The onset of independent sitting enhances infants’ everyday interactions with objects and people, leading to downstream effects on cognitive and language development. For infants with neurodevelopmental disabilities like cerebral palsy, the onset of independent sitting is significantly delayed or absent, disrupting this developmental cascade. Current strategies for early intervention include both postural control training to help attain independent sitting and the use of seating devices to promote access to learning opportunities typically experienced during independent sitting. Crucially, these approaches may conflict: Excessive time in devices decreases the variable and complex movement practice that is essential for improving motor skill, but limiting supported upright sitting time may deprive infants of age- appropriate interaction with the physical and social world. Dynamic weight support, a technology that decreases effects of gravity on the body without constraining movement, may be a novel solution to this conflict. This project seeks to explore the use of dynamic weight support to facilitate sitting experience and learning opportunities for infants with cerebral palsy while simultaneously promoting postural control practice.
This study involves a single 1-hour visit to the Learning, Development, and Rehabilitation Laboratory.
Funding:
- National Pediatric Rehabilitation Resource Center (C-PROGRESS)
Currently Recruiting:
Infants with perinatal brain injury or neurological signs, or with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, who are unable to sit independently