Development of the Test of Infant Motor Performance

Comparison of Motor Development of Preterm and Full Term Infants

“…The observed items score behaviors reflecting infants' spontaneous attempts to change position or to orient the body in various ways, selective movement of individual body segments, and performance of qualitative types of movements 10) . Performance of elicited items reflects an infant's ability to solve movement "problems" posed to elicit evidence of developing postural control in a variety of spatial orientations 7) . The differences in head control-anterior neck muscles (item 17 of Table 3), head control-lowered from sitting (18), defensive reaction-arm movement (26), pull to sit (32), lateral straightening of the head and body with arm support (33), lateral hip abduction reaction (34), prone suspension (35), lateral hip abduction (36) of the elicited items between full-term infants and premature infants were significant.…”

“…Head control is an important aspect of postural development in the early months of life and is frequently impaired in children with cerebral palsy. An infant's ability to independently control head position in a variety of spatial orientations and in response to a variety of sensory and social stimuli is important 7) . Preterm infants have more difficulty in maintaining a long-lasting position in the prone position, and soon expanded the areas of load bearing, demanding less participation of head and limbs to explore the environment 5) .…”

“…One of the new assessment methods being used in Korea, the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP) was developed by Campbell and colleagues 6) . It was designed for use with prematurely born infants from 32 weeks gestational age up to about 4 months after term-equivalent age, or for full-term infants up to 4 months of age 7), as they interact with people, objects, and their environment 8) . In this study, TIMP was used to compare the development characteristics of preterm infants and full-term infants.…”

A comparison of developmental assessments of the newborn and young infant

“…Validation of the content of the TIMP was conducted using a panel of experts for item generation and through multifaceted Rasch analysis, where 90% of the items generated by the panel fit the model [Campbell et al, 1993]. Criterion content validity studies showed that 1) the test differentiated between the level of maturity (r ϭ 0.83) and the medical risk of the sample (r ϭ 0.85) and 2) that the TIMP observed scale correlated at 50% with the demands of caregivers whereas the elicited scale corresponded at 98% [Campbell et al, 1995;Murney and Campbell, 1998].…”

“…Construct validity was reported in the pilot version of the TIMP, which was sensitive to detecting the effects of a clinical trial providing neurodevelopmental therapy to a sample of high-risk infants [Girolami and Campbell, 1994]. Intra-and interrater reliability was high (Ͻ5% misfit Rasch model) [Campbell et al, 1993]. The TIMP has excellent content and face validity, construct validity.…”