Evaluation of a Sensory-tonic Stimulation on Development of Parent-infant Interactions and Social Cognition in Very Premature Children

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

sensory-tonic stimulation: sensory-tonic stimulation done by the parents to the child, five times a week during 15 minutes at each time

skin-to-skin contact: skin-to-skin contact left free for parents

Study summary

Attachment is built primarily on the first interactions of the first 9 months of a baby's life. These first interactions and their effects of stress, pleasure and displeasure are retained to establish some of the baby's attachment behaviours and future relationships with others.

Extreme prematurity strongly modify these first interactions between parents and child. Very preterm child is separated from his parents and is placed in a stressful, technical and potentially painful environment.

Early interventions stimulate neuroplasticity and can positively affect the neurological development of very preterm infant. Tactile stimuli such as skin-to-skin contact and massages carried out by parents can be pleasant experiences that can support early interactions between parents and child.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• interactions between parents and child — 12 months
  Two free play sequences of 15 minutes will be filmed. The Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB; Feldman, 1998) contains 43 items (22 relating to parents, 16 relating to child and 5 related to parent-child dyad. Each item is rated from 1 (a little) to 5 (a lot). The Coding Interactive Behavior has 6 dimensions. The dimension "social commitment of the child" will be the primary outcome for this study.

Trial sites (1)

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