Preconference A
Essential Concepts in Developmental Care
Jean Powlesland, MS, RN

Wednesday, October 1 (Morning)

Remarkable medical advances in the NICU have resulted in the survival of extremely fragile infants who are vulnerable to a variety of adverse, brain-based outcomes. This is due in large part to the experiential effects of life in the NICU during a highly sensitive period of brain development. Research has shown that individualized, developmentally supportive care can significantly improve both short and long term outcomes for prematurely born infants, as well as promote parental-infant attachment.

This session will provide an overview of the principles and practice of developmentally supportive care. A focus on intervention will highlight the implementation of individualized, behaviorally guided practice. An understanding of relationships as the organizing focus of all early development will be emphasized.

• Implications of brain developmental processes for the preterm infant in the NICU.

• Overview of research: Improving medical and developmental outcomes.

• Developmental practice: Individualized, behaviorally guided, family-centered care.

• Defining strategies for successful implementation of a developmental program.

Preconference B
Management of Difficult Behaviors: The Irritable, Fragile or Disorganized Infant
Kathleen A. VandenBerg, PhD

Wednesday, October 1 (Afternoon)

This Preconference will identify and interpret patterns of infant behavior including the newborn’s ability to manage incoming stimuli to organized and disorganized responses. Such responses may lead to disorganization, agitation, irritability, inconsolability and fragility. Strategies to prevent and minimize stress and facilitate state management, self regulation and the emergence of stable infant competence will be included.

• Identification of patterns of disorganized versus organized behaviors.

• Impact of environmental stimuli on state regulation.

• Preventing and managing agitation and over-stimulation.

• Facilitating deep sleep, calm awake and stable state control.

• Intervention strategies to promote developmental competence.

Preconference C
Development of Feeding Skills in the Preterm and Term Infant
Marjorie Meyer Palmer, MA, LSP
Erin Sundseth Ross, PhD, CCC-SLP

Wednesday, October 1 (All Day)

Feeding is a complex motor task that requires the coordination and integration of the physiologic, motor/sensory, state and attention systems. Each of these subsystems support the normal feeding progression for infants and can be identified in developmental steps towards successful feeding which are not dependent on experience, but rather on maturation. The NICU disrupts the development of feeding and may have long-term impact on overall feeding performance of preterm, medically fragile and chronically ill infants.

Due to their immaturity, premature infants are compromised in several areas of their development and frequently have difficulty with the coordination of suck/swallow and respiration. The evaluation of reflexive sucking patterns (normal, disorganized and dysfunctional) can serve as a reliable indicator of feeding readiness and competency, and a predictor of later developmental outcome.

• Developmental readiness to feed: Anatomic and physiologic considerations.

• Development of feeding skill acquisition.

• Difficulties with feeding progression.

• Identification of disorganized versus dysfunctional sucking patterns, sucking variations in breast and bottle feeding.

• Diagnostic based intervention for the poor feeder.

• Caregiver strategies and contributions to support the development of feeding.

Preconference D
The Role of Movement and Posture in Promoting Efficient Physiologic Performance in Preterm Infants
John Chappel, MA, RPT
Catherine R. Smith, PhD, PT, PCS

Wednesday, October 1 (All Day)

This Preconference will provide new perspectives on the reciprocal relationship between the infant’s movement system and physiologic behavioral stability, as well as explore linkages between motor behaviors and visceral system chain reactions. The session will also offer participants an opportunity to practice selected manual skills on one another designed to sensitize practitioners’ hands to better interpret the influence of handling interventions on the NICU infants thinking body.

Don’t miss this opportunity to look at “out of the box” concepts and expand your thinking about movement and posture in preterm infants.

• Discuss how movement and posture can serve as the Rosetta Stone of individualized Synactive developmental care.

• Explain how the movement system impacts all aspects of infant physiologic control and capabilities.

• Describe kinesiologic and physiologic linkages between key neuromuscular systems and structures.

• Interpret more accurately manual biofeedback information available during hands-on intervention activities.

• Identify strategies to promote improved adaptive motor system responses in the preterm infant.