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Age of attaining motor benchmarks associated with later development
Recent research in Pediatrics showed that age at achievement of gross motor skills was predictive of later development of cognitive and adaptive skills.
“Significant delays in achievement of motor milestones in infancy are important prodromal symptoms of severe impairments such as intellectual disabilities,” Akhgar Ghassabian, MD, PhD, of the epidemiology branch within the division of intramural population health research at the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and colleagues wrote. “We hypothesized that delayed motor development is adversely associated with a child’s adaptive, social, communication, motor, and cognitive skills in both singletons and twins.”
The researchers analyzed data related to motor skills milestones and developmental skills for 599 children born between 2008 and 2010 from the Upstate KIDS study in New York. The cohort included 314 singletons, 259 twins and 26 triplets. The infants’ motor milestones were reported by their mothers approximately at ages 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 months. Children were clinically assessed at age 4 years using the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI-2).
Study results for singletons showed that later achievement of standing alone and walking with parental assistance was associated with lower BDI-2 scores at age 4 years. Further analysis showed that these associations were driven by cognitive and adaptive skills.
The researchers also determined that when they restricted the analysis to only twins, there were no significant associations between age at achievement of standing and BDI-2 scores.
“Clinically, our findings suggest age of achieving motor milestones in infancy may be an important basis for various aspects of later child development,” Ghassabian and colleagues wrote. “Furthermore, the predictive value of an easy-administered simple assessment, such as age at achievement of standing, for later adaptive and cognitive skills in children has a public health impact. Further studies are needed to explore the underlying mechanisms that explain the significance of achieving the milestone of standing for later development.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
