| Summary: | Literature (Beck, 1986:96; Beaver & Brewster, 2002:132; Piaget et al., 2009:1) indicates that the first two
years of a baby’s life is a critical period for development. This period is seen as windows of opportunity
for development. There is still controversy in the literature regarding if baby stimulation helps babies to
reach their neuro-motor development milestones faster, and which type of stimulation is the most
advantageous, namely group stimulation or individual stimulation.
The first objective of this study was to determine the effect of different methods of stimulation on the
motor development of babies between the ages of 3 – 9 months, and secondly to determine what the
effect of stimulation administered by a primary caregiver have on the motor development of babies
between the ages of 3 – 9 months.
A pretest-posttest design was used based on an available random sample where the effect of motor
stimulation in different stimulation groups was tested. For objective 1 the babies (N=42) was divided into
three different groups and exposed to informal stimulation (n=14), group stimulation as part of a day care
program (n=15) and individual stimulation (n=13) administered by a primary caregiver. A nonstandardised
checklist was designed by the researcher, refined in a pilot study and completed by the
facilitators of the group and individual stimulation programs in which the content of the motor stimulation
program was described. During the pretesting phase the babies were tested by the researcher in order
to determine their motor milestone developmental status by means of the Peabody Developmental Motor
Scales-2-measuring instrument (PDMS-2). This measuring instrument consists of five sub-scales that
are converted to a gross motor, fine motor and total motor quotient. After applying the stimulation
programs for 12 weeks on a daily basis in the group stimulation and the formal individual stimulation
programs, the same aspects of the babies’ motor development was tested again by the PDMS-2. The results showed that after 3 – 9 months old babies were exposed to formal stimulation programs and
the data was adjusted for age in months, gender, other activities and pretest results, they did not reach
their neuro-motor developmental milestones faster than the babies that were exposed to informal
stimulation. The results also show that babies that received individual stimulation administered by a
primary caregiver did not reach their milestones faster than babies that only received informal
stimulation. However, it seems that individual stimulation administered by a primary caregiver is more
beneficial than group stimulation.
For objective 2 the subjects (N=27) was divided into two groups and were exposed to informal
stimulation (n=14) and individual stimulation (n=13) administered by a primary caregiver. A co-variance
of analysis was used and effect sizes were determined for the differences that occurred. The results
showed that 3 – 9 months old babies that were exposed to a formal stimulation program did not reach
their neuro-motor development milestones faster than babies that were exposed to informal stimulation,
because the informal stimulation groups achieved significant (d > 0.2) higher scores for the gross motor
(d > 0.24), fine motor (d > 0.27) and total motor quotient (d > 0.33). Individual stimulation showed nonsignificant
higher mean values for the reflex (ẋ = 10.30), locomotion (ẋ = 9.16) and visual-motor
integration sub-scales (ẋ = 9.45), while informal stimulation showed higher mean values for static
balance (ẋ = 11.46) and grasping skills (ẋ = 10.21).
The conclusion can be made that simulation whether informal, formal or in a group is beneficial to
babies, but the baby must be ready for the specific stimulation. The success of informal stimulation
depends on the parents’ knowledge and educational levels. Consequently the same results will not
necessarily be achieved by parents that are from a less wealthy environment and that have fewer
opportunities to obtain knowledge about the optimal stimulation of babies. === Thesis (M.A. (Kinderkinetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011
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