Abstract
Abstract Introduction: The motor trajectory of pre-term children is an important indicator of health during infancy, since alterations may be a signal for the need of professional intervention. Objective: To describe percentiles and motor development curves for Brazilian preterm infants in the first year of life, determining the reference values for categorization of motor performance assessed by the AIMS. Methods: Participated in this cross-sectional study 976 children born pre-term, newly-born to 12 months of corrected age. The Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) was used to assess participants’ motor development. The scores of the Brazilian norms were used as comparison criteria. Results: Children born pre-term showed lower scores compared to children born full-term indicating the need for a specific percentile curve for that population. The scores differentiated at P1 to P99 percentiles allowing for the categorization of children with typical development, at risk and with atypical development. At 0, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 months an overlapping of extreme percentiles (P1, P5 and P10; P90, P95 and P99) was observed, but not in the other percentiles. Conclusion: The percentiles described indicate that preterm children presented lower motor performance than full-term children and AIMS has discriminant power for the clinical evaluation of these children. The developmental curves showed lower capacity for behavioral differentiation in the extreme percentiles.
Highlights
The motor trajectory of pre-term children is an important indicator of health during infancy, since alterations may be a signal for the need of professional intervention
The present study was conducted with children born prematurely in Brazil to determine reference values and categorization of motor performance for the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS)
The results indicate that preterm children, at the first year of life, present different motor trajectory when compared to those that were born full-term
Summary
The motor trajectory of pre-term children is an important indicator of health during infancy, since alterations may be a signal for the need of professional intervention. Motor abnormalities may be a first alert to professionals [2] and point to the need for continuous diagnostic research and compensatory services, especially for children with established risks such as prematurity [2] When compared to their at term peers, preterm children have underperformed in standardized tests; especially in the first year of age, being slower in the acquisition of motor milestones such as rolling over, sitting, crawling, standing and walking [2, 3]. Studies support the hypothesis that when prematurity is associated to low birth weight and inadequate intrauterine growth, delays are even higher [9] Research indicates that this is due to lower brain volume and slower brain metabolism in premature infants small for the gestational age [9, 10] and that these findings relate to motor development [9]. To provide appropriate interventional services, the use of sensitive and specific instruments that differentiate the severity level of the alterations and dysfunctions is essential [11, 12]
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