VISUOMOTOR BEHAVIOUR OF PRETERM INFANTS IN THE FIRST MONTH OF LIFE. A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CHRONOLOGICAL AND CORRECTED AGES

Introduction. Technological advances have helped to lower the rate of infantile mortality and to raise the survival rate of preterm infants. Thus, studies need to be conducted in this segment of the population, while prematurity continues to be one of the risk factors for neuro-sensory-motor disorders. There is evidence to show that these children present visual and visuoperceptual disorders. With regard to visual problems, the literature suggests the hypothesis that the gestational age at the moment of birth exerts an influence on the child's visual behaviour Bearing this evidence in mind, doubts are raised as to whether such alterations can be detected in periods that are appropriate for the development of vision. Subjects and methods. We carried out a cross-sectional follow-up study of preterm infants hi the first month of life who had their visuomotor behaviour evaluated at the chronological and corrected age. A 11 of them were evaluated by applying the method for assessing the visual behaviour of infants, which is based on tests from the Bayley scales of infant development, as tot instrument for investigating visuomotor behaviour Results. Most of the preterm infants presented a response, with a higher frequency in the eye contact tests, smiling as a social response, horizontal and vertical visual tracking, and increased mobility of the upper limbs on seeing the object tit the corrected age. Conclusions. The responses obtained in this study allow its to confirm the importance of taking into account the corrected age when measuring the parameters involved in the development of visuomotor behaviour [REV NEUROL 2009; 48: 13-6]481131