Early developmental intervention programs post hospital discharge to prevent motor and cognitive impairments in preterm infants

Preterm infants (babies born before 37 weeks) are at risk of development problems, including problems with cognitive and motor development. Cognitive development refers to thinking and learning ability and motor development refers to the way infants move, such as sitting, crawling and walking. Early developmental interventions aim to reduce cognitive and/ or motor problems; however, the benefits of these programs are not clear. A review of trials suggests early developmental intervention programs post discharge from hospital for preterm infants are effective at improving cognitive development in the short to medium term (up to preschool age). There is limited evidence that early developmental interventions improve motor outcome or long term cognitive outcome (up to school age). The early developmental intervention programs in this review had to commence within the first 12 months of life, focus on the parent-infant relationship and/or infant development and, although they could commence while the baby was still in hospital, they had to have a component that was delivered post-discharge from hospital. The early developmental intervention programs included in this review are different in content, frequency of intervention and focus of intervention. The variability in the intervention programs limits the conclusions that can be made about the effectiveness of early developmental interventions.