Discussion
visual motor skills, ’ motor activity
CORTEX, AIDS, BRAIN
The goal of this study was to determine the impact of early play exposure on motor development in high-risk infants using PDMS-2. The experimental group was given a toy kit which had rattles, light and music toys, a water-filled teether, and nesting cups, all of which were appropriate for their age group. Guidance on how to use the toys was also provided. The control group, on the other hand, only received instructions on how to appropriately use play materials that were already available at home.When the male and female participants in the study were compared, the males outnumbered the females. According to one study, male infants had a much higher neonatal mortality rate than female infants between 2010 and 2018 [The intervention group showed higher scores in stationary, locomotion, grasp, and visual motor skills on the PDMS-2 at 7 and 8 months during the post-assessment. This could be linked to the use of toys at a young age, which can aid in the development of developmental aspects, such as in the gross and fine motor, cognitive, and social-emotional domains, all of which contribute to the infant’s overall development. Toys utilised in the intervention were used for kicking and reaching, tummy time, rattling to make sounds, motivating the baby to grasp for objects, and so on. Because there were two follow-ups before the post-assessment, one after two weeks and one after four, the therapist’s regular feedback may have provided motivation to the parents regarding the necessity of early usage of play items. In our study, the experimental group showed a significant improvement in gross motor and fine motor scores, with fine motor scores improving even more since the infants in this group were given age-appropriate play materials such as rattles, light toys, stacking cups, baby teethers, and plush toys. All of these toys have been shown to improve gross motor skills, and especially fine motor skills, because infants have to use their grasp to explore all of the toys. The consequences of physical encounters on later cognitive and social development have been discovered through research, but there has been no evidence for links in studies tying social attention and action skill level to infants’ motor activity or grasping ability. Likewise, early fine and gross motor development affects cognitive capacities such as language and all fine motor activities, which appear to have long-term implications for academic success. The latest findings, which are based on earlier research, imply that an infant’s early motor experiences have a direct impact on their later motor skills. Exploration promotes the growth of physical skills like bilateral and fine motor coordination, nuanced pinch patterns, and even pre-writing abilities [Playing with a toy for an extended period of time may provide additional possibilities for experimenting when it comes to learning about the toy’s properties. Increased imaginative play, which supports expressiveness and affective development, may result from deeper exploration.The results in the gross motor domain are more significant in the within-group comparison of the control group, because the control group was not given a toy kit, so gross motor was emphasised more than fine motor. The control group’s parents were educated about the early use of age-appropriate toys for their infants, and the importance of each toy was explained on how to use it and what effect it has on the infant. Due to economic constraints, it was revealed that most households possessed few toys, and newborns were exposed to only a few types of play objects. These findings are in line with existing motor learning theories which state that observed performance represents the dynamic interaction between an individual and their environment [The findings of this study reveal that there is no difference in fine or gross motor quotient scores across groups. Since the newborns were not exposed to more play materials and there was less parent-child interaction during play, there is only a difference in the stationary domain of an infant in the control group. The PDMS-2 fine motor components exhibited no improvement.Play contributes to the formation of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factors, a protein that helps present neurons survive while also encouraging the synthesis and division of new neurons and synapses, which is important for improved memory and social interactions. Play aids in the development of long-term memory, cognition, and emotions through facilitating the development of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factors in the amygdala, frontal cortex, and other brain areas [