Attention and adjusted actions in physiotherapists’ treatment of preterm born infants

Abstract

The purpose was to explore the importance of individual and contextual actions in conjunction with movements made and achieved by infants born preterm during physiotherapy sessions. Material and methods: The sample consists of (a) 16 infants born preterm with birth weights Theoretical perspectives were Physiotherapy in connection, Phenomenology of the body, Infant’s body in interaction and Attention. Direct observation and video recording of treatment sessions, supplemented by interviewing the physiotherapists were performed during the infants first year after term age. The whole material consisted of 59 videos, 59 interviews and the researchers own post-situational notes. The analyses were phenomenological-hermeneutical and informed by Philosophy, Developmental Psychology and Micro sociology. The sessions were thematically arranged and contents of meaning were held together with each other and with the theories. The results indicates that physiotherapists’ sensitive presence and adapted dynamic actions (sounds, eye contact, facial expressions and handling) are significant for enhancing preterm infants attention, the quality of motions and the infants’ active participation during treatment sessions. Conclusion: The enhancement of preterm infants` movements seems to depend on the physiotherapists’ ability to gain and keep infants' attention and to make individualized adjustments towards the individual infant’s` distinctive character and utterances.

Keywords

• Premature
• infant
• movement
• motor skills
• attention
• group processes
• physical therapy modalities
• Exercise Movement Techniques
• Exercise Therapy
• Communication barriers
• Nonverbal Communication
• Verbal Behavior
• sensitivity training groups