The General Movements assessmenta

Abstract

The General Movements assessment was described and developed by the Austrian professor Heinz Prechtl. This method is effective, cost-effective and has been developed for detecting issues which may lead to cerebral palsy. It's possible to conduct the examination from birth, even in neonates, up to 20 weeks of corrected age. The principle of this method is the assessment using a video recording of the spontaneous motor performance of the infant, in which the examiner is searching for key fragments of the motor performance characteristics typical for the age of the infant. The sensitivity of the General Movement assessment for detection of future development of cerebral palsy is 97% and the specificity is also 97%. Unfortunately, despite its efficiency, this technique is underestimated and isn't widely used in the Czech Republic.