Download or read book Aberrant General Movements in Infants with and Without Newborn Detectable Risks written by Madalynn Tzagournis Wendland and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neurodevelopmental disorders impact 16.7% of children in the United States. It is widely accepted that early detection and treatment of such conditions (e.g., cerebral palsy) can optimize long-term outcomes for infants and their families. Alarmingly, access to time-sensitive, condition-specific interventions can be restricted until a formal diagnosis is established which may not occur until 12- to 24-months in children with cerebral palsy (CP). This is despite International Clinical Guidelines that recommend using Prechtl's General Movements Assessment (GMA) to reliably identify CP in infants less than 5-months of age. Fortunately, uptake of the GMA is increasing, particularly in specialty clinics used to monitor the development of infants with newborn detectable risks (NDR) (e.g., a history of preterm birth, neonatal asphyxia, and/or genetic variations). In contrast, the development of infants without NDR is typically assessed outside of specialty clinics using ill-fitted milestone checklists which are less sensitive for detecting early dysfunction. This is problematic as infants without NDR account for half of children with CP. Relatedly, the diagnostic accuracy of aberrant general movements (GMs) to identify CP is specific to infants with NDR; thus, it is unclear if this clinical tool is as reliable for infants without NDR. The goal of this novel dissertational work is to address this issue and determine if GMs, as a functional biomarker, could effectively screen for neuromotor dysfunction by: 1) determining the prevalence of aberrant GMs and potential barriers for administering the GMA within a more inclusive population of infants, 2) evaluating the relationships between aberrant GMs (as an immediate, or short-term outcome of interest) and other demographic or health-related features, and 3) assessing the congruence between aberrant GMs and the perceived concerns about an infant's development by a parent or non-parent caregiver.