Original investigations
Construction of the Test Battery of Motor Ability in Childhood―Investigation by Reliability, Validity and Practicability―
2006 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 11-29
Details
2006 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 11-29
Thirty-two motor ability tests were administered to 304 kindergarten children ranging from 2 to 6 years of age in order to investigate reliability, validity and practicability of motor ability tests to be administered to young children. The following results were obtained.
1) In reliability, 25 items by product moment correlation coefficient and 29 items by intra-class correlation coefficient were reliable, showing the correlation coefficient over .6.
2) In validity, 31 items except for the T-Ball were significantly valid because of significant correlations between these items and the internal validity and criterion-related validity by age, physique and subjective ratings of motor ability.
3) Most items with high Administration Feasibility and Safety included fine or stable movements and could be measured indoors. However, low items needed a wide measuring space, many testers and involved tasks which had more active movements.
4) The items evaluated high in Difficulty and Understanding of Familiarity and Acceptance were related to simple movements. Additionally, the low ones were rated low in Pervading Motor Movement in Daily Life. Conversely, the items with high Motivation and Discomfort were performed in a wide space and children had no interest in motor tasks concerning flexibility, maintaining a body balancing position and repetitive movements.
After conducting item analysis, a new test battery including 17 items was proposed. One hundred and fifty-one children ranging from 3 to 6 years of age were measured with this battery test. The principal component analysis was applied to the correlation matrix computed with the data. All 17 items had significant loadings in the first component, indicating that this test battery measured the same single motor ability. Correlation between the principal component score and age and t-test between age groups by gender demonstrated that the test battery could effectively verify the development of motor ability with advancing age.
