Background
Gross motor milestones for children who develop typically have been well established; however, norms for children with Down syndrome (DS) are uncertain. Without a developmental schedule ...for the gross motor development of children with DS, medical professionals are limited in their ability to identify if the development of a particular child with DS is delayed in comparison with his or her peers (i.e. other children with DS), assess when intervention is needed and answer the questions of parents regarding when their child can be expected to achieve developmental milestones. The objectives of this study are to: (1) provide health care professionals and early intervention providers with longitudinal data on the gross motor development of children with DS gathered prospectively; (2) contribute to the development of a definitive schedule of gross motor development for children with DS; (3) enable the identification of gross motor development that is delayed in comparison with other children with DS; and (4) help medical professionals address the questions of concerned parents who are anxious to know when their child will achieve gross motor skills such as sitting, crawling or walking.
Methods
Longitudinal data on 44 defined gross motor skills were collected on a large cohort of children with DS (n = 509) who received care at two referral centres that specialise in DS. Mastery was awarded when skills were observed directly by the physical therapist. Clinical data were retrospectively reviewed from a prospective patient clinic database and analysed.
Results
Specific age of mastery of gross motor skills was assessed. The mean, standard deviation and median age in months of gross motor skill achievement for children with DS, along with the 5th, 25th, 75th and 95th percentiles, are provided for birth to walking skills and post walking skills. No statistically significant gender‐by‐age group difference was observed in the 44 skills.
Conclusions
This study provides a schedule of gross motor development for children with DS derived from data collected prospectively from a large population. The gross motor development of the child with DS can be assessed based on his or her performance relative to other children with DS enabling early identification of advanced, age appropriate or delayed development, allowing for appropriate referrals for targeted intervention.
Systems in Development Soska, Kasey C; Adolph, Karen E; Johnson, Scott P
Developmental psychology,
01/2010, Letnik:
46, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
How do infants learn to perceive the backs of objects that they see only from a limited viewpoint? Infants' 3-dimensional object completion abilities emerge in conjunction with developing motor ...skills-independent sitting and visual-manual exploration. Infants at 4.5 to 7.5 months of age (
n
= 28) were habituated to a limited-view object and tested with volumetrically complete and incomplete (hollow) versions of the same object. Parents reported infants' sitting experience, and infants' visual-manual exploration of objects was observed in a structured play session. Infants' self-sitting experience and visual-manual exploratory skills predicted looking at the novel, incomplete object on the habituation task. Further analyses revealed that self-sitting facilitated infants' visual inspection of objects while they manipulated them. The results are framed within a developmental systems approach, wherein infants' sitting skill, multimodal object exploration, and object knowledge are linked in developmental time.
This study focuses on how the body schema develops during the first months of life, by investigating infants’ motor responses to localized vibrotactile stimulation on their limbs. Vibrotactile ...stimulation was provided by small buzzers that were attached to the infants’ four limbs one at a time. Four age groups were compared cross‐sectionally (3‐, 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐month‐olds). We show that before they actually reach for the buzzer, which, according to previous studies, occurs around 7–8 months of age, infants demonstrate emerging knowledge about their body's configuration by producing specific movement patterns associated with the stimulated body area. At 3 months, infants responded with an increase in general activity when the buzzer was placed on the body, independently of the vibrator's location. Differentiated topographical awareness of the body seemed to appear around 5 months, with specific responses resulting from stimulation of the hands emerging first, followed by the differentiation of movement patterns associated with the stimulation of the feet. Qualitative analyses revealed specific movement types reliably associated with each stimulated location by 6 months of age, possibly preparing infants’ ability to actually reach for the vibrating target. We discuss this result in relation to newborns’ ability to learn specific movement patterns through intersensory contingency.
Statement of contribution
what is already known on infants’ sensorimotor knowledge about their own bodies
3‐month‐olds readily learn to produce specific limb movements to obtain a desired effect (movement of a mobile).
infants detect temporal and spatial correspondences between events involving their own body and visual events.
what the present study adds
until 4–5 months of age, infants mostly produce general motor responses to localized touch.
this is because in the present study, infants could not rely on immediate contingent feedback.
we propose a cephalocaudal developmental trend of topographic differentiation of body areas.
Aim
The impact of prenatal folic acid on children's neurodevelopment and the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear and this review and meta‐analysis aimed to quantify any ...associations.
Methods
We systematically searched PubMed, Scopus and The Cochrane Library until June 2018 with no language restrictions. Standardised mean differences and odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals are used to describe any associations between folic acid and mental development, motor development and ASD.
Results
The search strategy identified 647 papers and 16 were finally included in the meta‐analysis after the application of the exclusion criteria. These provided a total cohort size of 756 365 children aged 11 months to 15 years from 10 countries. The main finding was that prenatal use of folic acid was associated with a 58% reduction in the risk of ASD in children. We were surprised that better scores for mental development were associated with low prenatal exposure to folic acid.
Conclusion
Although the results should be interpreted with caution, they showed that routine prenatal supplements of folic acid were associated with significantly lower levels of ASD. Further studies are needed to reach a firm conclusion, given the multifactorial aetiology of neurodevelopment.
Infants acquire the ability to roll over from the supine to the prone position, which requires body coordination of multiple degrees of freedom under dynamic interactions with the ground. Although ...previous studies on infant rolling observed kinematic characteristics, little is known about the kinetic characteristics of body segments in contact with the surface. We measured the ground contact pressure under the arms, legs, head, and proximal body segments using a pressure mat and their displacements using a three-dimensional motion capture system. The data obtained from 17 infants aged 9–10 months indicated that most of them showed 2–4 of 6 highly observed movement patterns, including 1 axial rolling, 2 spinal flexion, and 3 shoulder girdle leading patterns. The arms and legs had small contributions to the ground contact pressure in the axial rolling and spinal flexion patterns. The ipsilateral leg in relation to the rolling direction was involved in supporting the body weight in only 1 shoulder girdle leading pattern. The contralateral leg showed large peak pressure to push on the floor before rolling in 3 shoulder girdle leading patterns. The results indicate that infants can produce multiple rolling-over patterns with different strategies to coordinate their body segments and interact with the floor. The results of the analysis of the movement patterns further suggest that few patterns correspond to those reported in adults. This implies that infants generate unique motor patterns by taking into account their own biomechanical constraints.
Purpose: Understanding if children hold stereotypes about motor skills, may partially explain differences in object control performance between young boys and girls. Therefore, the purpose of this ...study was to examine whether young boys and girls held stereotypes related to object control skills. Methods: Children (N = 84) ages three years four months to five years seven months (Mage = 4.6 years, SD = .58) completed the Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition and a modified version of the Children's Occupations, Activities and Traits Measure. Spearman Rho correlations examined associations between children's stereotypes and actual object control skills performance. We then examined differences between boys' and girls' gender stereotypes (three for each category) and object control skills via independent samples t-tests. Results: Results showed significant associations between gender stereotypes toward object control skills and actual object control skills for girls (ρ = −.31-−.53, p < .05) but not for boys (ρ = .10-.14, p > .05). Concurrently, girls showed significantly lower object control skills than boys (t82 = 2.01; p = .042, d = .44) as well as significantly higher gender stereotypes across all three categories (p < .05, d = .54-1.77). Conclusion: These data indicated that girls, not boys, held gender stereotypes about object control skills in concert with lower object control skill performances. Future research should evaluate the impacts of an integrated gross motor intervention which seeks to change gender stereotypes and concurrently improve object control skill performance.
Lower fine motor performance in childhood has been associated with poorer cognitive development and neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, yet, biological underpinnings ...remain unclear. DNA methylation (DNAm), an essential process for healthy neurodevelopment, is a key molecular system of interest. In this study, we conducted the first epigenome-wide association study of neonatal DNAm with childhood fine motor ability and further examined the replicability of epigenetic markers in an independent cohort. The discovery study was embedded in Generation R, a large population-based prospective cohort, including a subsample of 924 ~ 1026 European-ancestry singletons with available data on DNAm in cord blood and fine motor ability at a mean (SD) age of 9.8 (0.4) years. Fine motor ability was measured using a finger-tapping test (3 subtests including left-, right-hand and bimanual), one of the most frequently used neuropsychological instruments of fine motor function. The replication study comprised 326 children with a mean (SD) age of 6.8 (0.4) years from an independent cohort, the INfancia Medio Ambiente (INMA) study. Four CpG sites at birth were prospectively associated with childhood fine motor ability after genome-wide correction. Of these, one CpG (cg07783800 in GNG4) was replicated in INMA, showing that lower levels of methylation at this site were associated with lower fine motor performance in both cohorts. GNG4 is highly expressed in the brain and has been implicated in cognitive decline. Our findings support a prospective, reproducible association between DNAm at birth and fine motor ability in childhood, pointing to GNG4 methylation at birth as a potential biomarker of fine motor ability.
Growth, maturation, and development dominate the daily lives of children and adolescents for approximately the first 2 decades of life. Growth and maturation are biological processes, while ...development is largely a behavioral process. The 3 processes occur simultaneously and interact. They can be influenced by physical activity and also can influence activity, performance, and fitness. Allowing for these potential interactions, 10 questions on growth and maturation that have relevance to physical activity, performance, and fitness are presented. The questions are not mutually exclusive and address several broadly defined topical areas: exercise and growth, body weight status (body mass index, adiposity rebound, "unhealthy weight gain"), movement proficiency (hypothesized barrier, role in obesity), individual differences, tracking, maturity-associated variation in performance, and corresponding variation in physical activity. Central to the discussion of each is the need for a biocultural approach recognizing the interactions of biology and behavior as potential influences on the variables of interest.
Objective
In monogenic diabetes due to KCNJ11 and ABCC8 mutations that impair KATP‐ channel function, sulfonylureas improve long‐term glycemic control. Although KATP channels are extensively ...expressed in the brain, the effect of sulfonylureas on neurological function has varied widely. We evaluated published evidence about potential effects of sulfonylureas on neurological features, especially epilepsy, cognition, motor function and muscular tone, visuo‐motor integration, and attention deficits in children and adults with KCNJ11 and ABCC8‐related neonatal‐onset diabetes mellitus.
Research Design and Methods
We conducted a systematic review and meta‐analyses of the literature (PROSPERO, CRD42021254782), including individual‐patient data, according to PRISMA, using RevMan software. We also graded the level of evidence.
Results
We selected 34 of 776 publications. The evaluation of global neurological function before and after sulfonylurea (glibenclamide) treatment in 114 patients yielded a risk difference (RD) of 58% (95%CI, 43%–74%; I2 = 54%) overall and 73% (95%CI, 32%–113%; I2 = 0%) in the subgroup younger than 4 years; the level of evidence was moderate and high, respectively. EEG studies of epilepsy showed a RD of 56% (95%CI, 23%–89%; I2 = 34%) in patients with KCNJ11 mutations, with a high quality of evidence. For hypotonia and motor function, the RDs were 90% (95%CI, 69%–111%; I2 = 0%) and 73% (95%CI, 35%–111%; I2 = 0%), respectively, with a high level of evidence.
Conclusions
Glibenclamide significantly improved neurological abnormalities in patients with neonatal‐onset diabetes due to KCNJ11 or ABCC8 mutations. Hypotonia was the symptom that responded best. Earlier treatment initiation was associated with greater benefits.
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