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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.

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] .