Title:
Design of a crib mobile to support studies in the early detection of cerebral palsy

Thumbnail Image
Author(s)
Jamshad, Rabeya
Authors
Advisor(s)
Howard, Ayanna M.
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Associated Organization(s)
Series
Supplementary to
Abstract
The aim of this research is to explore innovative methods to support the early detection of neuromuscular disorders like cerebral palsy in preverbal infants, which is crucial for early intervention treatments of at risk infants. This research focuses on the use of a goal and reward based mechanism to elicit kicking movements from infants between the ages of 2 to 4 months old. The intention is to encourage kicking in preverbal infants by enriching their natural environments through the modification of toys that infants are already accustomed to. In this way, different stimuli can be introduced into the infant’s environment and their effect on infant behavior and motion can be studied without introducing unfamiliar objects to the infant environment. This research consists of a two stage effort. The first part of the research is concerned with the design of a modified crib mobile to introduce different stimuli into the infant’s environment. This stage is primarily concerned with the physical, electrical and software design of the crib mobile and the control device. The design of the crib mobile also requires a detailed investigation into selection of stimuli able to optimally evoke infant kicking movements. In our research, we utilize, music, motion and lights (henceforth referred as audio, movement and visual stimuli respectively) - all three stimulus are normally found in infant toys, to encourage kicking by infants. The second part of this research investigates the effects of these stimuli on infant kicking. We introduce these stimuli individually i.e. each infant is only exposed to one stimulus. We then use videos recorded of infant activity in the presence of the stimulus and in absence (control) to determine if there is a significant increase in infant activity measured on three metrics of infant kicking kinematics namely the frequency of kicking activity, the frequency of bilateral vs. unilateral kicking and the maximum and average duration of continuous kicking by the infant in the test groups exposed to the different stimuli.
Sponsor
Date Issued
2019-04-24
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Thesis
Rights Statement
Rights URI