How the Maturation of Postural Control Influences the Relationship between Postural Control and Fine Motor Skills in Infants at 5-7 Months Age

• Main Authors: Yan-Yu Chen, 陳彥予
• Other Authors: 王湉妮
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/67982093229047197318

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 職能治療研究所 === 102 === Introduction: Motor development is one of the most important parts in a child’s early development. In the clinics, therapists always assume that postural control has been related with fine motor skills when dealing with motor issues. Among the motor developmental theories, the neuronal group selection theory could explain the reason why the relationship between postural control and fine motor skills decreased with the maturation of the postural control in infant before 1 year old. However, previous studies finding the decreased relationship between postural control and fine motor skills had three main limitations: (1) the insufficient evaluating items of postural control and fine motor skills; (2) only the use of center of pressure (COP) and the electromyography (EMG) technique to investigate the relationship; (3) the insufficient sample sizes. Besides, the social factors would be considered to influence the relationship between postural control and fine motor skills. Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate: (1) the influence of the maturation of postural control in the relationship between postural control and fine motor skills in infants at 5-7 month age; (2) whether fine motor skills would be more predictable by the social factors such as the parent-child interaction, maternal education and occupational level in infants with more mature postural control than that in infants with less mature postural control. Methods: This study recruited participants from day-care centers and baby-care websites in north Taiwan. The postural control would be measured by the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS). Fine motor skills would be measured by the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales II (PDMS-2) and the Posture and Fine Motor Assessment of Infants (PFMAI). Social factors included in this study contained the parent-child interaction, maternal education and the parent’s occupational level. The scores of AIMS would be used to divide infants into two groups (infants with more mature postural control and infants with less mature postural control). Results: A total of 58 infants were examined at 5-7 months. The correlation coefficients between postural control and fine motor skills in infants with less mature postural control (r=.57 between the AIMS and the PDMS, and r=.52 between the AIMS and the PFMAI, p<0.05) were higher than that in infants with more mature postural control (r=.39 between the AIMS and the PDMS, and r=.41 between the AIMS and the PFMAI, p<0.1). The regression models showed that the social factors (parent-child interaction, maternal education and occupational level) could not predict fine motor skills in both groups. Discussion: The finding that the relationship between postural control and fine motor skills in infants with less mature postural control was higher than that in the infants with more mature postural control could be proven in this study. However, the social factors (parent-child interaction, maternal education and occupational level) could not predict fine motor skills due to the measure of parent-child interaction and small variation of educational level of participants’ parents. Conclusion: Further studies need to measure the quality of parent-child interaction instead of the quantity and focus on environmental factors (e.g. adequate toys) which might also have influence on the fine motor skills. The relationship between postural control and fine motor skills in infants with less mature postural control could provide implications when investigating and threating infants with motor delay.