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Outcomes and Hand Use of Reaching Attempts: Comparison of Infants at Risk for Developmental Disability and Infants

Nushka Remec1, Judy Zhou2, Joanne Shida-Tokeshi2

  • 1Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

Frontiers in Psychology
|June 21, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Infants at risk for developmental disabilities showed more missed reaches and less hand use variability during reaching development compared to typically developing infants. This highlights early motor differences for identifying developmental trajectories.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Motor Control
  • Infant Development

Background:

  • Infants at risk for developmental disabilities often exhibit motor delays.
  • Reaching is a key skill for identifying atypical motor development in infancy.
  • Previous research has not tracked infants at risk from pre-reaching to skilled reaching.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare reaching outcomes and hand use in infants at risk versus typically developing infants as reaching skill emerges.
  • To identify early differences in motor development related to reaching.
  • To inform the early identification of typical and atypical developmental trajectories.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of infants at risk (n=11) and typically developing infants (n=21).
  • Infants reached for a toy at midline while seated.
  • Video analysis coded reach outcomes (miss, touch, grasp) and hand use (right, left, bilateral).

Main Results:

  • Infants at risk demonstrated a higher proportion of missed reaches across study visits.
  • Infants at risk exhibited reduced variability in hand use during grasping.
  • These findings indicate significant differences in reaching performance and hand use patterns.

Conclusions:

  • Early differences in reaching performance can aid in identifying typical and atypical developmental trajectories.
  • Further research should investigate the nature of missed reaches and movement variability in at-risk infants.
  • This study provides foundational data for early detection of motor delays.
Abstract

Keywords:
developmental disabilitygrasphand useinfantreaching

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