- Title
- Characteristics and moderators of sensory modulation in infants, in the first year of life
- Creator
- Philpott-Robinson, Kelsey Rose
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Masters Research - Masters of Philosophy (MPhil)
- Description
- Preterm infants are at higher risk of poor neurodevelopmental and sensory modulation outcomes. There is growing interest in determining if preterm infants display more sensory modulation difficulties in the first year of life when compared to their full term peers, although no research to date has employed an assessment protocol using parent-report, clinical observation and cardiac autonomic function. Identification of sensory modulation difficulties in early infancy may inform early intervention procedures for the preterm infant population to improve everyday participation. Utilising a multimodal sensory modulation measurement protocol, the aims of this thesis were to: 1) elucidate the sensory modulation of infants at 12 months of age, using a multimodal sensory assessment approach including parent-report, clinical observation of sensory modulation, and autonomic cardiac function and 2) identify the relationship of early sensory environment, developmental age and gestational age with sensory modulation issues in infants at 12 months. A cross-sectional study and scoping review were implemented to address these aims. Sixty-eight infants (mean age 12.8 months) participated in the cross-sectional study and were recruited from the John Hunter Children’s Hospital, and pre-existing Breathing for Life Trial- Infant Development study. The majority of participants were born full term (n=50) and recruited from the Breathing for Life Trial-Infant Development study (n=42). Parent report data was collected using the Toddler Sensory Profile 2, and clinical observation collected via the Test of Sensory Function in Infants, which was undertaken whilst the infant wore a portable electrocardiogram to collect cardiac autonomic function. General developmental data was collected via administration of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition. All testing was completed at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. Overall, our study did not find evidence of sensory modulation difficulties in preterm infants at 12 months of age, and there was a general pattern of typical sensory modulation both from parent-report and performance-based assessment. Trends in the physiological data suggest a possible biomarker for maladaptive responses to sensory stimuli in preterm infants, given that that the autonomic nervous system of preterm infants appeared to be immature compared to their full term peers. A weak relationship between developmental age and sensory modulation was identified, and preterm infants were found to have immature autonomic nervous system functioning resulting in dysregulation of their adaptive response to challenging stimuli. No relationships between preterm birth and sensory modulation difficulties at 12 months of age were found. The scoping review revealed a lack of high quality evidence pertaining to long term sensory and developmental outcomes of infants born preterm and admitted to the NICU, although the search strategy may limit the generalisability of the results.
- Subject
- preterm; development; sensory modulation; infants
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1384959
- Identifier
- uon:32146
- Rights
- Copyright 2017 Kelsey Rose Philpott-Robinson
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 110 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |