Preterm infant showed better object handling skills in a neonatal intensive care unit during silence than with a recorded female voice. (21st September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lejeune, Fleur; Brand, Laure‐Anne; Palama, Amaya; Parra, Johanna; Marcus, Leïla; Barisnikov, Koviljka; Debillon, Thierry; Gentaz, Edouard; Berne‐Audéoud, Frédérique
• Is Part Of: Acta pædiatrica. Volume 108:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 460
• Page End: 467
• Publication Date: 2018-09-21
• Subjects: Auditory modality -- Female voice -- Neonatal intensive care unit -- Preterm infant -- Tactile abilities; Pediatrics -- Periodicals; Pediatrics; 618.92
• DOI: 10.1111/apa.14552
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0803-5253

Abstract

Abstract: Aim: This study compared whether preterm infants showed better tactile abilities during silence or when they heard a prerecorded female voice at different intensities. Methods: We studied 74 preterm infants of 28–35 weeks' postconceptional age who were admitted to a French neonatal intensive care unit from 2014 to 2017. They were presented with wooden objects, one smooth and one angled, at various points during silence (n = 26) or while listening to a female voice at +5 (n = 24) or +15 decibels (n = 24) inside their incubator. We compared the conditions to see if there was any difference in how the infants handled the objects and also compared familiar and unfamiliar objects. Results: The preterm infants showed better handling skills and only displayed effective discrimination, during silence. We found that 27.1% of the infants exposed to female voices failed to get habituated to the object, compared to 7.7% in the silence condition (p < 0.05) and success during the voice conditions required more trials (6.1 vs. 5.3) than the silence condition (p = 0.05). The different voice intensities made no difference. Conclusion: Being exposed to a female voice had a negative impact on preterm infants' tactile sensory learning, regardless of its intensity.