Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition: Theoretical Adequacy of a Motor Assessment Instrument

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the adequacy of the theoretical model of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (MABC-2) instrument. Methods: 582 children, of both sexes, aged between 3 and 5 years and residents in the city of Maringá (state of Paraná, Southern Brazil) participated in the study. Data were collected from May/2014 to June/2015 and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The evidence obtained from exploratory factor analysis indicated the presence of two factors, which was the option that best fitted the explanatory model. Hence, it was necessary to regroup the motor tasks of the dimensions “Aiming & catching” and “Balance” into only one dimension. It is noteworthy that the “Bicycle trail” motor task did not fit the model, as it presented a low and negative factor load in the analyzed dimensions. In the confirmatory factor analysis, adequate adjustment indices were observed for the tested model, which confirmed the non-classification of the “Bicycle trail” motor task in the original dimension. Conclusions: After removing the “Bicycle trail” motor task, the adjusted two-factor model seems to be the most appropriate to assess the motor performance of children participating in the study.

Preliminary Adaptation of Motor Tests to Evaluate Fine Motor Skills Associated with Mathematical Skills in Preschoolers

“…In a study carried out in China, the authors concluded that the reproducibility and validity of band 1 of the MABC-2 were poor, emphasizing the need to adjust part of the items to improve the psychometric properties of the test when applied to Chinese children aged 3 to 6 years [74]. For example, studies have shown that, in the Manual Dexterity dimension of band 1, the bike trail task showed low correlation with the threading beads task [57,74,76,77], and the reliability value increased when the bike trail item was removed from the analysis [63,64,68]. Regarding the classification of the child's motor performance, a study carried out in the Netherlands [69], in which the original cut-off points for the diagnosis of motor disorder were maintained (≤7), the study concluded that there would be a higher number of children classified with motor disorder than expected, ranging from 16.2 to 31.3%, depending on the motor task evaluated.…”

“…The threading beads test evaluates the ability to thread cubes on a string, with a metal pointed tip, as quickly as possible (6 cubes for children aged 3 and 4 years and 12 cubes for children aged 5 and 6 years). Studies have shown high correlations between the threading beads test and insert coins test [57][58][59]. High correlations between tests indicate that they are measuring the same abilities; on the other hand, if the correlations are low, they would be measuring different abilities [60].…”