Effectiveness of a Training Program for Parents of Babies in Their First Year of Life to Achieve Motor Milestones

Effectiveness of a Training Program for Parents of Babies in Their First Year of Life to Achieve Motor Milestones

this study compares motor development of two groups of healthy term babies at the end of their first year of life. Parents of the intervention group have received a training program consisting in advices about correct positions, stimuli, how to play or how to carry their babies. The purpose of this study is to know if motor development can be improved by the environment.

Infants in both groups are recruited by the principal investigator at the hospital within two to three days after birth. An initial assessment was carried out at 2 months of age.

Intervention group:

1. Four training sessions (before the baby is 1 month old, at 3 months, at 6, and at 9 months old) teaching the main motor milestones to get in the next 3 months and how to help infants with the correct stimuli, positions or plays; triptychs containing the main points explained at the session and links to short videos about the given bits of advice.
2. Three evaluations of motor milestones at 9, 12, and 15 months old.

Control group:

1. Three evaluations of motor milestones at 9, 12, and 15 months old.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy-term infants
• Male and female
• Apgar score of at least 7 in the first minute and at five minutes.
• Natural or cesarean birth
• Absence of congenital malformations or orthopedic injury
• Absence of known congenital or genetic pathology
• Normal neurological medical examination of the newborn at hospital discharge.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Newborns who have required hospitalization before being enrolled.
• Multiple births