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This study assessed the impact of body mass index (BMI) and socioeconomic status (SES) on the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment, second version (ZNA-2), a battery of tests of motor development in typically developing children between 3 and 18 years of age. BMI measurements and international socio-economic index data were taken from the normative sample of the ZNA-2 for 321 children (158 boys, 163 girls) with a median age of 9.3 years. The age- and gender-adjusted motor performance of these children was quantified and grouped into five components: fine, pure, and gross motor tasks, static balance, and contralateral associated movements. A total score was also calculated. The associations of BMI and SES with the motor scores contribute to less than 5.1% of the total variance. Conclusion: The ZNA-2 for motor development is suitable for measuring motor abilities' development as it is largely independent of the BMI of the child and the SES of the family. What is Known: • Typical motor development, as measured with the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment, second edition (ZNA-2), is strongly dependent on age and gender. • The ZNA-2 focusses on motor performance, motor quality and simple motor skills. What is New: • Higher socio-economic status (SES) is associated with slightly better motor performance as measured by the ZNA-2 total score. • In the ZNA-2 less than 5.1% of the variability in motor performance is attributable to the combined effect of body mass index and SES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need for a quick, qualitative, reliable, and easy tool to assess gross motor development for practitioners. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to present the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment-Q (ZNA-Q), which assesses static and dynamic balance in children between 3 and 6 years of age in less than 5 min. A total of 216 children (103 boys; 113 girls; median age 4 years, 4 months; interquartile range 1 year, 3 months) were enrolled from day-care centers, kindergartens, and schools, and were tested with 5 different gross motor tasks: standing on one leg, tandem stance, hopping on one leg, walking on a straight line, and jumping sideways. All ordinal measures (consisting of qualitative measures and scales) featured a marked developmental trend and substantial inter-individual variability. Test-retest reliability was assessed on 37 children. It varied from .17 for tandem stance to .43 for jumping sideways for the individual tasks, and it was .41 and .67 for the static and dynamic balance components, respectively. For the whole ZNA-Q, test-retest reliability was .7.Conclusion: Ordinal scales enable practitioners to gather data on children's gross motor development in a fast and uncomplicated way. It offers the practitioner with an instrument for the exploration of the current developmental motor status of the child. What is Known: • Measurement of gross motor skills in the transitional period between motor mile stones and quantitative assessments is difficult. • Assessment of gross motor skills is relatively easy. What is New: • Supplementary and quick gross motor test battery for children for practitioners. • Normative values of five gross motor skills measured with ordinal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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AIM Longitudinal studies that have examined cognitive performance in children with intellectual disability more than twice over the course of their development are scarce. We assessed population and individual stability of cognitive performance in a clinical sample of children with borderline to mild non-syndromic intellectual disability. METHOD Thirty-six children (28 males, eight females; age range 3-19y) with borderline to mild intellectual disability (Full-scale IQ [FSIQ] 50-85) of unknown origin were examined in a retrospective clinical case series using linear mixed models including at least three assessments with standardized intelligence tests. RESULTS Average cognitive performance remained remarkably stable over time (high population stability, drop of only 0.38 IQ points per year, standard error=0.39, p=0.325) whereas individual stability was at best moderate (intraclass correlation of 0.58), indicating that about 60% of the residual variation in FSIQ scores can be attributed to between-child variability. Neither sex nor socio-economic status had a statistically significant impact on FSIQ. INTERPRETATION Although intellectual disability during childhood is a relatively stable phenomenon, individual stability of IQ is only moderate, likely to be caused by test-to-test reliability (e.g. level of child's cooperation, motivation, and attention). Therefore, clinical decisions and predictions should not rely on single IQ assessments, but should also consider adaptive functioning and previous developmental history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a longitudinal study of healthy children's acquisition of motor skills. It states that the acquisition of motor skills is one of the children's most significant achievement that provides a framework for developmental monitoring in health supervision visits. It details how the study was conducted which involved neurodevelopmental assessments from birth to 18-years of age. The results reportedly revealed that the range of acquiring motor skills of healthy children is large.

Aim The aim of this cross-sectional study was to provide normative data (ordinal scores and timed performances) for gross and fine motor tasks in typically developing children between 3 and 5 years of age using the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment (ZNA). Method Typically developing children ( n=101; 48 males, 53 females) between 3 and 5 years of age were enrolled from day-care centres in the greater Zurich area and tested using a modified version of the ZNA; the tests were recorded digitally on video. Intraobserver reliability was assessed on the videos of 20 children by one examiner. Interobserver reliability was assessed by two examiners. Test-retest reliability was performed on an additional 20 children. The modelling approach summarized the data with a linear age effect and an additive term for sex, while incorporating informative missing data in the normative values. Normative data for adaptive motor tasks, pure motor tasks, and static and dynamic balance were calculated with centile curves (for timed performance) and expected ordinal scores (for ordinal scales). Results Interobserver, intraobserver, and test-retest reliability of tasks were moderate to good. Nearly all tasks showed significant age effects, whereas sex was significant only for stringing beads and hopping on one leg. Interpretation These results indicate that timed performance and ordinal scales of neuromotor tasks can be reliably measured in preschool children and are characterized by developmental change and high interindividual variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study investigates the intra-individual stability of the speed of several motor tasks and the intensity of associated movements in 256 children (131 girls, 125 boys) from the Zurich generational study using the Zurich neuromotor assessment battery (ZNA) over a 12-year period from the age of 6 to 18years. The stability was assessed by correlograms of standard deviation scores calculated from age- and gender-adjusted normative values and compared with standing height and full scale intelligence quotient (IQ). While motor tasks of hand, finger and foot (HFT) and contralateral associated movements (CAM) exhibited a moderate stability (summary measure as correlation coefficients between two measurements made 4years apart: .61 and .60), other tasks (dynamic balance, static balance and pegboard) were only weakly stable (.46, .47 and .49). IQ and height were more stable than neuromotor components (.72 and .86). We conclude that the moderately stable HFT and CAM may reflect “motor traits”, while the stability of the pegboard and balance tasks is weaker because these skills are more experience related and state-dependent. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]