Motor Training for Infants With Cerebral Palsy

Motor Training Intervention for Infants at High-Risk for Cerebral Palsy: Feasibility and Acceptability

The intervention in this study, Let's Move, is a motor intervention for infants at risk for cerebral palsy. We will test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention as well as preliminary effectiveness.

The aims of this study are to test the feasibility, acceptability, and operationalize a novel motor intervention, called "Let's Move" delivered using a combined clinic and home (video telehealth) therapy model.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age at enrollment: between 3-8 months corrected age

• Caregivers fluent in English

• Preterm infants with objectively defined severe diffuse white matter abnormality on MRI at term OR

• High-risk infants (e.g., preterm, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, perinatal stroke) with moderate-severe injury on structural MRI or cranial ultrasound (e.g., basal ganglia/thalamic signal intensity, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, encephalomalacia, large stroke, and/or severe intraventricular/periventricular hemorrhage) at around term-equivalent age or before Neonatal Intensive Care Unit discharge AND either:

  • "Absent" fidgety movements based on the Prechtl General Movement Assessment (GMA) between 3-4 months corrected age OR
  • A score of 56 or below on the Hammersmith Infant Neuromotor Examination (HINE) between 3-6 months corrected age (31)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Medical conditions that restrict active participation such as oxygen dependence
• Infants with significant visual deficits defined by the inability to track an object horizontally
• Living in a remote location prohibiting drives to the hospital every other week.