Early motor development of children with a congenital cytomegalovirus infection.
Check gross motor milestones early in cCMV infants—symptomatic and hearing-impaired subgroups lag by six months.
01Research in Context
What this study did
De Kegel et al. (2016) watched babies born with a silent virus called cCMV. They used the same motor test doctors give in well-baby visits.
They split the babies into three groups: sick-looking babies, babies with hearing loss, and babies with no signs. Then they scored who could roll, sit, and crawl on time.
What they found
The sick-looking babies and the hard-of-hearing babies scored lower on every big-muscle skill. Healthy-appearing cCMV babies kept up with typical peers.
Delays showed up as early as six months and stayed through the second year.
How this fits with other research
Chao-Qian et al. (2013) saw the same pattern in babies who had a neonatal stroke. Both teams used the BSID-III test and found the same size lag, so the virus and the stroke hit the same motor road.
Westendorp et al. (2014) followed older kids with learning disorders and still saw 3- to 4-year gross-motor gaps. The cCMV infants are simply the opening chapter of that longer story.
Chiviacowsky et al. (2013) add another clue: children who only had language problems also moved poorly. Together these papers say, "Whenever you see a medical or language diagnosis, check the motor box too."
Why it matters
You now have a red-flag list: cCMV plus sick at birth or any hearing loss. Run a BSID-III motor scale at 6, 12, and 24 months. Early scores tell you which babies need gross-motor play therapy long before they miss walking milestones.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is the most important etiology of non-hereditary childhood hearing loss and an important cause of neurodevelopmental delay. The current study aimed to investigate the early motor development of symptomatic and asymptomatic cCMV infected children with and without sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). METHODS: Sixty-four children with a cCMV infection, without cerebral palsy, were compared to a control group of 107 normal hearing children. They were assessed around the ages of 6, 12, and 24 months with the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2 (PDMS-2), Alberta Infant Motor Scales (AIMS), and Ghent Developmental Balance Test (GDBT). The cCMV infected children were subdivided into a symptomatic (n=26) and asymptomatic cCMV group (n=38) but also into a cCMV group with SNHL (n=19) and without SNHL (n=45). RESULTS: Symptomatic cCMV infected children and cCMV infected children with SNHL performed significantly weaker for all gross motor outcome measures. CONCLUSION: A congenital CMV infection is a risk factor for a delay in the early motor development. Follow-up will be necessary to gain insight into the exact cause of this motor delay and to define the predictive value of early motor assessment of cCMV infected children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2015.11.014