Concurrent Validity of the Test of Infant Motor Performance

Developmental Characteristics of Infants According to their Gestational Age and Birth Weight

“…Head in midline (O-1) is a measure of the ability to independently maintain the head. Head control, the infant's ability to independently control head position in a variety of spatial orientations and in response to a variety of sensory stimuli, is an important aspect of postural development in the early months of life and is frequently impaired in children with cerebral palsy 15) . Isolated right ankle movement (O-9), which is considered to be an assessment of symmetry between the right and left side, was significantly different only among the three gestational age groups.…”

“…Isolated left ankle movement (O-8) and fidgety movement (O-10) are items that are hard to perform, and are performed by infants with high TIMP scores 15) . Responses of individuals with low birth weights or short gestational ages are weak, showing a difference from individuals with adequate weight or normal gestational ages.…”

“…Performance of these items reflects the infant's ability to solve movement "problems" posed to elicit evidence of developing postural control in a variety of spatial orientations 15) . Items E-1 through E-5 are associated with the head, and all of the five items were significantly different among the three gestational age groups.…”

“…Head control is an important aspect of postural development in the early months of life 5) . Right/left rolling elicited from the arms (E-17/18), pull to sit (E-19), and right/left head turn in prone position to sound (E-25/26) are difficult items to assess, and they may evaluate lateral righting of the head and trunk 15) . Diagonal and rotational components of movement require advanced levels of skill relative to sagittal-plane movements of flexion and extension 15) .…”

“…Right/left rolling elicited from the arms (E-17/18), pull to sit (E-19), and right/left head turn in prone position to sound (E-25/26) are difficult items to assess, and they may evaluate lateral righting of the head and trunk 15) . Diagonal and rotational components of movement require advanced levels of skill relative to sagittal-plane movements of flexion and extension 15) . In this study, E-18 and E-19 were different among the three groups classified according to both gestational age and birth weight, while E-25 and E-26 were not.…”