Head righting reflex in newborns as the predictive factor of early child development: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

This study analysed whether the assessment of head righting reflex (HRR) in babies immediately after birth can be used in prediction of early child development. In 54 healthy newborns, testing of HRR was conducted on the third day upon birth. The HRR at birth were correlated with balance ability (BA), speech and language development (SLD) and social-emotional behaviour (SEB), on the same sample of children at the age of 5. Children whose HRR was absent or incomplete immediately after birth, later start to sit, stand, walk and talk and that differences are statistically significant (p<0.02, p<0.05, p<0.01 and p<0.01 respectively). Children with better BA (t = 2,32; p<0.02) and SLD (t = 2,33; p<0.02) at the age of 5, had present HRR at birth. Although the HRR reaches its full maturity at the end of the 2nd month of life, its onset immediately after birth could serve as a predictor of early child development.

KEYWORDS:

• Head righting reflex
• newborn
• early development
• five-year-olds

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development of the Republic of Serbia.

Notes on contributors

Tatjana Adamović

Tatjana Adamović is Research Associate at the Institute for Research and Development “Life Activities Advancement Centre”, and Head of the Unit within the Polyclinic Service at the Institute for Experimental Phonetics and Speech Pathology in Belgrade. Her research interests relate to the study of brain systems that support speech and language, cognitive, sensorimotor and socio-emotional progress in children with typical and atypical development, from birth to preschool age. In her research projects, within the multidisciplinary team, she works extensively on infants and toddlers.

Aleksandra Jurišić-Škevin

Aleksandra Jurišić-Škevin is Associate Professor at the University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Medical Sciences, and Medical Doctor at Clinical Centre of Kragujevac. Her teaching and research concern rehabilitation medicine and physiotherapy, sports injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, early motor development and physical disability with multidisciplinary approach in neurorehabilitation of children and adults.

Dejan Madić

Dejan Madić is Full Professor and Dean at the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education. He is vice-rector for International Affairs and President of the Serbian Gymnastics Federation. His research focus is oriented towards physical activity and its influence on man’s morphological characteristics, motor skills, cognitive abilities, conative and sociological characteristics with particular emphasis on the development of children and youth.

Mirjana Sovilj

Mirjana Sovilj is Senior Research Associate and Director of the Institute for Experimental Phonetics and Speech Pathology in Belgrade. Her research concerns psychophysiological child development, emphasizing multidisciplinary, holistic approach to the study of sound, hearing, speech, language, behaviour and learning. She is the author of the Prenatal Hearing Screening method, which detects the hearing status of a prenatal child from the 28th week of gestation.

Ljiljana Jeličić

Ljiljana Jeličić is Research Associate and Head of the Laboratory for Cognitive Research at the Institute for Research and Development “Life Activities Advancement Centre” in Belgrade. Her research interest is directed to cognitive neurosciences in the field of speech and language information processing and early diagnostics of verbal communication disorders. She is also engaged in diagnostics and rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders at the Institute for Experimental Phonetics and Speech Pathology in Belgrade.

Slavica Maksimović

Slavica Maksimović is Research Associate at the Institute for Research and Development “Life Activities Advancement Centre”, and Head of the Polyclinic Service at the Institute for Experimental Phonetics and Speech Pathology in Belgrade. Her primary research interests involve studying different risk factors that influence the healthy overall growth, development, learning, and well-being of infants and toddlers.

Miško Subotić

Miško Subotić is Research Associate and Director of the Institute for Research and Development “Life Activities Advancement Centre” in Belgrade. His research interest concerns multidisciplinary approach towards speech communication in the fields of: speech production, speech perception, speech recognition and improving the intelligibility of speech communication in children with different forms of speech pathology.