OBJECTIVE: To study the infancy symptoms of premature birth children with cerebral palsy so as to provide a criterion for early screening and diagnosis of cerebral palsy.METHODS: The incidence of cerebral palsy and its infancy symptoms were investigated in 4 167 pre term birth children ranging from 1-6 years old from 7 counties/cities of Jiangsu Province. Pediatricians and health care doctors finished the investigation.RESULTS: The average incidence of cerebral palsy in pre term birth children was 32.9‰ . The incidence of cerebral palsy in pre term birth children with the gestational age of less than 32 weeks was 3.6 times as much as that in ones with the gestational age of 34-37 weeks. The positive rate of infancy symptoms of cerebral palsy was 30%-62%, with the specificity over 99.4% and veracity over 97.2% . The positive expected value was over 80%, and negative one was over 97.5% . CONCLUSIONS: The infancy symptoms of cerebral palsy can be used for early screening and diagnosis for cerebral palsy in premature birth children.