LOOK-CHIL

Critically ill new-born babies can in the long term develop mental and/or motor problems, even when they are born at term.
Recently, it has been shown that when these children reach school age, they often have problems with ball skills. It seems
that these children have acquired some form of brain dysfunction due to critical illness, treatment in intensive care, and the
need for surgical interventions in the first phase of life. Based on currently available literature on long-term outcomes after
neonatal critical illness, our hypothesis is that the acquired brain dysfunction has led to problems with the translation of visual information (e.g. determining the position and speed of the ball) into a goal-directed motor action (i.e. a coordinated eye-hand movement for catching the ball). This process in the brain is termed visuomotor integration (VMI).
Do neonatal critically ill children aged 9-16 years have problems with visuomotor integration? If yes, which aspects of the visuomotor integration are affected and require a possible intervention?

The acquired brain dysfunction after critical illness in the neonatal period has led to problems with the translation of visual information (e.g. determining the position and speed of the ball) into a goal-directed motor action (i.e. a coordinated eye-hand movement for catching the ball). This process in the brain is termed visuomotor integration (VMI).

All measurements took place at one day.

Observational research