The Effects of a Different Exteroceptive Experience on the Early Motor Repertoire in Infants With Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal abnormality among the new-borns and characterized by the cognitive deficits, hypotonia, motor developmental and sensory function problems. The somatosensory system disorder such as touch, proprioception, pain and temperature may be seen in these infants and children. There is a delayed peripheral conduction of the stimulus and delayed cerebral processing may cause the abnormal tactile perception response. In the earliest period of life General Movements (GMs), a gestalt-based observation method is one of the most reliable and valid predictors of neurological dysfunction, and it is widely used. GMs occur in age-specific patterns and are described as fidgety movements between from 3 to 5 months in the post-term age. We did the GMs assessment on two different surfaces in the infants with DS and typically infants on the same day, and therefore assumed that determining the fidgety movements and the concurrent movement would enable to us observe the effect of extroceptive stimulation on the fidgety movements and the concurrent movement.

The aim of this study was to investigate the following questions: (i) are fidgety movements and the concurrent motor repertoire of infants with DS depending on different surfaces?, (ii) do fidgety movements and the concurrent motor repertoire change in neurotypical infants depending on the different surface?, and (iii), what are the differences between infants with DS and neurotypical infants?.