Copyright @ 2016 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. Mohammed S. Alhussaini Department...

BACKGROUND Few measures of health related quality of life exist for use with preschool aged children. The objective of this study was to assess reliability and validity of a new multidimensional generic measure of health-related quality of life developed for use with preschool children. METHODS Cross-sectional survey sent to parents as their child turned 3 1/2 years of age. The setting was th...

AIM The aim of this study was to describe how parents experienced the support at, and preparation for discharge from, the NICU and how they experienced the first time at home. DESIGN A qualitative design with quantitative elements was applied. METHODS A questionnaire study. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis with quantitative elements. RESULTS The majority of included p...

The advancement of medical technology has produced an increased number of surviving neonates. Occupational therapists and physical therapists working in neonatal intensive care units and follow-up clinics are faced with the challenge of providing early assessment and treatment for this relatively new population of infants. The purpose of this article is to review selected infant motor evaluatio...

Preterm birth is associated with painful procedures during the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay. Full-term newborns can also experience pain, following surgery. These procedures can have long-lasting consequences. It has been shown that children born preterm show pain responses and cardiac alterations. This study aimed to explore the heart rate reactivity to pain in 107 subjects born ei...

BACKGROUND In neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) health care professionals typically give most of their attention to the infants and the mothers while many fathers feel uncertain and have an unmet need for support and guidance. This paper describes and discusses participatory action research (PAR) as a method to improve NICUs' service for fathers. Our goal is to develop a father-friendly NIC...

This paper explores occupational therapy treatment practices for infants (birth to age 2 years) in early intervention programs. Generic treatment is viewed as the facilitation of the infant's independence through improved motor control, sensory modulation, adaptive coping, sensorimotor development, social-emotional development, daily living skills, and play. Treatment practices in specialized s...

The purpose of this article is to introduce a model of neurodevelopmental risk and protection that may explain some of the relationships among biobehavioral risks, environmental risks, and caregiving behaviors that potentially contribute to neurobehavioral and cognitive outcomes. Infants born before 30 weeks of gestation have the poorest developmental prognosis of all infants. These infants hav...

From October 2010 to December 2015, we screened a total of 1716 babies. 809 babies were from well-baby nurseries and 907 babies were from neonatal intensive care unit. 299 babies failed the first screen, but only 66 out of 299 appeared for rescreen. Eighteen babies failed the rescreen and were recommended BERA testing. However, none of the babies turned up for BERA testing or could not be track...

This paper is about the care of babies with confirmed or potential neurological problems in neonatal intensive care units. Drawing on recent ethnographic research, the paper considers parents' experiences of sharing information and decisions with neonatal staff, and approaches that support or restrict parents' involvement. There are growing medico-legal pressures on practitioners to inform pare...