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The validity and reliability of a scoring system for 'neurological soft signs' in teenagers was assessed. Six scales were adapted and fitted into the framework of a conventional neurological examination. The following emerged: each of the three multi-item scales had high internal consistency; inter-rater agreement on mirror movements of 'live' subjects was satisfactory; ratings of videotapes agreed among examiners for mirror movements and dysdiadochokinesis but not for choreiform movements; data-based cut-off scores defining present vs. absent were congruent with the ratings of outside neurologists; and each examiner was consistent in rating mirror movements and rapid alternating movements from videotapes over several months.

To assess 'soft-sign' persistence and its correlates outside a referred sample, 159 members of a local birth cohort of the United National Collaborative Perinatal Project were traced and their performance on six neurological test scales was measured at age 17 by examiners blind to their status at age seven. A comparison group was also formed, who had been 'sign-free' at age seven. On four of the six tests (dysdiadochokinesis, mirror movements, dysgraphesthesia and motor slowness) index boys did significantly worse than the comparison boys; by contrast, index girls scored significantly worse than comparisons only on motor slowness.