Early intervention programmes for preterm infants have a positive influence on cognitive and motor outcomes during infancy, with the cognitive benefits persisting into pre-school age. There is a great deal of heterogeneity between studies due to the variety of early developmental intervention programmes trialled and gestational ages of the preterm infants included, which limits the comparisons of intervention programmes. Further research is needed to determine which early developmental interventions are the most effective at improving cognitive and motor outcomes, and on the longer-term effects of these programmes.
Developmental intervention program for high-risk premature infants: effects on development and parent-infant interactions.
Developmental follow-up studies have documented that low birth weight infants are at high risk for mental and physical disabilities, despite recent advances in neonatal intensive care. Moreover, parent-infant bonding is hampered by the barriers created by technical equipment. This study evaluated a program of hospital and home-based developmental interventions designed to enhance the development of high-risk, preterm infants and the quality of communication between infants and their caregivers. Treatment and contrast groups consisted of 41 premature infants weighing less than 1800 g at birth. Treatment took a preventive approach, consisting of daily multimodal interventions in-hospital and twice-monthly interventions by child development specialists in the child's home, through 12 months adjusted age. Infants in the contrast group received traditional, remedially oriented care. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development were used to measure mental and psychomotor development, and the Greenspan-Lieberman Observations System (GLOS) was used to analyze the behavioral characteristics of infant-caregiver interactions. Developmental interventions had positive, significant effects on mental development and on the quality of caregiver-infant interactions. Changes in mental development were not independent of changes in the GLOS.