Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 23, 2026
Quantified Assessment of Infant's Gross Motor Abilities Using a Multisensor Wearable
Published on: May 17, 2024
[Observation of general movements in newborns and young infants: prognostic and diagnostic value]
1Division of Child Neurology, University of Pisa, Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Pisa, Italia. cioni@inpe.unipi.it
Insights
General Movements (GMs) offer a novel approach to newborn neurological assessment. This method effectively identifies infants at high risk for cerebral palsy and predicts outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal neurology
- Developmental pediatrics
- Movement analysis
Context:
- Qualitative evaluation of spontaneous motor patterns in newborns and young infants.
- Focus on General Movements (GMs), gross movements involving the whole body.
- Application to fragile infants, including preterm infants in incubators.
Purpose:
- Describe a new approach to clinical and neurological assessment.
- Review research supporting the validity of GM assessment for clinical practice and research.
- Highlight suitability for fragile and preterm infants.
Summary:
- GM findings correlate strongly with neuroimaging and classical neurological examination results.
- High inter-observer reliability among trained observers.
- Effective for assessing neurological outcomes and predicting impairment severity.
Impact:
- Identifies infants at high risk for cerebral palsy early in life.
- Provides crucial information for predicting the type and severity of cerebral palsy.
- Facilitates early intervention and improved long-term outcomes for affected infants.
Objectives:
In this paper a new approach to clinical and neurological assessment of newborns and young infants is described, based on qualitative evaluation of spontaneous motor patterns, and particularly of General Movements (GMs), which are gross movements involving the whole body.
Development:
The results of several researchers on this topic, carried out in the last decade and supporting the validity of this method for clinical practice and for research, are reviewed. It is particularly suitable for being applied to fragile infants, such as preterm infants in the incubator. GM findings correlate very well with neuroimaging findings, and with the results of classical neurological examination, when this latter is applicable. Its results strongly correlate with the neurological outcome. Trained observers show a very high inter observer reliability.
Conclusions:
The technique is particularly useful to identify infants at high risk for cerebral palsy early in life, and provides useful information to predict its type and the severity of later functional impairment.
