Sitting Capacity and Performance in Infants with Typical Development and Infants with Motor Delay.
Kari S Kretch, Natalie A Koziol, Emily C Marcinowski and 6 others
PMID 37550959WHAT IT FOUND
Infants with significant motor delay improved sitting capacity and sitting during play, but typical infants improved more sharply and reached a plateau.
A given sitting test score did not mean the same everyday sitting use.
Key findings
01Sitting capacity and independent sitting during play increased over visits, but the two groups followed different trajectories.
02At baseline, 46% of infants with typical development and 26% of infants with significant motor delay demonstrated independent sitting during play; typical infants were more than 85% at all subsequent visits, and motor delay infants reached 67% at the 12-month visit.
03The maximum predicted chance of independent sitting was 0.98 for both groups, but it was reached at a GMFM sitting score of 33 for infants with typical development and at a score of 48 for infants with motor delay.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The one-year follow-up may not be long enough to show whether infants with motor delay eventually plateau in the same way as typical infants. Five minutes of play with four toys may not represent an infant's usual day. The analysis excluded infants with mild motor delay, so it does not describe that group. The motor delay group came from the control group of a therapy trial and included only significant delay, so it may not represent all infants with motor delay. The GMFM scores whether an infant can perform a sitting item once, not whether the infant uses that skill consistently. Typical infants came from one site, while infants with motor delay came from five sites.
Declared interests
The article text does not include a conflicts or funding declaration. The publication types list NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use a GMFM sitting score alone to decide whether an infant will sit independently during play. The study found that infants with motor delay reached the same highest predicted chance of independent sitting only at a higher GMFM score than typical infants.