ABSTRACT

Background: Although 6 weeks has been acknowledged as a significant time in an infant’s neurodevelopmental behaviour, there is a lack of data globally about such behaviour in infants under 3 months. In many settings normative data and optimal scores in healthy infants at 6 weeks and 10 weeks postnatally is lacking. At the moment in South Africa  the neurodevelopmental assessments being administered at these age are insufficient and exclude significant characteristics of central nervous system maturation. Additionally the collection of data describing early development is limited.

Objectives: To use the Hammersmith Neonatal Neurological Examination to assess  the development of healthy infants at 6 weeks and 10 weeks of age.

Method: Six domains in the subjects ( 35 healthy term born infants ) were assessed at 6 weeks and 10 weeks postnatally using a prospective longitudinal study. Raw scores obtained from 34 items were converted into optimality scores.

Results: Progress in the infants neurodevelopment was noted to occur between 6 weeks and 10 weeks of age. The areas in which this was noted to particularly occur included: visual behaviour, posture and muscle tone . Optimality scores were recorded at these ages.

Conclusion: Neurodevelopmental data at and between 6 weeks and 10 weeks of age was obtained.

Clinical Implications: The study supports the view of the importance in identifying significant milestones in early screening.

DOWNLOAD ARTICLE