Infant’s Behaviour Checklist for low birth weight infants and later neurodevelopmental outcome

Assessment of the characteristics of spontaneous movements and behaviour in early infancy helps in estimating developmental outcomes. We introduced the Infant Behaviour Checklist (IBC) and examined the relationship between the behavioural characteristics of low-birth-weight infants and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 6 years of age. The behavioural characteristics during the neonatal (36–43 weeks, adjusted) and early infancy periods (49–60 weeks, adjusted) were assessed in very-low-birth-weight infants. The IBC includes 44 common behaviours. We assessed the appearance of individual behavioural characteristics at each period according to the neurodevelopmental outcome. Of the 143 infants assessed during the neonatal period, 89 had typical development (TD), 30 had intellectual disability (ID), and 24 had autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In 78 infants assessed during early infancy, 40, 21, and 17 had TD, ID, and ASD, respectively. The frequency of appearance of three behaviour-related items was significantly lower in the ID group than in the TD group. The frequency of appearance of three posture- and behaviour-related items was significantly lower, while that of two posture-related items was significantly higher, in the ASD group than in the TD group. Behavioural assessment using the IBC may provide promising clues when considering early intervention for low-birth-weight infants.