n an upcoming issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Dr. Phillipa R. Butcher and a team from the University of Groningen report findings from a large longitudinal study of preterm infants. The authors used video tapes made at 11 to 16 weeks post-term in 65 infants born at or before 33 weeks of gestation. These infants were the followed for many years and completed a battery of neurocognitive tests when they were 7 to 11 years of age.
The authors were primarily interested in three types of movements:
1. Fidgeting Movements: These are small, circular movements of varying speed that appear around 6 weeks post-term.
2. Concurrent Movements. At this age, normative concurrent movements included kicking, manipulating clothing, and playing with fingers.
3. Concurrent Postural Patterns. These include for example the ability to hold the head in the midline and manipulating fingers so that the fingers are independent of one another (as opposed to always having the fists closed or open).
The results:
While controlling for maternal IQ and attention problems, an index of motor quality score was a significant predictor of total IQ, Verbal IQ, and Performance IQ when the child was between 7 and 11 years of age.
This association was driven exclusively by the presence and absence of normal and atypical postural patterns. That is, fidgeting movements and concurrent movements did not predict IQ, but it was postural patterns that was the strong predictor of IQ.
There was no association between infant movements and behavior or emotional problems during middle childhood (internalizing and externalizing behavior problems).
