A study conducted by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and published in JAMA Network Open found that motion-tracking devices worn on children's wrists were able to detect subtle motor impairments that can indicate developmental delays but are often overlooked.
In the study, 185 children aged 0 to 17 with and without a history of motor deficits wore accelerometers on both of their wrists in 25-hour increments. Two devices were used per child in order to observe whether they were favoring one side, which, in certain situations, can indicate that a stroke or other brain injury occurred in very early childhood.
With the data gathered from the devices, researchers were able to identify certain motor deficiencies linked to developmental delays and disabilities like cerebral palsy that can be hard for untrained parents to detect and difficult for physicians to spot in brief clinical visits.
"Motor development is the earliest observable benchmark of developmental progress because of its rapid, predictable advancement in young children," the study reads. "Hence, simple, affordable, and quantitative measurements of movement using wearable biosensors, such as accelerometers, during childhood could improve pediatric screenings for developmental delays."
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