RATIONALE: Multisensory stimulation is a structured, developmentally appropriate intervention that provides simultaneous or sequential stimulation of two or more senses (e.g. tactile, auditory, visual, or vestibular) in a controlled and non-stressful manner, with the aim of supporting early neurodevelopment in preterm infants....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No actionable change for audiologists at this time; this Cochrane review targets neonatal care teams, and any audiology-relevant subfindings (e.g., auditory stimulation effects) would need to be extracted from the full review before changing practice.
As neonatal survival rates improve, understanding which multisensory interventions safely support early auditory and neurological development in preterm infants has downstream relevance for paediatric audiology and early intervention programmes.
- 01Cochrane systematic review (2026) evaluating multisensory stimulation in preterm infants.
- 02Interventions involve engaging two or more senses simultaneously or sequentially.
- 03Outcomes focus on developmental promotion and reduction of morbidity.
- 04Systematic reviews of RCTs represent the highest level of clinical evidence.
- 05Findings may have implications for early auditory stimulation protocols in NICUs.
Multisensory stimulation interventions promote development and reduce morbidity in preterm infants.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42689503
- DOI
- 10.1002/14651858.CD016073.pub2.
- Journal
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
- Publication type
- systematic_review
- Evidence level
- 1a
- Population
- Preterm infants receiving neonatal care
- Intervention
- Multisensory stimulation (engaging two or more senses simultaneously or sequentially)
- Comparator
- Standard care or single-sense stimulation
Primary outcomes
Neurodevelopmental outcomes; Morbidity incidence in preterm infants