Lobo, M, Galloway, JC, Savelsbergh, G; Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, NL & The University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. malobo@udel.edu.

PURPOSE: Previous reports suggest that young infants can reach with their feet earlier than with their hands. Movement training is a common pediatric intervention, however little is known about its effect on initial reaching skills. The purpose of this project was to determine the effects of specific and general movement training on hand and feet reaching in typically-developing infants. SUBJECTS: Thirty 8- to 12-week-old typically-developing fullterm infants completed the study after random assignment to 1 of 3 groups: no training (NT), general training (GT), or specific training (ST). METHODS/MATERIALS: Pre- and post-test laboratory sessions were separated by 14 days. Each session, infants were secured in a custom chair that rotated into supine or vertical. Six high-speed cameras (100Hz) tracked markers on the toy, hands, and feet. In sitting and supine, infants were provided 15 twelve-second opportunities to reach for a stationary toy at midline at shoulder or hip level. Families of training group infants performed 20 minutes of daily movement training. GT group infants were encouraged to increase limb movements in association with reinforcement from moving toys. ST group infants were provided specific passive and active reaching practice. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS: Repeated-measures ANOVAs (µ =0.05) were used to compare hand, foot, and total (hand+foot) contacts between the groups. The first ANOVA compared ST and GT, suggesting ST tended to have greater hand contacts (1, 18, p=0.25, w ²=0.02). ST and GT were then combined into a Training Group (TG). TG displayed more total contacts (1,28, p=0.04, w ²=0.11) and tended to have greater numbers of both hand (1,28, p=0.08, w ²=0.09) and foot (1,28, p=0.16, w ²=0.03) contacts than NT. Individual infant data suggest ST and GT may have had different effects, because ST displayed more hand contacts (1,18, p=0.03, w ²=0.13) while GT tended to display more foot contacts (1,18, p=0.11, w ²=0.08) than NT. At the pre-test visit, 77% of infants had foot contacts while only 20% had hand contacts. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggest: 1.) Movement training in typically-developing infants as young as 8-weeks of age can result in increased interaction with toys. 2.) Training may affect foot and hand reaching in different ways. 3.) Younger infants more readily contact a midline toy with their feet than with their hands. 4.) Future work will expand upon this to study the effects of long-term movement training to advance reaching skills in infants with developmental delay. FUNDING SOURCE: Partially funded by a Foundation for Physical Therapy PODS I scholarship to M. Lobo.

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