The smart coverall follows the motor development of babies
Newswise – New wearable technology creates new opportunities to assess the neurological development of young children. Early motor assessment is necessary to support early detection of neurodevelopmental problems and their therapeutic interventions.
A Finnish research group at the BABA Center, Helsinki Children’s Clinic, has developed a new type of wearable for babies for the reliable assessment of motor abilities. The Intelligent Jumpsuit MAIJU (Motor Assessment of Infants with a Jumpsuit) is a wearable medical device equipped with several motion sensors to help assess and predict children’s neurological development.
In their recent study, the researchers measured babies aged 5 to 19 months using a MAIJU coverall during spontaneous play, mostly in the children’s own home environment. At the beginning of the study, the positions and movements of the babies were visually identified from the video recording using the mobility imaging system developed for this study. This data was then used to train an algorithm based on machine learning to identify the same postures and movements with an accuracy of every second of each child’s playing time, corresponding to a visual assessment by a trained expert.
“The development of the MAIJU wearable product required a technical breakthrough in the development of machine learning algorithms for this purpose. This was achieved by combining a new kind of motility description with state-of-the-art in-depth learning solutions, ”says Dr. Manu Airaksinen.
New methods for studying neurological development
The MAIJU coverall and related analytical solutions enable both the assessment and monitoring of a child’s motor maturation with unprecedented accuracy. This progress can be exploited in many ways, such as early clinical diagnostics and other developmental evaluations, and also allows efficacy to be measured in a variety of medical treatments and therapies.
“Our research shows that it is very possible to assess a baby’s motor development outside of a hospital or specialty laboratory facility. The special advantage of the MAIJU methodology is that it allows us to make developmental assessments in a child’s natural environment, such as at home or in kindergarten, ”says. Sampsa Old HouseProfessor of Physiology and Director of the BABA Center.
“Such methods are urgently needed to support research into early neurological development and new therapeutic innovations,” confirms. Leena Haataja, Professor of Pediatric Neurology.
The earlier the delays in nervous system development and the associated challenges are identified, the better we can support a child’s future development and lifelong neurocognitive performance.
Children move to learn
It is now generally accepted that the motor development of a young child is not independent of all other neurocognitive development. The child’s strong innate desire to move is born out of a clear need: the child needs to move around a lot to gain experience and learn from the surrounding environment.
“That is why it is important to encourage children to move as naturally as possible and in everyday situations as much as possible,” says Haataja.
A child with motor or other neurological problems needs special support or treatments that work best if they are part of the child’s daily life and environment. MAIJU smart jumpsuit makes it possible to find better therapeutic strategies in such situations and to evaluate the effectiveness of such treatments.
New applications for wearers
Developing a smart wearable device for medical use is many times more difficult than launching a consumer product. The Old House believes that the development of products that can be worn with their successful work has a broad global impact and a bright future.
“Our methods can be automated and scaled for very wide use. It is also possible that our technology could be adapted to develop wearable solutions to help other patient groups, such as older children or even the elderly.
Original article: Airaksinen, M., Gallen, A., Kivi, A., Vijayakrishnan, P., Häyrinen, T., Ilén, E., Räsänen, O., Haataja, L., Vanhatalo, S. Smart wear enables external laboratory monitoring of the development of infants’ motor abilities. Commun. Med. 2022. DOI: 10.1038 / s43856-022-00131-6