Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children

Journal of Perinatology volume 39, pages 488–496 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective(s)

Investigate associations between 18 and 22-month corrected age hand function, adverse findings on serial cranial ultrasound (CUS) and near-term brain MRI (ntMRI), and Bayley-III scores in extremely preterm (EPT) toddlers.

Study design

Cohort analysis of Neonatal Research Network SUPPORT NEURO data. Associations between brain abnormalities, hand function, and Bayley-III scores were examined using chi-square and generalized linear mixed effect model analyses.

Results

A total of 433 children were included. Sixteen percent had hand function deficits; these were associated with late CUS (p < 0.001) abnormalities, white matter abnormality (WMA) on ntMRI (p < 0.001), and Bayley-III scores. Six percent had CP. Fourteen percent of children without and 50% of those with CP had hand function abnormalities.

Conclusions

Late CUS findings and severity of WMA were significantly associated with hand function deficits. Hand function deficits were nearly three times more common than CP and may be a useful marker of early brain insult and predictor of preterm birth effects on development.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Serenius F, Ewald U, Farooqi A, Fellman V, Hafström M, Hellgren K, et al. Neurodevelopmental outcomes among extremely preterm infants 6.5 years after active perinatal care in Sweden. JAMA Pediatr. 2016;170:954–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hintz SR, Newman JE, Vohr BR. Changing definitions of long-term follow-up: Should "long term" be even longer? Semin Perinatol. 2016;40:398–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Spittle AJ, Cameron K, Doyle LW, Cheong JL. Victorian Infant Collaborative Study G. Motor impairment trends in extremely preterm children: 1991–2005. Pediatrics. 2018;141:e20173410. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-3410.

  4. Broström L, Vollmer B, Bolk J, Eklöf E, Ådén U. Minor neurological dysfunction and associations with motor function, general cognitive abilities, and behaviour in children born extremely preterm. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2018;60:826–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Grissmer D, Grimm KJ, Aiyer SM, Murrah WM, Steele JS. Fine motor skills and early comprehension of the world: two new school readiness indicators. Dev Psychol. 2010;46:1008–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. LeBarton ES, Iverson JM. Fine motor skill predicts expressive language in infant siblings of children with autism. Dev Sci. 2013;16:815–27.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Pitchford NJ, Papini C, Outhwaite LA, Gulliford A. Fine motor skills predict maths ability better than they predict reading ability in the early primary school years. Front Psychol. 2016;7:783.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Bolk J, Padilla N, Forsman L, Broström L, Hellgren K, Åden U. Visual–motor integration and fine motor skills at 6½ years of age and associations with neonatal brain volumes in children born extremely preterm in Sweden: a population-based cohort study. BMJ Open. 2018;8:e020478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Bruininks RHBaBD. BOT2: Bruininks-Oseretsky Test Of Motor Proficiency : Manual. Second edn. Minneapolis, MN: Pearson Assessments; 2005.

  10. Bolk J, Fredriksson Kaul Y, Hellström‐Westas L, Stjernqvist K, Padilla N, Serenius F, et al. National population‐based cohort study found that visual‐motor integration was commonly affected in extremely preterm born children at six‐and‐a‐half years. Acta Paediatr. 2018;107:831–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Bala G, Krneta Z, Katic R. Effects of kindergarten period on school readiness and motor abilities. Coll Antropol. 2010;34(Suppl 1):61–67.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Corti EJ, Johnson AR, Riddle H, Gasson N, Kane R, Loftus AM. The relationship between executive function and fine motor control in young and older adults. Hum Mov Sci. 2017;51:41–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Volpe JJ. The encephalopathy of prematurity—brain injury and impaired brain development inextricably intertwined. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2009;16:167–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Inder TE, Wells SJ, Mogridge NB, Spencer C, Volpe JJ. Defining the nature of the cerebral abnormalities in the premature infant: a qualitative magnetic resonance imaging study. J Pediatr. 2003;143:171–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hintz SR, Barnes PD, Bulas D, Slovis TL, Finer NN, Wrage LA, et al. Neuroimaging and neurodevelopmental outcome in extremely preterm infants. Pediatrics. 2015;135:e32–e42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Bayley N. Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edn. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment; 2006.

  17. Younge N, Goldstein RF, Bann CM, Hintz SR, Patel RM, Smith PB, et al. Survival and neurodevelopmental outcomes among periviable infants. N Engl J Med. 2017;376:617–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Johnson S, Moore T, Marlow N. Using the Bayley-III to assess neurodevelopmental delay: which cut-off should be used? Pediatr Res. 2014;75:670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Cohen J. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates; 1988.

  20. Brouwer MJ, van Kooij BJ, van Haastert IC, Koopman-Esseboom C, Groenendaal F, de Vries LS, et al. Sequential cranial ultrasound and cerebellar diffusion weighted imaging contribute to the early prognosis of neurodevelopmental outcome in preterm infants. PLoS ONE. 2014;9:e109556.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kersbergen KJ, Leroy F, Isgum I, Groenendaal F, de Vries LS, Claessens NHP, et al. Relation between clinical risk factors, early cortical changes, and neurodevelopmental outcome in preterm infants. Neuroimage. 2016;142:301–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Matijevic V, Secic A, Zivkovic TK, Borosak J, Kolak Z, Dimic Z. The most common deviations in the development of hand motoricity in children from birth to one year of age. Acta Clin Croat. 2013;52:295–300.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Zuccarini M, Sansavini A, Iverson JM, Savini S, Guarini A, Alessandroni R, et al. Object engagement and manipulation in extremely preterm and full term infants at 6 months of age. Res Dev Disabil. 2016;55:173–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Case-Smith J, Frolek Clark GJ, Schlabach TL. Systematic review of interventions used in occupational therapy to promote motor performance for children ages birth-5 years. Am J Occup Ther. 2013;67:413–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Marr D, Cermak S, Cohn ES, Henderson A. Fine motor activities in Head Start and kindergarten classrooms. Am J Occup Ther. 2003;57:550–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. de Kieviet JF, Piek JP, Aarnoudse-Moens CS, Oosterlaan J. Motor development in very preterm and very low-birth-weight children from birth to adolescence: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2009;302:2235–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Berteletti I, Booth JR. Perceiving fingers in single-digit arithmetic problems. Front Psychol. 2015;6:226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Tatsuoka C, McGowan B, Yamada T, Espy KA, Minich N, Taylor HG. Effects of extreme prematurity on numerical skills and executive function in kindergarten children: an application of partially ordered classification modeling. Learn Individ Differ. 2016;49:332–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Anderson PJ, Doyle LW. Cognitive and educational deficits in children born extremely preterm. Semin Perinatol. 2008;32:51–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Joo JW, Choi JY, Rha DW, Kwak EH, Park ES. Neuropsychological outcomes of preterm birth in children with no major neurodevelopmental impairments in early life. Ann Rehabil Med. 2015;39:676–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Becker DR, Miao A, Duncan R, McClelland MM. Behavioral self-regulation and executive function both predict visuomotor skills and early academic achievement. Early Child Res Q. 2014;29:411–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which provided grant support for the Neonatal Research Network’s Generic Database and Follow-up Studies. ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00063063 and NCT00233324.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Andrea F. Duncan & Allison G. Dempsey

  2. Statistics and Epidemiology Unit, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

    Carla M. Bann

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ira Adams-Chapman

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

    Roy Heyne

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Susan R. Hintz

Authors
  1. Andrea F. Duncan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carla M. Bann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Allison G. Dempsey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ira Adams-Chapman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Roy Heyne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Susan R. Hintz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Consortia

for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development Neonatal Research Network

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea F. Duncan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Duncan, A.F., Bann, C.M., Dempsey, A.G. et al. Neuroimaging and Bayley-III correlates of early hand function in extremely preterm children. J Perinatol 39, 488–496 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0314-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0314-0

Search

Advanced search

Quick links