Skateboard helps very premature babies develop their motor skills

A medical skateboard that allows very premature babies to move themselves around soon after birth reduces delays to their motor development.

About one-third of babies born very preterm – before 32 weeks of gestation – develop motor impairments, including delays in learning to crawl and walk, subtle motor problems such as difficulty catching a ball, or, in severe cases, conditions like cerebral palsy.

One reason for this is that babies born preterm have had less time to practise moving their limbs and developing their muscles inside the supportive environment of the uterus, says Marianne Barbu-Roth at Paris Cité University, France.