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To compare changes in motor development from 1 to 5 years of age among 18 children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and 12 with univentricular heart to 42 children without heart defect.Motor development was assessed with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale and Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC).Children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome or univentricular heart had significantly lower scores on the Alberta Infant Motor Scale test at the age of 1 and on the Movement ABC test at the age of 5 years compared with controls. Children with clear abnormalities on brain magnetic resonance imaging had lower scores compared with those with normal images or mild changes, and their relative motor scores decreased during follow-up.Some children with univentricular heart defects may benefit from physiotherapeutic interventions to support their motor development.

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a condition that results in an impairment of gross and/or fine motor coordination. Compromised motor coordination contributes to lower levels of physical activity, which is associated with elevated body fat. The impact of elevated body fat on motor coordination diagnostic assessments in children with DCD has not been established. The purpose of this study was to determine if relative body fat influences performance on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd Edition (MABC-2) test items in children with and without DCD. A nested case-control, design was conducted within the Physical Health Activity Study Team longitudinal cohort study. The MABC-2 was used to assess motor coordination to categorize cases and matched controls. Relative body fat was assessed using whole body air displacement plethysmography. Relative body fat was negatively associated with the MABC-2 "balance" subcategory after adjusting for physical activity and DCD status. Relative body fat did not influence the subcategories of "manual dexterity" or "aiming and catching". Item analysis of the three balance tasks indicated that relative body fat significantly influences both "2-board balance" and "zig-zag hopping", but not "walking heel-toe backwards". Children with higher levels of relative body fat do not perform as well on the MABC-2, regardless of whether the have DCD or not. Dynamic balance test items are most negatively influenced by body fat. Health practitioners and researchers should be aware that body fat can influence results when interpreting MABC-2 test scores.

This pilot study, which included a group of 33 boys and 12 girls (5.4 to 10.7 years) with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) aimed to analyze (1) the effects of a combined approach on motor coordination, occupational performance, and quality of life and (2) the relationship between motor coordination and occupational performance. Movement ABC (M-ABC) and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) were administered at the beginning of occupational therapy (T1) and after 3 (T2) and 9 months (T3). Results showed significant improvements at T2 in the COPM and at T3 in the M-ABC. No relationship between the results of M-ABC and those of COPM was found.

An established test instrument for the assessment of motor performance in children between 3 and 16 years is the Movement Assessment Battery for Children – Second Edition (M-ABC-2). The Zurich Neuromotor Assessment (ZNA) is also widely used for the evaluation of children’s motor performance but has not been compared with the M-ABC-2 for children below five years for the purpose of convergent validity. Forty-seven children (26 boys, 21 girls) between three and five years of age were assessed using the M-ABC-2 and the ZNA3-5. Rank correlations between scores of different test components were calculated. Only low-to-moderate correlations were observed when separate components of these tests were compared (.31 to .68, p .05). However, the correlation between summary scores of the two tests was .77 ( p

Aim To investigate whether behaviour problems are independently related to mild motor impairment in 11–13‐year‐old children born preterm with extremely low birthweight (ELBW). Methods The cross‐sectional study included 48 (27 males) non‐disabled, otherwise healthy ELBW children (

This study examines the motor skills and executive functioning (EF) of 28 children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS; mean age: 10 years 6 months, range: 7-12 years; 19 boys, 9 girls) in comparison with age- and gender-matched typically developing children. The potential relationship between motor performance and EF in children with PDD-NOS is investigated as well. The children's motor skills were evaluated with the Movement ABC. EF, in terms of planning ability, strategic decision making, and problem solving, was gauged with the Tower of London (TOL) task. Compared with their typically developing peers, the children with PDD-NOS scored poor on the Movement ABC (p

In three separate manipulations, a group of children at risk for developmental coordination disorder (DCD; five males, seven females; mean age 11y 6mo [SD 6.8mo] who were at or below the 15th centile on the Movement ABC) and a group of typically developing children (TDC; seven males, five females; mean age 11y 3mo [SD 6.8mo]) judged the limit of their standing horizontal reach (HRmax) under two conditions in which actual HRmax differed. The manipulations were: (1) one-hand versus two-hand reach; and (2) standard versus short effective foot-length; and (3) rigid versus compliant support surface. For the foot-length and support surface manipulations (but not for the hand manipulation), children correctly judged that their actual HRmax differed in the two conditions (p

The aim of the present project was to study aspects of reliability and validity of the qualitative motor observations in the Swedish version of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC). In total 12 children, divided into three groups, were assessed by 18 experienced physical and occupational therapists. Four of the children were typically developed, four fulfilled the criteria for Developmental Coordination Disorder and four were diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy. A video recording with the 12 children performing two of the eight items of the normative part of Movement ABC were sent to the 18 therapists. The therapists scored the performance of the children according to the guidelines given for the qualitative motor observations. They were informed of the age of the children but blinded to the result of the normative part of the Movement ABC and the children's diagnoses. The inter-rater reliability was moderate to high (ICC=0.75) for the two items together. The total number of observed...

Background Strabismus is one of the most common visual disorders in infancy. While there is a great attention on the effects of the timing of surgery as to the development of binocular vision, little is known about the possible influence of congenital strabismus on perceptual-motor and more generally, on neuromotor development. Aims Aim of this study was to investigate perceptual-motor and motor coordination abilities of 19 children with essential congenital esotropia who underwent a late surgery (after 4 years), compared to 23 age-matched controls. Methods Children were tested using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) that were performed both 1-week before surgery (T1) and about 3 months (±2 weeks) after surgery (T2). Results and conclusions At T1, abnormal or borderline results were found in more than half of the children with strabismus, as opposed to only about 17% of the controls. At T2 none of the children showed abnormal Movement ABC total scores and there was no difference in global scores between the study and the control group. The two groups also did not show any significant difference in individual items of the movement ABC with the exception of those assessing ball skills. Our results suggest that surgical correction of strabismus, even when performed after the 4th year of life, appears to be effective in improving perceptual-motor and motor function.

The aim of the study was to relate motor outcome in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants at 5.5 years to motor performance at 5 months with special emphasis on children with poor motor performance at 5.5 years and children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP). A modified version of the Motor Assessment of Infants (MAI) was used at the corrected age of 5 months, and at 5.5 years the children's motor behaviour was followed up using the Movement ABC. Significant differences in motor behaviour of children who at 5.5 years developed normal, borderline or poor motor behaviour were seen at 5 months. In general, motor behaviours at 5 months and 5.5 years correlated. Only volitional movements, however, could predict motor outcome at 5.5 years. Within the group of children with “poor” motor performance, children with CP were recognized by a significantly higher score on the tone items of the MAI.

We have previously reported that significant hyperopia at 9 months predicts mild deficits on visuocognitive and visuomotor measures between 2 years and 5 years 6 months. Here we compare the motor skills of children who had been hyperopic in infancy (hyperopic group) with those who had been emmetropic (control group), using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC). Children were tested at 3 years 6 months (hyperopic group: 47 males, 63 females, mean age 3 y 7 mo, SD 1.6 mo; control group: 61 males, 70 females, mean age 3 y 7 mo, SD 1.2 mo) and at 5 years 6 months (hyperopic group: 43 males, 56 females, mean age 5 y 4 mo, SD 1.7 mo; control group: 51 males, 62 females, mean age 5 y 3 mo, SD 1.6 mo). The hyperopic group performed significantly worse at both ages, overall and on at least one test from each category of motor skill (manual dexterity, balance, and ball skills). Distributions of scores showed that these differences were not due to poor performance by a minority but to a widespread mild deficit in the hyperopic group. This study also provides the first normative data on the Movement ABC for children below 4 years of age, and shows that it provides a useful measure of motor development at this young age.

The objective of this study is to determine the relation between the size of the corpus callosum (CC) and motor performance in a population-based cohort of preterm children. Preterm born children ( n = 221) with a gestational age less than or equal to 32 weeks and/or a birth weight below 1500 g were eligible for this study. At the age of 7 or 8 years, frontal, middle, posterior, and total areas (mm 2 ) of the corpus callosum were measured on true midsagittal MRI. Due to anxiety of 10 children and motion artifacts in 7 other children, 204 MRIs could be assessed in the preterm group (mean GA 29.4 weeks, sd 2.0, mean BW 1200 g, sd 323). The preterm group consisted of 15 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 189 children without CP. Motor function was established by using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, and the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration was obtained. The same examinations were performed in 21 term born children. The mean total cross-sectional CC area was significantly smaller in preterm born infants compared with their term born controls (338 mm 2 versus 422 mm 2 , P P P P P P = 0.096). There was a significant inverse association between the total impairment score (TIS) and its subdomains of the Movement ABC and the areas of the CC in the group of preterm children. Higher TIS (indicating poorer motor function) was strongly related to smaller total CC area: linear regression coefficient (lrc) −3.3 mm 2 /score point (95% CI −4.5, −2.1). The association existed in all parts of the CC but increased in the direction of the posterior part: frontal: lrc –0.8 mm 2 /score point (−1.2, −0.4), middle: lrc −1.1 mm 2 /score point (−1.7, −0.5) and posterior: lrc –1.4 mm 2 /score point (−1.8, −0.9). An association between CC area and its subareas and the standard scores of the VMI was also found. A larger CC was strongly related to better scores on the VMI test: total area CC: lrc 0.05 score/mm 2 (95% CI 0.03, 0.07), frontal: lrc 0.12 score/mm 2 (0.05, 0.19), middle: lrc 0.10 score/mm 2 (0.05, 0.15) and posterior: lrc 0.12 score/mm 2 (0.06, 0.18). After adjustment for gestational age, birth weight, and total cerebral area, these associations were still significant. There is a strong association between the size of the corpus callosum (total midsagittal cross area as well as frontal, middle, and posterior area) and motor function in preterm children, investigated at school age. A poorer score on the Movement ABC was related to a smaller CC. A larger CC was strongly associated with better VMI standard scores.

The aim was to improve the control of reaching movements in prematurely born children with impaired coordination. Fifteen 6-year-old prematurely born children (birth weight < 1500 g) practised m ...

Paediatric rehabilitation as a discipline is rapidly changing, especially during the last decades. In the past, paediatric rehabilitation was characterized by merely adult intervention strategies in a miniaturized form, delivered by a merely adult patients-oriented profession. Theories on childhood development, however, changed, as did the focus of interventions: from impairments to function, from the child itself to family, community and peers. The call for outcome-oriented and evidence-based medicine lastly, changed paediatric rehabilitation into a mature paediatric profession with it's own scientific framework. This is reflected among other things in the increasing number of paediatric measures and instruments specifically geared to the paediatric rehabilitation profession, for example the Gross Motor Function Measure, Paediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory and Movement ABC. More recently, paediatric exercise physiologists are pointing to the benefits of an active lifestyle and training for patients with chronic diseases and disabilities. Several studies have evaluated the effects of such training programmes and came up with positive results. It shows that paediatric rehabilitation continues to develop as a dynamic profession, having growth, childhood development and childhood activities as it's core business.

An established tool for the assessment of motor performance in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is the Movement-ABC-2 (M-ABC-2). The Zurich Neuromotor Assessment (ZNA) is also widely used for the evaluation of children's motor performance, but has not been compared with the M-ABC-2. Fifty-one children (39 males) between 5 and 7 years of age with suspected DCD were assessed using the M-ABC-2 and the ZNA. Rank correlations between scores of different test components were calculated. The structure of the tests was explored using canonical-correlation analysis. The correlation between total scores of the two motor tests was reasonable (0.66; p

Research was done about the agreement between test results and checklist information concerning psychomotor development. The Movement ABC checklist and the Movement-ABC-test were administered in 34 children from the child and adolescent psychiatry unit of the UZ Gasthuisberg, of Leuven, Belgium. The children were 25 boys and 9 girls aged 4 to 12 years. There was a moderate association between the test results of the children and the judgements of the carepersons, suggesting that use of the checklist instead of testing cannot be deemed a good alternative.

Background. Daily life motor skills of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were studied during treatment using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC). In addition, the possible relation with vincristine treatment was investigated. Procedure. Seventeen children treated for ALL, aged 4-12 years, were compared to an age- and sex-matched control group. Results. The leukemia group performed more poorly than the control group on both fine and gross motor skills. In looking at the number of children with ALL who scored in the clinical range of the different subtests, problems in balance skills were found to be most pronounced at the end of induction therapy. Remarkably, half a year after reinduction therapy, problems with balance had decreased, whereas the number of children with fine motor problems had increased. Conclusions. A relation between the gross motor problems and vincristine neurotoxicity seems plausible based on a descriptive analysis of the data, but this was not supported statistically, Med. Pediatr. Oncol. 33:545-550, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Movement ABC is now widely used in Sweden by physio and occupational therapists. The manual was translated into Swedish in 1996. It is generally assumed that the published norms for the test are valid for use with Swedish children but no systematic investigation of their suitability has been undertaken. The aim of this study was to begin this process by comparing the performance of a group of six-year-old Swedish children with that of American children from the original standardisation sample. Two matched groups of 60 children were compared. Out of 10 cross-cultural comparisons, only one revealed a significant difference between the groups. Swedish children were better on one of the ball skills tasks. Although the restricted age range and small sample size make it difficult to generalise our results beyond Age Band One of the test, the data so far suggest that the norms for the test may need little adjustment for use with Swedish children. PsycINFO Classification: 2221; 2330

The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC; Henderson, S.E., Sugden, D.A., 1992. Movement Assessment Battery for children: Manual. Psychological Corporation, London.) is used throughout the world in the evaluation of children with movement difficulties. Within Europe, another test commonly used for the same purpose is the Korperkoordinations Test fur Kinder (KTK; Kiphard, B.J., Schilling F., 1974 Korperkoordinations Test fur Kinder. Beltz Test Gmbh, Weinheim.). The aims of this study were: (i) to take a preliminary look at the suitability of the published norms of these two tests for use with Dutch children, (ii) to examine the correlations between scores on the two tests and, (iii) to examine the concordance between the tests in detecting cases of impairment among children believed to be poorly coordinated. Two hundred and eight children completed both tests. The results suggested that the current norms for the Movement ABC are satisfactory for Dutch children but for the KTK, they may require adjustment. The overall correlation between the two tests was 0.62. Although there were children who failed one test and passed the other, the degree of concordance between the tests was statistically significant. PsycINFO classification: 2221; 2330

Children with hearing deficits frequently have delayed motor development. The purpose of this study was to evaluate saccular function in children with hearing impairments using the Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP). The impact of the saccular hypofunction on the timely maturation of normal balance strategies was examined using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC). Thirty-three children with bilateral severe/profound hearing impairment between 4 and 7 years of age were recruited from a three-state area. Approximately half of the sample had one or bilateral cochlear implants, one used bilateral hearing aids, and the rest used no amplification. Parents reported whether the hearing impairment was diagnosed within the first year or after 2 years of age. No VEMP was evoked in two thirds of the hearing impaired (HI) children in response to the bone-conducted stimulus. Children who were reportedly hearing impaired since birth had significantly poorer scores when tested with the Movement ABC.

The Movement ABC (Henderson and Sugden 1992) is the most commonly reported norm-ranked assessment used to determine the presence of Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD) in school-aged children. The assessment provides quantitative and qualitative data about a child’s performance of age-appropriate tasks within 3 subsections: Manual Dexterity, Ball Skills, and Static and Dynamic Balance. Performance is compared with established USA norms for children aged 4 to 12 years. The Movement ABC is a minimal task set designed to screen for motor impairment rather than provide a profile of a child’s motor performance. It takes approximately 30 minutes to administer and requires no special training.

OBJECTIVE. The aim of this paper was to check on the reliability of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) in preparation for its standardization in Hong Kong. Interrater and test–retest reliability are reported for Age Band One, designed for use with children ages four to six. METHOD. Interrater reliability of the Movement ABC was estimated using two trained observers with 79 children. Test–retest reliability was assessed using 75 children who were tested twice by the same tester over a 2- to 3-week interval. RESULTS. Agreement between testers was good with a mean intraclass correlation of 0.96 across items. A value of 0.77 was obtained for test–retest reliability. CONCLUSION. These results support the use of this component of the Movement ABC in Hong Kong.

Summary The aim of this study was to examine whether or not there were any differences in the severity of hyperactivity and the comorbidity of hyperactivity with clumsiness due to the sampling sources of hyperactive children. It was hypothesized that hyperactivity would be more severe and the comorbidity higher in the hospital sample than in the community support group and the school sample. A total of 47 hyperactive children were assessed with the German version of the Conners Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC). The hypotheses were not supported by the results. Although the school sample demonstrated the least prevalence rate of comorbid clumsiness, their conduct problems were rated higher than were the hospital and the support group samples. The possible difference in teachers' perception was discussed in terms of their understanding and communication with parents and professionals. The need to determine the effect of inattention on manual performance is addressed with a research strategy.

Objective. There is little information available on the appropriateness of tests developed in the West for children of different ethnicities. The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) for use with Hong Kong Chinese preschool children. Method. The performance of 255 Hong Kong Chinese children between the ages of 4 years and 6 years was compared with that of the 493 children of the same age from the United States who took part in the most recent standardization of the Movement ABC. Results. The test content was found to be suitable for use with Hong Kong Chinese children. However, cross-cultural differences were found on a number of the test items. Chinese children performed significantly better on items contained in the manual dexterity and dynamic balance sections, whereas American children were better at the projection and reception of moving objects. Conclusion. These findings highlight the need to ensure that norms for all tests are appropriate for the specific cultural groups being assessed.

Background and aims: To evaluate perinatal factors and outcome in term neonates with large focal cerebral haematomas. Methods: All term neonates seen between 1994-2009 with a neonatal brain MRI and large focal haematomas were included. Lesions were classified by site. Perinatal data and sequential neurodevelopmental outcome at 2,4,>5yrs (neurological exam, Griffiths scales/WPPSI, Movement ABC) were available. Results: 32 infants were studied: Haematomas were frontal(F) in 10, temporal(T) in 8, parietal(P) in 8, cerebellar(C) in 3 and in deep grey matter (DGM) in 3. Mean GA was 40.1 week, mean birthweight 3.33 kg, median 1,5 min Apgar scores were 7.5 and 9. Eight required major resuscitation at birth. Eight presentation with seizures alone, 14 seizures+other symptoms, 2 HIE (no seizures),1 postnatal collapse, 3 full fontanelle, 4 apnoeas/ bradycardiasOutcome: 1 infant died (HIE), 8 are 5yrs: n=13; 9 normal FSIQ(WPPSI) including 3 with abnormal MABC (2F,1DGM); 1 child was autistic (normal range DQ at 4yrs, F) two mild/moderate delay (1C,1DGM), one severely delayed (DGM). One child had febrile seizures and two had lateonset epilepsy. Conclusions: At each assessment age about 1/3 of children had developmental problems, some were severely affected, mostly those with cerebellar or DGM lesions (without CP). In the majority of children with isolated hemispheric haematomas outcome was consistently good.

The aim of this study was to determine whether perceptual-motor competence in school-age children with Down syndrome was generally delayed or varied as a function of type of action. Twenty-two children with Down syndrome (13 males, 9 females), aged between 4.5 and 14 years were assessed on two standardized tests, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC), a test of motor competence assessing gross and fine motor coordination, and on the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, a test focusing on shape copying. In order to obtain a profile of each child's performance on the different items contained in the Movement ABC, the test was used in its extended form. This involves testing any child who failed an item appropriate for his/her level, at progressively lower levels until a base-line measure was obtained. All the children obtained scores below the 5th percentile for their age on both tests. However, superimposed on this delay, we found distinct variation as a function of task. Whereas some aspects of gross motor function showed age development with delayed but regular acquisitions, all the aspects of fine motor skills assessed were more severely impaired and showed little development with age. Accuracy and timing of tasks requiring bimanual coordination were most impaired in our sample while balance and ball skills showed more variability. These results suggest that intervention in the motor domain should be varied according to each child's particular profile of performance.

Objective: To assess whether the Movement ABC can be used to monitor individual change in motor performance.Design: Motor-impaired children were tested three times in succession with the Movement ABC without any intervention.Setting: Two schools for special education and one school for children who are chronically ill.Subjects: Three girls and 20 boys aged 6–8 years. Main outcome measures : Scores were measured per item (0→ 5), added to cluster scores (0→ 10 or 15), added to form the total scores (0→ 40). Mean scores, standard errors of measurement (SEMs) and least detectable differences (LDDs) were calculated per item, per cluster and for the total scores. A repeated measures analysis of variance was performed to test for the effects of time.Results: The total scores improved significantly from the first session (mean: 15.4 points) to the second (mean: 13.3), but not from the second to the third (mean: 13.2). Average item scores ranged from 0.6 to 2.7 points with SEMs of 0.79→1.54 and LDDs of 2.20→ 4.27. Average cluster scores ranged from 3.4 to 5.3 with SEMs of 1.51→ 1.84 and LDDs of 4.18→5.11. The SEM of the total scores equalled 3.13 with an LDD of 8.68.Conclusions: The total score of the Movement ABC is sufficiently sensitive to monitor individual change; the cluster scores have moderate sensitivity and individual items are inappropriate to monitor individual change. The significant effect of time is interpreted as an effect of learning.

Background Minor motor problems have been reported in low birthweight children, but few studies have assessed motor skills in adolescents. Objective To examine the prevalence of motor problems in adolescents with low birthweight. Methods Fifty-four very low birthweight (VLBW: birth weight ≤1500 g), 59 term small for gestational age (SGA: birthweight

The aim of this study was to investigate the convergent validity of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) and the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales – 2 (PDMS-2). Thirty-one 4- and 5-year-old children (mean age 4 years 11 months, SD 6 months), all recruited from a clinical setting, took part in the study. Children were tested on the M-ABC and the PDMS-2 in a counterbalanced order on the same occasion. The results showed that the total scores on the two tests correlated well (rs = .76). However, when the ability of the two tests to identify children with difficulties was examined, agreement between them was low (K = .29), with the PDMS-2 being less sensitive to mild motor impairment in this population. Taken together, these findings suggest that clinicians need to be aware that, although measuring a similar construct, these tests are not interchangeable.

As part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), measures of child motor skills were collected in research clinics. The ALSPAC Coordination Test was derived from subtests of the Movement ABC at age 7 years in children participating in ALSPAC. Maternal blood lead, cadmium and mercury concentrations were measured by inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry in samples from women at a median gestation age of 11 weeks. Maternal reports at 32 weeks’ gestation were used to generate data on a range of potential confounders. The data were used to determine the associations between prenatal exposure to lead, cadmium and mercury and child motor skills at age 7 years. For results, please see Taylor et al. [1] .