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Currently the study of infants grasping development is purely clinical, based on functional scales or on the observation of the infant while playing; no quantitative variables are measured or known for diagnosis of eventually disturbed development. The aim of this work is to show the results of a longitudinal study achieved by using a "baby gym" composed by a set of instrumented toys, as a tool to measure and stimulate grasping actions, in infants from 4 to 9 months of life. The study has been carried out with 7 healthy infants and it was observed, during infants development, an increase of precision grasp and a reduction of power grasp with age. Moreover the forces applied for performing both precision and power grasp increase with age. The proposed devices represent a valid tool for continuous and quantitative measuring infants manual function and motor development, without being distressful for the infant and consequently it could be suitable for early intervention training during the first year of life. The same system, in fact, could be used with infants at high risk for developmental motor disorder in order to evaluate any potential difference from control healthy infants.

The study and measurement of grasping actions and forces in humans is important in a variety of contexts. In infants, it can give insights on the typical and atypical motor development, while it poses functional and operative requirements that are not fully matched by current sensing technology. Novel approaches for measuring infants' grasping actions are based on sensorized platform usable in natural settings. A new set of instrumented toys has been designed for the assessment/stimulation of upper limbs of infants between 4 and 9 months. A purposive biomechatronic gym has been developed by integrating pressure and force sensors and visual/auditory stimulations to the usual gym structure and hanging toys (cow, flower and ring puppets), so that the infants' actions on the gym can be monitored, measured and stimulated. With the developed system, a longitudinal clinical validation has been carried out with seven healthy infants. From data analysis it is possible to identify a trend in manual forces development and this result confirms the usefulness of the system proposed as a clinical tool for monitoring infants' grasping development.

The development of grasping is an important milestone that infants encounter during the first months of life. Novel approaches for measuring infants' manual actions are based on sensorized platform usable in natural settings, such as instrumented wireless toys that could be exploited for diagnosis and rehabilitation purposes. A new sensorized wireless toy has been designed and developed with embedded pressure sensors and audio-visual feedback. The fulfillment of clinical specifications has been proved through mechanical and electrical characterization. Infants showed a good grade of acceptance to such kind of tools, as confirmed by the results of preliminary tests that involved nine healthy infants: the dimensions fulfill infants' anthropometrics, the device is robust and safe, the acquired signals are in the expected range and the wireless communication is stable. Although achieved only through preliminary tests, such results confirm the hypothesis that this typology of instrumented toys could be useful for quantitative monitoring and measuring infants' motor development and ready to be evaluated for assessing motor skills through appropriate clinical trials.

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