Is Infant Driving Performance Using a Mobile Robot Related to Motivation to Move?

PURPOSE: Esther Thelen (2005), in her writings about dynamical systems theory, described a motivational cascade in early development in which successful motor experiences serve to stimulate infants to develop new behaviors. Atun-Einy and colleagues (2013) argued that motivation to move is reciprocally related to infant motor development. Similarly, clinicians have argued that the ability of infants with motor impairment to be mobile through powered mobility may support their motivation to explore the physical and social world and that providing opportunities for active exploration may aid in minimizing secondary disability. This study examined whether providing very early robotic mobility to typically developing precrawling infants would correlate to ratings of infants’ motivation to move. We hypothesized that infants would demonstrate significant increases in driving performance with associated increases in motivation to move.

METHOD: For this pretest–posttest study, we recruited 31 typically developing precrawling infants aged 5 mo through news sources and social media to participate in 12 16-min interactive play sessions over 2 mo. During each session, infants were placed in a robotic mobility device, the WeeBot (developed at Ithaca College), which is controlled by weight shift, and had the opportunity to move independently in the environment (Stansfield et al., 2018). Infants engaged in two 3-min free play periods and a 10-min driver-training period during each session.

Driving performance was assessed both in free play periods (by calculating the amount of time infants spent in goal-directed driving and in nonintentional movement) and during driver training (by recording the number out of nine trials when infants were successful at driving to offered toys). Driving performance scores from the first four free play periods were compared to scores from the last four free play periods. Driver training scores were compared from the first three to the last three sessions. Motivation to move was assessed before infants began and after they completed the 12 play sessions through parent responses to the Infant Movement Motivation Questionnaire (IMMQ; Doralp & Bartlett, 2014).

We compared pretest to posttest scores using a paired t test for the driving measures and a Wilcoxon signed ranks test for the IMMQ. We excluded eight infants from the analysis because they achieved independent mobility by crawling before the end of their participation in the study.

RESULTS: As hypothesized, infants demonstrated a significant increase in goal-directed driving and a decrease in nonintentional movement in free play periods and an increase in driver training scores from the first to the last sessions. IMMQ scores increased significantly as well. IMMQ scores were moderately correlated to goal-directed driving but not to driver training scores. A strong negative association was found between goal-directed driving and nonintentional movement.

CONCLUSION: Preliminary results of this study suggest that infants aged 5 mo gained skills in driving performance over the 12 sessions and that increases in motivation to move were significant as well. These findings are in agreement with the motivational cascade proposed by Thelen (2005) and Atun-Einy et al. (2013). Providing precrawling infants the opportunity to actively explore the world around them may decrease future secondary disabilities that occur because of compromised motor development. Additionally, these findings add support to calls from researchers and clinicians to provide early powered mobility to infants with motor impairment in order to encourage motivation to explore their physical and social environment.

References

Atun-Einy, O., Berger, S. E., & Scher, A. (2013). Assessing motivation to move and its relationship to motor development in infancy. Infant Behavior and Development, 36, 457–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2013.03.006

Doralp, S., & Bartlett, D. (2014). Infant Movement Motivation Questionnaire: Development of a measure evaluating infant characteristics relating to motor development in the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 37, 326–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.04.002

Stansfield, S., Dennis, C., Altman, R., Smith, J., & Larin, H. (2018). A comparison of the efficacy of weight-shift vs. joystick control of a robotic mobility device by infants ages 5 to 10 months. Assistive Technology, 30, 84–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400435.2016.1262479

Thelen, E. (2005). Dynamic systems theory and the complexity of change. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15, 255–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-012-0403-4