Abstract:
The quasi-experimental research, a pre-test post-test design aimed to 1) compare premature infant development before and after receiving the Developmental Assessment for Intervention Manual (DAIM) program 2) compare knowledge and behaviors of caregivers before and after taking the program, and 3) compare knowledge and the behaviors of caregivers between experiment group and the control group. The participants of this study were selected by the purposive sampling technique and consisted of 30 children and their parents or caregivers, who were admitted in the newborn unit at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health. The subjects were divided into two groups, control and experimental, containing 15 subjects each. The tools used in this study consisted of 1) General information questionnaire, 2) DAIM handbook, 3) Knowledge questionnaire, 4) Behavior questionnaire, and 5) Telephone interview form and developmental check record. The research was conducted for 8 weeks. Data were analyzed using the McNemar test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed-Ranks Test. The results showed that 1) high-risk newborns in the experimental group exhibited age-appropriate development at a statistical significance level of p < .05, 2) The high-risk newborns in the experimental group significantly exhibited better development than those in the control group (p < .05), 3) Parents or caregivers in the experimental group showed markedly higher knowledge and behavior assessment scores after receiving the program (p < .05), 4) and they also exhibited remarkably higher knowledge assessment scores than those in the control group (p < .05). Behavior results between the experimental and control group were not statistically different.