Abstract
Significant differences in movement quality at term are reported in high-risk preterm (n = 18), low-risk preterm (n = 21) and term (n = 20) infants. Movement quality was judged using 2-minute video collection of general movements; three parameters of movement quality could be assessed reliably in a semi-quantitative way: fluency, spatiotemporal variability and sequencing. The parameters fluency and variability correlated highly with each other (r = 0.47–0.99) while their correlations with sequencing were less (r = 0.42–0.67). Significant differences on all quality parameters were noted between term, low-risk preterm and high-risk preterm infants (p < 0.001–0.05). The findings indicate a significant impact of prematurity per se and brain damage on movement quality.