The identification and assessment of young children with movement difficulties

Abstract

The focus of this research study is the identification and assessment of children \naged 3 to 5 years with movement difficulties. It is concerned with the \nconstruction of the Early Years Movement Skills Checklist, which is an \nassessment instrument designed to be used flexibly by teachers and parents to \nidentify and assess young children with movement difficulties. The Checklist is \nin five sections: four sections contain activities which are functional in nature \nrelating to the child’s everyday life. The thinking behind this involves a belief \nsupported by the relevant literature that both assessment and intervention should \nbe as close as possible to the child’s daily experiences and interests. A fifth \nsection considers movement-related behaviours. \nThe collection of data involved Checklists being completed by teachers in 34 \nrandomly selected schools for 420 3 to 5 year old children. Analysis reveals that \nthe Early Years Movement Skills Checklist identifies movement difficulties in \nthis age group and significant differences are found between children who display \nmovement difficulties and those who do not. A reliability study involving \nmeasures for interrater and test-retest reliability was completed. The overall \ninterrater reliability correlation coefficient for the Checklist was 0.96 and the \noverall test-retest reliability correlation coefficient for the Checklist was 0.94; \nboth highly significant. A validity study focusing on the predictive validity \ncompared data collected from the Checklist with data from a normative motor \nskills test from the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Henderson & \nSugden, 1992). A significant correlation coefficient value of 0.76 was returned \nfor the whole of the selected sample. \nThe relationship between movement skill difficulties and movement-related \nbehaviours was investigated. Children with movement difficulties were found to \ndisplay a higher incidence of social and affective disorders than children without \nmovement difficulties. This finding is in line with current views on movement \ndifficulties and associated or concomitant difficulties. \nThe Early Years Movement Skills Checklist was found to be an efficient, speedy \nand accurate assessment instrument to aid in the identification of young children \nwith movement difficulties.

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