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

Mariagrazia Zuccarini1, Annalisa Guarini1, Silvia Savini1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

Frontiers in Psychology
|July 17, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Early gross motor skills in infants are linked to later motor and cognitive development. Repeated assessments in extremely low gestational age infants are crucial for early intervention.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Neuroscience
  • Infant Motor Development

Background:

  • Neonatal status, including extremely low gestational age (ELGA) versus full-term (FT) birth, can impact infant development.
  • Early motor and cognitive skills are foundational for later developmental trajectories.
  • Understanding the relationship between early skills and later outcomes is critical for timely interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the relationship between 6-month motor and cognitive skills and 12-month outcomes in infants.
  • To identify predictive factors for motor and cognitive delay at 12 months of age.
  • To control for neonatal status (ELGA vs. FT) and 6-month cognitive skills in the analysis.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study assessing 40 infants (20 ELGA, 20 FT) at 6 and 12 months corrected age.
  • Evaluated gross and fine motor skills, and cognitive development at both time points.
  • Statistical analysis to determine relationships and predictive values, controlling for covariates.

Main Results:

  • Six-month gross motor skills significantly predicted 12-month gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and cognitive development.
  • Early gross motor skills at 6 months predicted gross motor delay at 12 months.
  • Six-month cognitive skills and neonatal status uniquely contributed to explaining variance in 12-month gross motor and cognitive skills, respectively.

Conclusions:

  • Early gross motor skills have cascading effects on subsequent motor and cognitive development.
  • Repeated assessment of gross motor skills in ELGA infants during the first year is recommended.
  • Early identification and intervention for motor delays in high-risk infants can improve developmental outcomes.

Keywords:
cognitive developmentextremely preterm infantsfirst year of lifegross motor skillsmotor development

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