Abstract
The assessment of muscle tone is an integral part of the neurological examination of infants and children. Detection of an alteration in muscle tone aids in establishing a diagnosis, is used as justification for therapeutic services, and is viewed as an indicator of neurological change. The purpose of this study was to establish the degree of interrater reliability among pediatric physical therapists in the assessment of muscle tone in children age birth to three years. Six physical therapists were raters. Each rater was randomly assigned to nine evaluations. Eighteen children were evaluated by a group of three raters. The testing protocol included observation of the child's spontaneous movement for 10 minutes, followed by a 10 minute assessment period in which the raters individually assesssed the child using the rater's preferred method of evaluation. Following the evaluation, each rater completed a tone summary form, scoring: (1) clinical impression of abnormality, (2) tone sumary statement, and (3) to...
Published Version
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