A Pilot Study of Oral-Motor Dysfunction in “At-Risk” Infants

Abstract
The purposes of this pilot study were to devise a neonatal oral-motor assessment scale (NOMAS), and to correlate oral-motor function with feeding histories, perinatal-neonatal complications, neurologic status, and polygraphic recording of sucking. The methods used to study the at-risk infants were polygraphic amplification and recording of intra-oral pressure waves; scoring of sucking behavior with the NOMAS occurred concurrently with instrumental measurement. Both non-nutritive (NNS) and nutritive sucking (NS) modes were tested. Oral-motor performance tended to be disorganized or dysfunctional in infants with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and asphyxia neonatorum. Those infants with brain insults (IVH, hydrancephaly) showed slower sucking rates in NNS, and the degree of slowing of the rate when switched to NS was less in these higher-risk infants. The polygraphic data did not, however, distinguish those same infants who had abnormal NOMAS scores. Oral-motor dysfunction was identified only from 40 week...

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