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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
Published on: June 1, 2015
Infants born full term and preterm increase the height of anti-gravity leg movements during a kick-activated mobile
Jeong Ah Kim1, Linda Fetters1, Masayoshi Kubo2
1Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Insights
Infants born very preterm (PT) learned a motor task involving kicking to activate a mobile, but required an extra day compared to full-term (FT) infants. This shows PT infants can learn challenging motor skills with appropriate support.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Motor Learning
- Neonatal Research
Background:
- Infants born very preterm (PT) exhibit early differences in learning rates and motor control compared to full-term (FT) infants.
- These differences may impede the acquisition of complex motor skills.
- Understanding PT infant motor learning is crucial for early intervention strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the motor learning capabilities of very preterm (PT) infants in a challenging task.
- To compare the learning trajectories of PT and FT infants in a mobile-activation task.
- To determine if scaffolding enhances motor learning in PT infants.
Main Methods:
- Four-month-old infants, 18 FT and 18 PT, participated in a kick-activated mobile task.
- The task was scaffolded to encourage progressively higher kicks.
- Learning was assessed by the ability to associate leg movements with mobile activation and increased kick height.
Main Results:
- The full-term (FT) group learned the task association on day 2.
- The very preterm (PT) group learned the task association on day 3.
- Both groups demonstrated increased kick height upon learning the task, compared to baseline.
Conclusions:
- Infants born very preterm (PT) possess the capacity to learn challenging motor tasks.
- Scaffolding in task environments supports and facilitates motor learning in PT infants.
- Early motor differences in PT infants do not preclude learning complex skills with appropriate support.
Abstract:
Prior research supports that infants born very preterm (PT), compared with full term (FT), have early differences in rate of learning and motor control that may hinder their ability to learn challenging motor tasks. Four-month-old infants born FT (n = 18) and PT (n = 18) participated in an infant kick-activated mobile task that was scaffolded to motivate progressively higher kicks. We found the FT group learned the association between their leg movements and mobile activation on the second day, but the PT group learned the association on the third day. Both groups of infants increased the height of their kicks on the day they learned the task, compared with their spontaneous kicking height. These findings suggest that infants born PT have the ability to learn challenging motor tasks, such as kicking high, when participating in a task environment that uses scaffolding.
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