Therapeutic Intervention Supporting Development From the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to 6 Months for Infants Post Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

Infants randomly assigned to this arm will not receive any study intervention but will continue with any intervention in the community recommended by their health care team.

Infants randomly assigned to this arm will participate in the sensorimotor intervention starting in the hospital and lasting for 6 months. This intervention includes 10 visits with a physical or occupational therapist and parent working together to advance an intervention program and 6 months of parent daily intervention. In addition, this arm will continue with any intervention in the community recommended by their health care team.

Infants in the experimental group will receive 2 sensorimotor intervention sessions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and 8 sensorimotor intervention sessions in the home or in a clinic (parent choice) at 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 20, 26 weeks post NICU discharge. The 2 intervention sessions in the NICU will consist of collaborating with parents to recognize their infant's cues to engage in interaction, readiness for sensory exposures, and anticipatory guidance on the transition to home. The 8 intervention sessions in the home will focus on supporting the parents to read their infant's cues to identify the ideal times for interaction and provide 20 minutes of daily intervention addressing four key principles: encourage 1) self-initiated movement, 2) movement variability, 3) visual and manual object interaction, and 4) social interaction. Parents are encouraged not to impose movement on the infant but to encourage movement through environmental enrichment