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New reference values must be established for the Alberta Infant Motor Scales for accurate identification of infants at risk for motor developmental delay in Flanders
Child: Care, Health, and Development, 06/14/2012
De Kegel A et al. – Flemish infants recruited by formal day care services, show significantly lower motor scores than the Canadian norm population. New reference values should be established for the AIMS for accurate identification of infants at risk. Prevention of sudden infant death syndrome by promoting supine sleep position should go together with promotion of tummy time when awake and avoiding to spent too much time in sitting devices when awake.
Methods- A total of 270 Flemish infants between 0 and 18 months, recruited by formal day care services, were assessed with the AIMS by four trained physiotherapists.
- Information about sleep and play positioning was collected by mean of a questionnaire.
- Flemish infants perform significantly lower on the AIMS compared with the reference values (P < 0.001).
- Especially, infants from the age groups of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and of 15 months showed significantly lower scores.
- From the information collected by parental questionnaires, the lower motor scores seem to be related to the sleep position, the amount of play time in prone, in supine and in a sitting device.
- Infants who are exposed often to frequently to prone while awake showed a significant higher motor performance than infants who are exposed less to prone (<6 m: P = 0.002; >6 m: P = 0.013).
- Infants who are placed often to frequently in a sitting device in the first 6 months of life (P = 0.010) and in supine after 6 months (P = 0.001) performed significantly lower than those who are placed less in it.
