CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO DESEMPENHO MOTOR DE LACTENTES PELA ESCALA INFANT MOTOR PROFILE

Abstract

In the first months of life, a baby's brain exhibits significant plasticity, making it more susceptible to brain injuries, but also, for the same reason, this period is ideal for initiating intervention to reduce the impact of risk factors. The Infant Motor Profile (IMP) is a tool that allows for the assessment of infant motor behavior, and its final results effectively reflect brain functional integrity and connectivity. However, the literature on typical infant motor behavior measured by the IMP is still quite limited, and there are no studies comparing the results between different age groups in Brazil. To compare motor behavior scores according to the IMP across different age ranges in infants aged 3 to 12 months. This is an analytical, cross-sectional study with primary data collection, conducted in the municipality of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), as part of a multicenter study based at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). A total of 54 infants aged 3 to 12 months, of both sexes, born at term and without pre-, peri-, or postnatal risk factors, were included from December 2022 to October 2024. The IMP was applied, with overall motor behavior (typical or atypical) and the domains of variation, fluency, symmetry, and performance as dependent variables, and age range as the independent variable. There was a higher proportion of atypical variability in the first semester of life compared to the second semester (p=0.047). The findings demonstrate a dynamic process in evaluations in semi-annual age group assessmentsin the domain of variation, justified mainly by the low experiencie of the babies evaluated in the first moment compared to the second.