Reliability and validity of the Harris Infant Neuromotor Test

Abstract

Objective: To examine the reliability and validity of the Harris Infant Neuromotor Test (HINT), a screening tool that can be administered and scored in <30 minutes, with the goal of identifying neuromotor differences in infants aged 3 to 12 months. Study design: Infants, aged 3 to 12 months (n = 54), were assessed in 2 high-risk infant follow-up programs in Vancouver, British Columbia. Inter-rater, test-retest, and intra-rater reliability were examined. Concurrent and predictive validity of the HINT with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II) were evaluated by using the Pearson product-moment correlation. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficients for reliability for the Total HINT Score ranged from 0.98 to 0.99. Concurrent validity of the HINT with the BSID-II Mental Scale during the first year was r = –0.73 (P <.01), and with the BSID-II Motor Scale, r = –0.89 (P <.01). The predictive relationships between the HINT and the BSID-II at 17 to 22 months werer = –0.11 for the BSID-II Mental Scale and r = –0.49 (P <.01) for the BSID-II Motor Scale. Conclusions: The HINT is reliable for screening infant neuromotor performance and has strong concurrent validity with the Bayley-II Mental and Motor Scales. HINT scores during the first year accounted for 24% of the variance of Bayley-II Motor scores at 17 to 22 months. (J Pediatr 2001;139:249-53)