The ecology of infants' perceptual-motor exploration.

The first goal of this article is to review recent advances in understanding how new motor skills facilitate infants' exploration-the active acquisition of information about their environments. New postural abilities, such as sitting and walking, qualitatively change how infants can learn about objects, places, and people with potential downstream effects on infants' later cognitive and linguistic development. What's missing, however, is a characterization of how new exploratory abilities change infants' everyday experiences. Presumably, changes in opportunities for learning mediate the downstream effects of posture on other developmental achievements. Accordingly, the second goal of this article is to discuss the importance of measuring the ecology of infants' everyday experiences and how they vary

Parental Beliefs About the Motor Development of Dutch Infants Born Very Preterm: A Cohort Study

Purpose: To explore the influence of preterm birth on parental beliefs about gross motor development and parents' supportive role in infants' motor development. Methods: Prospective cohort study: Parents of infants born very preterm (VPT) (gestation ≤32 weeks, birth weight <1500 g, without perinatal complications) and parents of healthy infants born full-term (FT) completed the Parental Beliefs on Motor Development questionnaire. Results: Questionnaires from 37 parents of infants born VPT, aged 3.5 to 7.5 months (corrected), and 110 parents of infants born FT, aged 3.5 months, were analyzed. Parents of infants born VPT believed stimulating motor development to be more important than parents of infants born FT (F = 5.22; P = .024; ηp2 = 0.035). Most parents of infants born VPT (82.4%) and FT (85.2%) acknowledged their role in supporting motor development. More parents of infants born VPT (41.2% vs 12.0%) believed they should follow their infant's natural developmental pace. Conclusion: Knowledge of parental beliefs and parents' supporting role in motor development is relevant for tailoring pediatric physiotherapists' interventions with families