Instrumented Glove for Monitoring Oral Motor Kinetics During Non-Nutritive Feeding

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system device and method for monitoring infant oral motor kinetics (OMK), which can be used to assess the functional significance of the different sucking components, i.e., the plasticity of infant sucking skills in relation to their oral feeding performance, at a particular time, during the developmental period and/or during preventive or therapeutic intervention programs. It is a unique system and apparatus that provides a means to study the nonnutritive and/or nutritive sucking skills, i.e., the Suction and/or Expression components of sucking, of infants in the natural setting, i.e., during a normal feeding session. OMK sensors, tracked in real-time by the monitoring system, include miniature pressure transducers, or pressure sensitive pads, attached to the nipple for measuring intraoral pressure pulses during Suction, and for measuring compression/stripping pressure pulses during Expression; and a miniature flow sensor for measuring fluid flow rate, which can be integrated over time to determine the volume of milk removed (bolus) per suck. Other signals, such as respiration, swallowing, thermal, optical, and acoustic signals can be recorded and compared along with the instrumented-nipple signals, in an OMK monitoring system.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An instrumented glove for monitoring oral motor kinetics of a person who is sucking, comprising: a pressure sensitive pad attached to a finger of a glove;
 wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises an array of one or more pressure sensitive elements capable of providing a plurality of real-time electrical signals representing a temporal-spatial distribution of pressure forces applied to the finger by the person during sucking, when a portion of the glove's finger is placed in the person's mouth.   
     
     
         2 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the array of one or more pressure sensitive elements comprises a 1-dimensional array of elements; and wherein a longitudinal direction of the 1-dimensional array is aligned parallel to a longitudinal axis of the glove's finger. 
     
     
         3 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the array of one or more pressure sensitive elements comprises a 2-dimensional array of elements. 
     
     
         4 . The instrumented glove of  claim 3 , wherein a longitudinal direction of the 2-dimensional array is aligned parallel to a longitudinal axis of the glove's finger. 
     
     
         5 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad is attached to an exterior surface of the glove's finger. 
     
     
         6 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad is attached to an interior surface of the glove's finger. 
     
     
         7 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that sense changes in electrical capacitance. 
     
     
         8 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that sense changes in electrical resistance. 
     
     
         9 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that generate electrical signals by using a piezoelectric effect. 
     
     
         10 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad is glued to the glove's finger using a cyanoacrylate-based adhesive. 
     
     
         11 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more pressure sensitive elements are disposed on a flexible substrate that is attached to the glove's finger. 
     
     
         12 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more pressure sensitive elements comprise one or more pressure sensitive Micro-Electrical-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) elements. 
     
     
         13 . The instrumented glove of  claim 1 , wherein the pressure pad is covered with a protective coating that covers both an exterior of the pressure pad and a portion of an exterior surface of the glove's finger located adjacent to the pad. 
     
     
         14 . The instrumented glove of  claim 13 , wherein the protective coating comprises silicone. 
     
     
         15 . The instrumented glove of  claim 6 , further comprising at least one through-hole disposed through the glove's finger, wherein the hole is located over a pressure sensitive element. 
     
     
         16 . An instrumented glove for monitoring oral motor kinetics of a person who is sucking, comprising: a pressure sensitive pad attached to a finger of a glove; wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises an array of one or more pressure sensitive elements capable of providing a plurality of real-time electrical signals representing a temporal-spatial distribution of pressure forces applied to the finger by the person during sucking, when a portion of the glove's finger is placed in the person's mouth; wherein the one or more pressure sensitive elements are disposed on a flexible substrate that is attached to the glove's finger. 
     
     
         17 . The instrumented glove of  claim 16 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that sense changes in electrical capacitance. 
     
     
         18 . The instrumented glove of  claim 16 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that sense changes in electrical resistance. 
     
     
         19 . The instrumented glove of  claim 16 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that generate electrical signals by using a piezoelectric effect. 
     
     
         20 . An instrumented glove for monitoring oral motor kinetics of a person who is sucking, comprising: a pressure sensitive pad attached to a finger of a glove; wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises an array of one or more pressure sensitive elements capable of providing a plurality of real-time electrical signals representing a temporal-spatial distribution of pressure forces applied to the finger by the person during sucking, when a portion of the glove's finger is placed in the person's mouth; wherein the one or more pressure sensitive elements are disposed on a rigid substrate that is attached to the glove's finger. 
     
     
         21 . The instrumented glove of  claim 20 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that sense changes in electrical capacitance. 
     
     
         22 . The instrumented glove of  claim 20 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that sense changes in electrical resistance. 
     
     
         23 . The instrumented glove of  claim 20 , wherein the pressure sensitive pad comprises one or more active pressure sensing elements that generate electrical signals by using a piezoelectric effect.