Load perturbation does not influence spontaneous movements in 3-month-old infants.

Background: The assessment of the quality of general movements (GMs) in young infants is a reliable and valid diagnostic tool for detecting brain dysfunction early in life. Of special interest is a type of GMs called fidgety movements (FMs) characteristic for 3- to 5-month-old infants. GMs are part of an infant's spontaneous motor repertoire and as such endogenously generated by the nervous system.

Development of manipulative hand movements during the second year of life.

Background: Developmental testing in children is concerned mainly with a pass or fail on tasks such as grasping, manipulating and inserting. Knowledge about the qualitative development of hand movements in young children is scarce.

Aim: We studied the qualitative development of manipulative hand movements in 14-, 18- and 25-month-olds.

Treating preterm infants at risk for chronic lung disease with dexamethasone leads to an impaired quality of general movements.

Mortality rates do not decline markedly after postnatal corticosteroid therapy and concern has been raised about its neurological sequelae. We studied 37 preterm infants with Prechtl's method for the qualitative assessment of general movements before, during and after dexamethasone therapy and found that the quality of general movements was impaired in 9 of 13 initially normal infants (p = 0.004, McNemar test).

Can spontaneous movements be modulated by visual and acoustic stimulation in 3-month-old infants?

Background: The assessment of the quality of general movements (GMs) in infants proves to be a reliable and valid diagnostic tool for detecting brain dysfunction early in life. Of special interest, particularly for the prediction of cerebral palsy, is the fidgety kind of GMs, the so-called fidgety movements (FMs) observable in 3- to 5-month-old infants. GMs are part of an infant's spontaneous motor repertoire and as such endogenously generated by the nervous system itself.