Agreement Between Alberta Infant Motor Scale Assessment and Maternal Perception of Motor Development in Full-Term Infants

ABSTRACT Objectives To verify the agreement between the Alberta Infant Motor Scale assessment and maternal perception of the motor development in full-term infants. Methods This is a cross-sectional study involving 161 infants and mothers. Children were assessed with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) for motor developmental classification. Mothers completed questionnaires aiming to identify maternal profiles and impressions about their children’s development. The kappa test was used to analyze the concordance between AIMS and mother perceptions. Results A total of 83.2% of the sample was classified as typically developing and 16.8% as suspected or delayed development. The maternal impression indicates that 77% of infants are developing typically, 19.9% perceived their infants’ development as advanced, and 3.1% delayed development. There was low agreement between the mothers’ perceptions and AIMS classifications (kappa = 0.153) Conclusions Maternal perception of their infant’s development was unsatisfactory for evaluation of motor development because their perceptions did not agree with the findings of the AIMS.