ArticlesConcurrent Validity of the Harris Infant Neuromotor Test and the Alberta Infant Motor Scale
Section snippets
Theoretical and Research Perspectives
Early childhood intervention has been defined by Shonkoff and Meisels (2000) as multidisciplinary services provided to children from birth to 5 years of age to promote child health and well-being, enhance emerging competencies, minimize developmental delays, remediate existing or emerging disabilities, prevent functional deterioration, and promote adaptive parenting and overall family functioning. These goals are accomplished by providing individualized developmental, educational, and
Instruments Tested for Concurrent Validity
The American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Disabilities, in their statement on developmental surveillance and screening of infants and young children, stated that “early recognition of delays requires in-depth knowledge of the precursors to the skill as well as clinical judgment” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). In other words, pediatric professionals should be cognizant of the timetables for developmental milestones to identify delayed attainment of skills as early as possible,
Methods
To examine the concurrent validity of the HINT with the AIMS, we used a comparative descriptive design to collect data on the neuromotor profiles of typical and at-risk infants. This convenience sample was composed of infants who are participating in our longitudinal investigation of neuromotor development during their first 36 months of life. Assessments in that longitudinal study occur at ages 4 to 6.5 months, 10 to 12.5 months, 2 years, and 3 years. Both the HINT and the AIMS were
Results
As is typical of longitudinal studies, we were unable to collect data for 12 infants at Time 2 (9.9% attrition from original sample). Fortunately, as seen in Table 1, there were no significant differences in the groups between Time 1 and Time 2 on any of the demographic characteristics, suggesting that the Time 2 age group is a representative subset of the earlier group. Reasons for not completing the second assessment included our inability to contact the family, missing the appropriate
Discussion
The HINT and AIMS are excellent screening tools for both hospital and community-based professionals. Widespread, community-based motor assessment can identify infants who require “watchful waiting” or referral for diagnostic assessment or specific interventions. With minimal training, the HINT and/or AIMS can be added to the “tool kits” of those nurses or other early childhood professionals who routinely see infants in their practice, contributing to the potential to improve overall health and
Acknowledgments
Funding for this study was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as part of the CHILD Project for which Dr. Hillel Goelman is Principal Investigator. Dr. Jonathan Berkowitz is our statistician. We wish to thank our community partner, Dr. Dana Brynelsen, for her written input and advice on earlier drafts of this article. Also, we are very grateful to our community assessors who collected the test scores and to the infants and families who participated in our
References (43)
- et al.
Reliability and validity of the Harris Infant Neuromotor Test
Journal of Pediatrics
(2001) - et al.
Early gross motor development of preterm infants according to the Alberta Infant Motor Scale
Journal of Pediatrics
(2006) Developmental surveillance and screening of infants and young children
Pediatrics
(2001)- et al.
Longitudinal performance of infants with cerebral palsy on the Test of Infant Motor Performance and on the Alberta Infant Motor Test
Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics
(2003) - et al.
Use of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale to characterize the motor development of infants born preterm at eight months corrected age
Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics
(2003) Bayley scales of infant development
(1969)Bayley scales of infant development
(1993)Bayley scales of infant and toddler development
(2006)- et al.
Interrrater reliability of early intervention providers scoring the Alberta Infant Motor Scale
Pediatric Physical Therapy
(2004) - et al.
A systematic review of the effects of early intervention on motor development
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
(2005)
The effects of an early physical therapy intervention for very preterm, very low birth weight infants: A randomized controlled clinical trial
Pediatric Physical Therapy
Construct validity of the Test of Infant Motor Performance
Physical Therapy
Analysis of current motor development theory and recently published infant motor assessments
Infants & Young Children
Movement assessment of infants: A manual
Critique of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS)
Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics
Nursing assessment of families with young children: Developmental screening tools for home use
Home Health Care Manage Practice
Assessment of gross motor skills of at-risk infants: Predictive validity of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
Infant and motor development
Clinical Orthopedics & Related Research
Peabody development motor scales and activity cards: A manual
Peabody developmental motor scales examiner's manual
The Denver II: A major revision and restandardization of the Denver Developmental Screening Test
Pediatrics
Cited by (16)
Growing up with Marshall syndrome: A case report from infancy to age 12.5 years
2024, American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part AReview on the early neurological assessment of high-risk infants
2021, Zhongguo Ertong Baojian ZazhiMotor development in infants - Conditioning factors and assessment methods
2019, Pediatria PolskaMotor function tests for 0-2-year-old children – A systematic review
2018, Danish Medical JournalEarly identifcation of motor delay: Family-centred screening tool
2016, Canadian Family Physician