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Updated: Aug 1, 2026
Clinical Practice Protocol of Creative Music Therapy for Preterm Infants and Their Parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Published on: January 7, 2020
Insights
Early infant stimulation may help prevent disabilities in premature infants. While research gaps exist, stimulated infants show better sensorimotor and developmental outcomes compared to controls.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal development
- Developmental disabilities
- Infant intervention
Background:
- Prematurity is linked to developmental disabilities.
- Current infant stimulation programs lack ecological understanding.
- Assumptions about sensory deprivation and arbitrary stimulation methods are common.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review existing infant stimulation programs for premature infants.
- To identify knowledge gaps in the ecology of premature infants.
- To guide future research and intervention strategies.
Main Methods:
- Review of experimental infant stimulation programs.
- Analysis of methodological and outcome assessment challenges.
- Examination of assumptions regarding premature infant sensory experience.
Main Results:
- Stimulated premature infants demonstrated higher performance in sensorimotor and developmental measures compared to control groups.
- Despite methodological limitations, a positive trend favoring stimulation was observed.
- Significant variability exists in stimulation techniques and their underlying ecological assumptions.
Conclusions:
- Future research must define the premature infant's environment and processing capacities.
- Intervention studies should adopt rigorous designs, such as the Solomon and Lessac (1968) 4-group design.
- Further investigation is needed to optimize stimulation protocols for preventing disabilities in premature infants.
Abstract:
Stimulation has been given to young infants to prevent the development disabilities often associated with prematurity. A review of these experimental programs reveals a lack of knowledge as to the ecology of the premature infant. This is indicated in the assumption that premature infants are sensorily deprived and by the arbitrary differences in the nature of stimulation techniques. Despite various problems in methodological and outcome assessment, stimulated infants tend to perform at higher levels than control-group infants on measures of sensorimotor and development. It is suggested that future research should be directed toward specifying the environment and processing capacities of the premature infant, and that intervention studies should make use of the 4-group design proposed by Solomon and Lessac (1968).
