The effect of early intensive posural and movementtraining on head control, pre-reaching movements and early reaching behaviors

The current project investigated the effects of early postural and movement experiences on young infants' head control, pre-reaching movements and early reaching behaviors through multi-level measurements beginning when infants were 1 month old through when they were 4 months old. Results from the current project revealed that infants with training demonstrated more advanced head control and early reaching behaviors. Infants with training also displayed different control in pre-reaching movements which led to earlier successful reaching. Specifically, the training effects (1) were rapid; (2) widely spread across multiple variables and contexts; (3) continued months after training ended; and (4) displayed interesting sequential patterns. In head control, results showed that infants with training kept demonstrated better head control through out the period of investigation and used more advanced movement strategies for active head control after training stopped. In pre-reaching movements, results showed that infants with training had faster and smoother movements during training, different joint orientation from infants without training leading to successful reaching after training stopped, and continued moving hands more forward and closer to a midline toy from training period to reach onset. The training also displayed effects with temporal to spatial and proximal to distal patterns in arm kinematics. In addition, the training showed effects on both movements with and without the presence of a midline toy. These findings suggested that with training, infants further adapted pre-reaching movements that resulted in more advanced early reaching behaviors with earlier reaching onset, more toy contacts and longer contact duration. Results from the current project strongly support the importance of early experiences on the development of head control and reaching. Future work will quantify the effect of early postural and movement experiences on infants born at high risk for lifelong movement impairments such as those born preterm and with brain injuries.