Weight Influences the Reaching Behavior of Low-Risk Preterm Infants

Toledo

Soares

Tudella

2012

Journal of Motor Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…According to the dynamic system approach, motor behavior is shaped by the interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic factors ( Thelen, 1989( Thelen, , 1995Thelen & Smith, 1994 ). Consequently, extrinsic disturbances such as additional weight load attached to the upper limbs may infl uence the possibilities of actions on objects ( Thelen, Skala, & Kelso, 1987;Out, Savelsbergh, van Soest, & Hopkins, 1997;Rocha, Costa, Savelsbergh, & Tudella, 2009 ), such as increasing errors and dropping or hindering movements, as the limb is heavier, which may favor learning of how to control actions on objects that weigh more.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Weight Load Added to Wrists on Manual Non-Exploratory and Exploratory Behaviors in Infants

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Investigating manual actions when infants' upper limbs are heavier can provide information on whether mechanical forces can influence the early ability of exploring grasped objects. This study assessed whether additional weight load affected typical infants' manual non-exploratory and exploratory behaviors. Ten healthy full-term infants were evaluated longitudinally at 5, 6, and 7 months of age. They were tested consecutively without weight and with a weight of 20% of the total upper limb mass (M = 74.7-85.3 g) attached to their wrists while seated in a baby chair. During each condition, a malleable rubber object was presented atinfant's midline to elicit reaching, grasping, and object exploration for 2 min. Reactions were recorded using three digital cameras. Behaviors were coded as non-exploratory (dropping) and manual exploratory behaviors (waving, banging, rotating, alternating and mouthing) and were computed by frequencies of their occurrence. The analyses indicated that the frequency of dropping increased in the weight condition independent of age. This indicates that the non-exploratory behavior was affected by the load disturbance imposed by the additional weight.

show abstract