Clinical Effects of Early Intensive Motor Intervention on Gross Motor Development in Infants and Toddlers with Developmental Delay

Early intensive motor intervention is one of the most important rehabilitation tools to improve gross motor development in infants and toddlers with developmental delay. The combination of conventional rehabilitation training and mesh-intensive suspension training aims to improve core muscle strength, motor control, and balance coordination, and thus improve gross motor function. However, there is no comprehensive clinical evidence on the effects of early intensive exercise intervention combined with conventional rehabilitation on gross motor development and activities of daily living (ADL) in infants and children with developmental delay. The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of early intensive exercise intervention combined with conventional rehabilitation training for gross motor development in infants and toddlers with developmental delay. In the study, the treatment group implemented an early intensive exercise intervention on top of conventional rehabilitation training. The effectiveness of the treatment was evaluated based on the changes in scores on the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS), Peabody Gross Motor Development Scale (PDMS-GM), and Infant and Toddler Activities of Daily Living score. The results showed that all the indicators improved significantly in both groups after the intervention, and the treatment group showed significantly greater improvement compared to the control group (P<0.05). In the treatment group, the AIMS score increased from (36.80 ± 11.38) to (53.12 ± 7.48), the PDMS-GM standardized total score increased from (18.65 ± 2.33) to (28.03 ± 2.51), and the ADL score increased from (32.89 ± 7.02) to (58.92 ± 6.34). These findings highlight the effectiveness of early intensive motor intervention combined with conventional rehabilitation in improving gross motor function and ADL in infants and children with developmental delay.