Browse the corpus

Leg Movement Rate Pre- and Post-Kicking Intervention in Infants with Down Syndrome. AIM: Children with Down syndrome (DS) have delayed development and atypical movements including kicking. We hypothesized that a kicking intervention would significantly increase leg movement rate. METHODS: Nine infants, 3-5 months old, with DS used a commercially available toy that encouraged kicking. The intervention was administered in their home for 20 minutes, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks. Leg movement rate was measured using Opal wearable sensors before and after the intervention. At post-test, a secondary analysis compared infants with DS to infants with typical development (TD). RESULTS: Average leg movement rate increased significantly from pre to post intervention, from 2253 to 2645 movements per hour of awake time (p = 0.049). Compared to data from nine infants with TD, infants with DS had a significantly lower movement rate post intervention (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: The infants with DS demonstrated a higher leg movement rate following an in-home kicking intervention.