Prematurity may negatively impact means-end problem solving across the first two years of life.
Preterm babies lag months behind in early problem-solving intentionality—check cloth-pull tasks at 6-9 months to spot the delay fast.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Baraldi and team watched 60 babies try to get a toy that sat just out of reach. Half were born early (before 37 weeks) and half were born on time.
Each baby visited the lab at 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months. The toy was under a cloth or behind a barrier. Success meant pulling the cloth or moving the barrier to grab the toy.
What they found
Preterm babies solved the task later and less often. At 9 months only a large share of preterm infants succeeded, while a large share of full-term infants did.
The gap stayed wide through the second birthday. Early birth added a three-to-five-month lag in goal-directed problem solving.
How this fits with other research
Perez et al. (2015) saw the same pattern in older kids with cerebral palsy. Early motor and memory skills predicted later math success, just as early means-end skill here predicts later learning.
Chinello et al. (2018) found that retained baby reflexes at 12 months hurt motor play. Both studies flag the same window—6 to 12 months—when small delays snowball.
Matson et al. (1994) showed that people with intellectual disability needed conscious effort for tasks that typical minds do automatically. Preterm infants may also need extra conscious steps to plan "toy then barrier" sequences.
Why it matters
If you work with babies born early, slide a cloth toy task into your 6- and 9-month assessments. One missed pull today can mean later language and social delays. Catch it early and you can start simple motor-problem games that build intentionality before the gap widens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Preterm infants are at risk for delays in motor, perceptual, and cognitive development. While research has shown preterm infants may exhibit learning delays in the first months of life, these delays are commonly under-diagnosed. The purpose of this study was to longitudinally evaluate behavioral performance and learning in two means-end problem-solving tasks for 30 infants born preterm (PT) and 23 born full-term (FT). Infants were assessed at 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months-old in tasks that required towel pulling or turntable rotation to obtain a distant object. PT infants performed more non-goal-directed and less goal-directed behavior than FT infants throughout the study, resulting in a lower success rate among PT infants. PT infants showed delayed emergence of intentionality (prevalence of goal-directed behaviors) compared to FT infants in both tasks. Amount and variability of behavioral performance significantly correlated with task success differentially across age. The learning differences documented between PT and FT infants suggest means-end problem-solving tasks may be useful for the early detection of learning delays. The identification of behaviors associated with learning and success across age may be used to guide interventions aimed at advancing early learning for infants at risk.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2018 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2018.03.007