The Infant Motor Profile (IMP) is a novel instrument used to assess the motor behavior of infants between three and 18 months of age or until they acquire independent walking by three months. The instrument provides qualitative and quantitative information about motor development through the domains: of variation (size of movement repertoire), adaptability (ability to select specific motor strategies for the required task), symmetry (presence of asymmetries of body segments during voluntary activities), fluency (execution of movements in a smooth, elegant and effortless way when carrying out voluntary activities), performance (or motor performance, corresponds to the number of motor skills that the infant was able to perform) and the total score (sum of all previous scores). In this way, the IMP offers essential information for clinical practice not provided by another neuromotor assessment instrument. Additionally, the IMP is an easy, quick-use, and affordable instrument for health professionals with validated and reliable psychometric properties. Due to its clinical relevance, it was recently translated into Brazilian Portuguese.

This study aims to verify the concurrent validity of the translated Brazilian Portuguese version of the IMP with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) in Brazilian infants.

Participated in this study 24 infants at four months old (4.27±0.5, 58.33% male) and 24 infants at six months old (6.33±0.04, 58.33% male). The motor development was assessed using the translated Brazilian Portuguese version of the IMP and AIMS. Parametric and non-parametric statistics tests were performed.

At four months old, AIMS correlated moderately (rho=0.529, p=0.008) with IMP total score, fairly with variation (rho=0.478, p=0.018) and performance (rho=0.468, p=0.021) domains of IMP. At six months old, AIMS correlated fairly (r=0.490, p=0.015) with IMP total score and moderately (r=0.727, p=0.000) with the performance domain of the IMP.

The present study confirms the concurrent validity of the translated Brazilian Portuguese version of the IMP with the AIMS. The correlation was higher for the performance domain, even though it was not Strong, which is justified by the fact that the IMP still evaluates other characteristics, e.g., fine motor skills.

The IMP-translated version to Brazilian Portuguese remains the psychometric properties of the original English version. Therefore, we strongly advise Brazilian health professionals to use the translated version when assessing infant's and children's motor behavior. The IMP will allow early detection and intervention individualized tailored to the infant's needs.