Infant motor development and equipment use in the home

Forty-three mother-infant dyads were recruited to determine the relationship between both total equipment use and the use of individual pieces of equipment and infant motor development. At 8 months of age, total and individual equipment use was determined by parental survey and infant motor development was assessed using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. Statistically significant correlations were found for the relationships between total equipment use and infant motor development (r = -0.50, P = 0.001) and individual pieces of equipment [exersaucer (r = -0.58, P = 0.001), highchair (r = -0.32, P = 0.04), and infant seat (r = -0.32, P = 0.03)] and infant motor development. These findings suggest that infants who have high equipment use tend to score lower on infant motor development or that infants who have low equipment use tend to score higher on infant motor development. Limitations of this cross-sectional study make it difficult to determine causality between these constructs. If equipment use is found to be causally related to infant motor development and predictive of later motor development in a future prospective study, parental education emphasizing the moderate use of equipment within the home environment might be warranted.