Research Paper
Andrea Dincher,
Saarland University, Sports Sciences Institute
andrea.dincher@uni-saarland.de
Abstract:
Background: Children with a motor development delay need to be identified early in order to initiate appropriate therapies. In the first step of a sequential diagnostic strategy, a screening should be used to shorten this process. Therefore, the mobility screening MobiScreen 4-6 is tried to be validated for children from 7 years and older. Methods: A total of 90 children, of whom 60 boys and 30 girls at a mean age of 7.33 ± .45 years, from two German primary schools participated. All underwent the MobiScreen 4-6. Internal consistency, construct validity, and discriminant ability were evaluated. The significance level was set at p<.05. Results: Cronbach’s a reached .83 for the split times, inter-item correlations range from r=.42 to r=.73. Factor analysis reveals a single component with an eigenvalue of 3.67 with a variance explanation of 73%. Discriminant analysis shows significant differences between healthy children and children with a medical diagnosis, excepting slalom. Conclusions: Total time is considered the primary decision criterion and the given criteria were achieved, but the tasks climbing, crawling and transporting are too simple for this age group. Nevertheless, further studies should follow to improve the criteria. For this, the screening should be modified. A study on this is underway.
Keywords:
mobility, motor development, screening, primary school, validation study
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