Relationship between physical growth and motor development in infancy and early childhood: Multivariate analysis

Abstract

This study was based on a sample of 651 singleton infants, from 325 unrelated families. Body weight (WT), length (LT) and head circumference (HC) of each child were measured at day of birth and thereafter every 3 months during the first 2 years. The achievement of five developmental milestones was surveyed, the ages at which the infant could turn him- or herself over (TURN), sit up (SAT), stand up (STOOD), walk without support (WALK), and cut the first tooth (TOOTH). Principal component analysis showed several patterns, in particular: (1) PC1 includes all physical measurements of the infant at all specific ages, (2) PC2 is a factor of motor development and early growth rate; gestational age, birth weight, and body length also showed high negative correlations with this component, (3) PC4 is a factor that related the motor development variables with growth rate between 6 and 12 months, and (4) PC6 is a "late growth" component. Path analysis revealed that real relationships between the variables of motor development and growth rate are complicated. It showed the existence of direct relations between sequential motor milestones. However, most of the growth rate variables and birth measurements, in particular birth WT, had only an indirect contribution to rate of motor development. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Genetic analysis of motor milestones attainment in early childhood

“…Livshits 12 also estimated associations between pairs of motor milestones. In that study phenotypic correlations were even lower than in Livshits et al 2 However, the common tendency of lowest correlation for TURN/WALK compared with the highest one for SIT/STAND has been replicated. Moreover, cross correlations obtained in the Livshits 12 study came out low and insignificant, in comparison with our findings that correlations ranged from 0.22 for TURN/WALK to 0.96 for SIT/STAND, with one exception (0.07 for TURN/WALK), all for MZ twins.…”

“…A direct relationship was found between sequential motor milestones (the most important predictor variable for each consequent milestone is the milestone already attained), and an indirect one with growth rate variables and birth measurements. 2 Social and demographic factors, in turn, did not indicate any significant relation to age of milestone achievement. 30,31 Anthropometric data did not influence the level of childhood motor development either.…”

“…At the next stage of the genetic analysis, it was assumed that the age of appearance of different motor milestones might be genetically correlated one with another, since substantial and significant phenotypic correlations between some of these milestones were found in our previous study. 2 To test this hypothesis, cross correlations between the phenotypic values of traits X and Y were determined according to Falconer and Mackay 16 as…”

“…1 Sequential attainment of specific motor development milestones, in turn, has been found to be one of the major patterns of early child development. 2 Although the appearance of these developmental landmarks has been extensively documented since the 1930s, 3,4 no agreement has been reached as to which factors affect this process: genetic or environmental, or the degree of their interrelation.…”

Is Motor Milestone Assessment in Infancy Valid and Scaled Equally Across Sex, Birth Weight, and Gestational Age? Findings From the Millennium Cohort Study

“…Little is also known on measurement invariance; this indicates whether the scores of an assessment tool are equivalent across groups with different characteristics, which are known to have an influence on these milestones ( Tenovuo et al, 1988 ; Livshits et al, 1993 ; Flensborg-Madsen and Mortensen, 2017 ). For instance, previous literature has shown that gestational age and birth weight are related to motor milestones ( Pin et al, 2010 ; da Costa Ribeiro et al, 2017 ; Flensborg-Madsen and Mortensen, 2017 ; van Dokkum et al, 2018 ).…”