| Abstract: | Fifteen-month motor outcomes and 18-month neurological outcomes of term infants with (Group 1, n + 18) and without (Group 2, n + 18) low scores on the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) at 10-months-of-age were compared. Their scores on the AIMS did not differ at 15-months. Infants in Group 1, however, obtained significantly lower scores on the locomotor skill area of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales at 15 months and walked an average of 2 months later than infants in Group 2. Nevertheless, infants in both groups were functioning within the range of normal at 15 months and had neurologically normal 18-month outcomes, as assessed by a pediatrician using the Neurological Examination of the Collaborative Perinatal Project, except for one child in Group 1 who was identified as “suspicious” because he was not yet walking. The results suggest that motor delays detected at 10-months will not necessarily persist. Pediatric therapists are encouraged to consider normal variations in both rate and pattern of early motor development when making judgements about the results of norm-referenced tests. Instituting a practice of serial assessments, rather than relying on the results of one assessment, will improve the accuracy of identification of infants who exhibit persistent motor delay. |
