Several papers have reported that perceptual motor difficulties are
frequent in prematurely born children [1–3]. In low risk infants, in the
absence of cerebral palsy or major neurological impairment, some of
these difficulties may only become evident at preschool age, when
more sophisticated skills are required. Considering the effort, the time
and the costs, the duration of the follow-up of these children is however
still controversial. In order to establish if an early assessmentmay detect
possible early perceptual-motor difficulties,we recently used theMovement
Assessment Battery for Children 2nd edition (M-ABC 2) in a cohort
of 105 low-risk prematurely born children assessed between 3
and 4 years [4]. Fourteen percent of the children had borderline and
an additional 26% abnormal total score. Of the 26% with abnormal results,
approximately half (13%) refused to complete the examination
and, as suggested by the manual, were therefore also scored as abnormal.
The refusalswere significantly higher in children assessed between
3 years and 3 years 3 months than in the ones assessed at an older age.
As the study was a cross sectional one, however, we could not establish
if the abnormal scores were due to a possible delay in thematuration of
these activities or to true early abnormalities that would have persisted
on follow-up.