Exploring early crawling in 3-month-old infants : insights from the Crawliskate©

Diplôme Master Exploring early crawling in 3-month-old infants : insights from the Crawliskate© eng 2025-08-06 2025-07-22 author Timestit Laure Rachel Gisèle 406755 director Armand Stéphane 0000-0001-9144-4982 636265 Département de chirurgie (CHIRU) director De Beukelaer Nathalie 990560 Département de chirurgie (CHIRU) 47 BACKGROUND : Crawling is a key milestone in infant motor development, facilitating independent exploration of space and contributing to neuromuscular maturation. While kinematic studies have begun to characterize early crawling movement patterns, underlying muscle activity remains poorly understood. The present study aimed to provide a more comprehensive view of early crawling movements. METHODS : Three-dimensional (3D) motion capture and surface electromyography (sEMG) of quadriceps femoris, hamstrings, tibialis anterior and triceps surae, were simultaneously recorded during 2 conditions, i.e. in prone and/or on the Crawliskate©, at the (corrected) age of 3 months, in typically developing (TD) infants and those at high-risk (HR) for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). Among 3D motion capture data, only 2D video data were analyzed to quantify movement frequencies, durations, and intra-individual variability in durations. sEMG data were analyzed to quantify antagonistic coactivation indices. For the latter two outcomes, participants were included only if they demonstrated more than 5 movement occurences, separately for each movement type. Statistical analyses were performed only for movement frequencies and durations between prone and Crawliskate© conditions in the TD group, using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. RESULTS : 22 TD infants (11 males, 3.0 months [3.0; 3.2]) and 3 infants at HR for NDD (3 females with no major brain lesion, chronological age: 6.2 months [5.3; 6.3], corrected age: 2.8 months [2.3; 2.8]) were analyzed. Among TD infants, 10 contributed to both the prone and Crawliskate© conditions. All HR infants contributed only to the prone condition. No statistically significant difference was found for movement frequencies and durations between prone and Crawliskate© conditions in the TD group. However, several trends, along with the analysis of individual profiles, suggested that the Crawliskate© was associated with an increased frequency of leg steps, decreased frequency of leg kicks, shorter movement durations, and greater intra-individual variability in movement durations, compared to the prone condition. Moreover, in the HR group, step extensions were the most frequent movement type, and infants demonstrated fewer steps, more kicks, and overall shorter movement durations compared to TD infants. Regarding coactivation levels, no difference was observed, whether comparing conditions within the TD group, groups within the prone condition, or movement types within each condition and group. DISCUSSION : These findings suggest that the Crawliskate© promotes early step movements by enhancing limb movement freedom. Our exploratory comparison between TD infants and those at HR for NDD, even without major brain lesion, highlight the value of early motor assessment in preterm populations. FUTURE PERSPECTIVES : Future research should extend this framework through longitudinal designs with larger sample sizes (including infants with documented brain lesions), integrating upper and lower limb, full-cycle, bilateral analyses. Incorporating additional neuromuscular metrics (e.g., muscle synergies, spinal maps) and kinematic analyses obtained from both marker-based and markerless motion capture systems, may h Neurodevelopmental disorders High-risk infants Motor development Early crawling Crawliskate© 3D motion capture 2D video analysis Surface electromyography Antagonistic coactivations Dewey 616.8 Dewey 617 Master en Neurosciences 57 Département de chirurgie 222 16 Centre interfacultaire de neurosciences 0D9 false 900 Laboratoire de cinésiologie 943 107cddd5-2cd3-4af3-8712-2ad6f3c605f8 Master thesis Restricted Master_thesis_-_Laure_TIMESTIT.pdf 3380357 application/pdf 7ae114164f749f77cd806cf52e2b80c05bd33115ef2d0faa331c401963be59b4 restrictedAccess Faculté de médecine / Section de médecine clinique / Département de chirurgie Centres et instituts / Centre interfacultaire de neurosciences

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