Early Development of Head Movements Between Birth and 4 Months of Age: A Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

The control of head posture and movement play a significant role in the early development of motor skills. However, a detailed kinematic study charting this development is currently lacking. Hence, the authors performed a longitudinal study of 18 infants between birth and 4 months charting changes in head posture and movements when tracking a visual object. The results showed that beyond 2 months, the head was more often held at the body midline and this was accompanied by an increase in the number, extent, and speed of head movement. Further, it was found that head movements were organized into movement units. Movement units initially increased in number, but after 3 months decreased in number and increased in duration, especially after peak velocity. This more symmetrical profile velocity points to more controlled head movements after 3 months of age.

Keywords:

• development
• head control
• head posture
• infants
• kinematics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the wonderful parents and infants who made this work possible. They thank Margot van Wermeskerken for her cooperation with Matlab programming.

Additional information

Funding

This work received financial support from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). Clinical Trial Registration: ACTRN 12610000825055.