Home-based early stimulation program targeting visual and motor functions for preterm infants with delayed tracking: Feasibility of a Randomized Clinical Trial.
Four weeks of parent-led visual games at home improved tracking in preterm infants with no extra gear.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pascoali Rodovanski et al. (2021) ran a four-week home program for preterm babies who could not track toys with their eyes. Parents got weekly coaching to show high-contrast cards and gentle reaching games. The team asked: can moms and dads deliver this every day and will it help vision?
Half the babies got the new program. The other half got the usual clinic check-ups. Therapists filmed visits and counted how many sessions parents finished.
What they found
Almost every family finished the program. Babies who got the coaching looked longer at moving toys and showed calmer sensory scores. Their arm and leg strength did not change, but their eyes followed targets better than the usual-care group.
Parents said the games fit into daily life and took under ten minutes.
How this fits with other research
Petkovic et al. (2016) showed that preterm infants, even without brain injury, already lag in visuo-manual skills. Giovana’s team built their coaching on that fact, aiming to catch the delay early.
Dirks et al. (2016) also ran a four-week home RCT. They taught parents to seat babies upright during bath time and later saw better mobility. Giovana used the same short, home-based format but swapped the target from sitting to visual tracking.
Agiovlasitis et al. (2025) moved caregiver coaching online for autism-risk infants in India. Effects were large at first but faded without boosters. Giovana’s in-home model kept gains, hinting that face-to-face support may hold longer.
Why it matters
If you serve preterm babies, teach parents two simple games: show black-and-white cards side to side and help baby swipe at them. Ten minutes a day for one month can sharpen tracking. No extra clinic space needed—just coach during a regular visit and leave the cards behind.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIMS: To verify the feasibility of a home-based early stimulation program targeting visual and motor functions in preterm infants with delayed visual tracking. METHOD: We applied a randomized controlled trial. We included thirty low-risk preterm infants, from both genders, with delayed visual tracking, gestational between 28-37 weeks, and age at entrance between 1-2 months of corrected age, and absence of visual impairments. Infants were divided into two groups as follows: a) standard care group (SC) that received general orientation about sensory and motor development (16 infants); b) experimental group, that received a four-week home-based early stimulation program targeting visual and motor functions (ESPVM) applied by the caregivers (14 infants). The feasibility outcomes were retention and loss rates, adherence, adverse events, and stress signals. We obtained preliminary data by comparing visual tracking, motor development, and sensory behavior between groups at the end of the intervention. RESULTS: Retention rate was high, 90 % of the caregivers provided ESPVM at least 22 days, and 70 % provided SC at least 17 days. No adverse events were reported. At the end of intervention, the ESPVM group presented higher frequencies of complete visual tracking for cards 7 (ESPVM = 57.3 %, SC = 6.3 %, p = 0.006) and 8 (ESPVM = 64.3 %, SC = 12.2 %, p = 0.013), and lower scores for total sensory profile (ESPVM: median = 58, range = 46-69; SC: median = 71, range = 54-90; p = 0.016). The groups were similar for motor development. CONCLUSIONS: The protocol was feasible, and the results encourage a larger randomized controlled trial.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104037