Interrater reliability of early intervention providers scoring the alberta infant motor scale

Abstract

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the interrater reliability of early intervention providers scoring of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) and to examine whether training on the AIMS would improve their interrater reliability.

Methods: Eight early intervention providers were randomly assigned to two groups. Participants in Group 1 scored the AIMS on seven videotapes of infants prior to receiving training and after training on another set of seven videotapes of infants. Participants in Group 2 scored the AIMS on all 14 videotapes of the infants after receiving training.

Results: Overall interrater reliability before and after training was high with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.98 to 0.99. Detailed examination of the results showed that training improved the reliability of the supine subscale in a subgroup of infants between the ages of five and seven months. Training also had an effect on the classification of infants as normal or abnormal in their motor development based on their percentile rankings.

Conclusion: The AIMS manual provides sufficient information to attain high interrater reliability without training, but revisions regarding scoring are strongly recommended.