An early Premalocom 2 intervention involving parents to stimulate the neonatal crawling of their very premature infant
Type de matériel :
73
The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility, involving parents, of an intervention stimulating the neonatal crawling of their premature infants at high risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. Methods: Seventeen very premature infants born between twenty-four and thirty-two weeks’ gestation were selected to be trained at home by their parents, with the help of clinicians, to stimulate their crawling ability on a mini-skateboard, the Crawliskate, for ten minutes a day for eight consecutive weeks, from their discharge from the hospital until they were two months old (corrected age). The feasibility of the protocol was assessed on the basis of the parents’ compliance with the training program and on the infant’s ability to perform active propulsion during these sessions. Although five of the children had to withdraw from the program on health grounds or because of problems encountered by their parents, the results obtained from twelve subjects reveal a relatively good level of compliance, and that 65 percent of the sessions were completed overall (37 percent were completed by parents; 28 percent were completed by health professionals). The lower the socio-economic level of the parents, the lower the compliance rate (r=0.75, p<0.01). On the whole, parents adhered well to the requested duration of ten minutes per day (average of 8.8 minutes). In addition, despite their fragility, children were able to propel themselves forward across long distances using the Crawliskate (average of seven meters per session), whether the sessions were led by parents or health professionals. However, these distances were highly variable between individuals and between different sessions, and increased with the infants’ level of excitability (r=0,75, p<0,01) and the parents’ level of stress (r=0.67, p<0.02). Conclusion: This study identifies several important factors for the future inclusion of other subjects, namely: 1) potentially delaying the start of the intervention until two to three weeks after discharge from intensive care for difficult clinical or family cases; 2) extending the duration of the intervention to twelve to fourteen weeks to increase the number of sessions; 3) offering additional support and guidance to parents encountering difficulties with the training program.
Réseaux sociaux