A general movements assessment is a type of medical assessment used in the diagnosis of

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sens ...

, and is particularly used to follow up high-risk neonatal cases. The general movements assessment involves measuring movements that occur spontaneously among those less than four months of age and appears to be most accurate test for the condition. These include the tonic neck reflex,

grasp reflex Palmar grasp reflex (or grasp reflex) is a primitive and involuntary reflex found in infants of humans and most primates. When an object, such as an adult finger, is placed in an infant's palm, the infant's fingers reflexively grasp the object. ...

Moro reflex The Moro reflex is an infantile reflex that develops between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation and disappears at 3–6 months of age. It is a response to a sudden loss of support and involves three distinct components: # spreading out the arms ( abdu ...

, tongue thrust reflex and rooting reflexes. The quality of the child's general movements gives information about how the brain connects, particularly the periventricular

white matter White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system (CNS) that are mainly made up of myelinated axons, also called tracts. Long thought to be passive tissue, white matter affects learning and brain functions, modulating the distributi ...

. The GMA is best performed 3 months post-term (if the child was born prematurely, the assessment date is not at three months old, but is conducted at the same time as if they were born at term). At around that time, in typical infants, a pattern called 'fidgety movements' is evident, and if the movements are abnormal or the fidgety movements are not apparent, the child is at risk of developing CP. A pattern known as 'writhing movements' frequently gives false positives for cerebral palsy.

References

{{Med-stub Cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes

See also

References