Infant Stimulation

infant stimulation program, approach to sensory enrichment for very young children, particularly those who are ill or who are otherwise deprived of typical sensory experiences. Infant stimulation is a process of providing supplemental sensory stimulation in any or all of the sensory modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, vestibular, olfactory, gustatory) to an infant as a therapeutic intervention. The intervention uses supplemental stimulation to compensate for the lack of normal or typical environmental sensory stimulation or the presence of abnormal or atypical environmental sensory stimulation. For example, sick infants born prematurely and hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are exposed to high levels of intense and aversive sensory stimulation related to necessary medical care (e.g., heal sticks and injections) and to the general NICU environment (e.g., intense lights and alarms). Furthermore, these sick infants do not receive the same caregiver stimulation and interaction that healthy full-term infants generally receive from their parents in the home environment.