Elsevier

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 19, Issue 3, July–September 1996, Pages 295-307
Infant Behavior and Development

Motor behavioral cues of term and preterm infants at 3 months

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90030-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Motor behaviors are interpreted as “cues” to levels of engagement or arousal in newborn infants. However, construct validity of these behaviors as cues among infants with differing medical histories has not been adequately addressed beyond the neonatal period. This study compared patterns of occurence in motor behaviors frequently interpreted as cues in full-term infants (n = 30) and three diagnostic groups of preterm infants (n = 62) at 3 months corrected age. A computerized real-time coding system was used for video analysis during standard infant-mother and temperament assessment protocols. Composites representing frequencies and durations of engagement, disengagement, facial expression, and midline behaviors were compared between groups using ANOVA with contrasts. Engagement and disengagement behaviors were represented equally among the groups. Behaviors associated with midline activity highlighted differences between infants with and without neurological involvement, whereas smiling differentiated healthy preterm infants or term infants from those with a history of illness or neurological involvement.

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      These differences emerged when looking at actions that reflect high complexity of engagement. For individual elements such as social gaze (Hsu and Jeng, 2008), smiling (De Schuymer et al., 2011b), motor engagement actions (Bigsby et al., 1996; De Schuymer et al., 2011b) and vocalisations (De Schuymer et al., 2011b), no differences were seen between preterm and term infants’ behaviours. However, preterm infants showed a reduction in composite measures of “re-engagement behaviours” (d = 0.48−0.9) at three months (Provenzi et al., 2017) and nine months (De Schuymer et al., 2011a); and an age by group interaction in combined variables of “smiling while gazing” and “vocalising whilst gazing” at three, six and nine months, suggesting different developmental growth patterns between term and preterm children, but no clear trajectory (De Schuymer et al., 2011b).

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    ∗

    R.B. is currently at the Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI. This study was completed in partial fulfillment of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Science, Sargent College of Allied Health Professions, Boston University, Boston, MA, and was supported in part by a grant to Sargent College from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Maternal and Child Health Services, by student research Grant 4680-105 provided by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation, and by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grants R01-HD10889 and R01-HD21013. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Jennifer Audette in the data collection and of Linda Tickle-Degnen in analysis and interpretation of the data.

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