During the first eighteen months of life, infants acquire and refine a whole set of new motor skills that significantly change the ways in which the body moves in and interacts with the environment. In this review article, I argue that motor acquisitions provide infants with an opportunity to practice skills relevant to language acquisition before they are needed for that purpose; and that the emergence of new motor skills changes infants' experience with objects and people in ways that are relevant for both general communicative development and the acquisition of language. Implications of this perspective for current views of co-occurring language and motor impairments and for methodology in the field of child language research are also considered.

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Developing language in a developing body: the relationship between motor development and language development.

This clinical practice guideline on developmental coordination disorder (CPG-DCD) for German-speaking countries, particularly Germany and Switzerland, is strongly in accordance with the European recommendations of the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD) from May 2010 (Brussels) and an international consensus, the International Leeds Consensus (2006).

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2011.04171.x

European Academy for Childhood Disability (EACD): recommendations on the definition, diagnosis and intervention of developmental coordination disorder (long version).

The importance of movement is often overlooked because it is such a natural part of human life. It is, however, crucial for a child’s physical, cognitive and social development. In addition, experiences support learning and development of fundamental movement skills. The foundations of those skills are laid in early childhood and essential to encourage a physically active lifestyle. Fundamental movement skill performance can be examined with several assessment tools. The choice of a test will depend on the context in which the assessment is planned. This article compares seven assessment tools which are often referred to in European or international context. It discusses the tools’ usefulness for the assessment of movement skill development in general population samples. After a brief description of each assessment tool the article focuses on contents, reliability, validity and normative data. A conclusion outline of strengths and weaknesses of all reviewed assessment tools focusing on their use in educational research settings is provided and stresses the importance of regular data collection of fundamental movement skill development among preschool children.



Key points


This review discusses seven movement skill assessment tool’s test content, reliability, validity and normative samples.


The seven assessment tools all showed to be of great value. Strengths and weaknesses indicate that test choice will depend on specific purpose of test use.


Further data collection should also include larger data samples of able bodied preschool children.


Admitting PE specialists in assessment of fundamental movement skill performance among preschool children is recommended.


The assessment tool’s normative data samples would benefit from frequent movement skill performance follow-up of today’s children.

https://www.jssm.org/hfpdf.php?volume=08&issue=2&page=154

Movement Skill Assessment of Typically Developing Preschool Children: A Review of Seven Movement Skill Assessment Tools

Aim: These international clinical practice recommendations (CPR) for developmental coordination disorder (DCD), initiated by the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD), aim to address key questions on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of DCD relevant for clinical practice. Method: Key questions in five areas were considered through literature reviews and formal expert consensus. For recommendations based on evidence, literature searches on ‘mechanisms’, ‘assessment’, and ‘intervention’ were updated since the last recommendations in 2012. New searches were conducted for ‘psychosocial issues’ and ‘adolescents/adults’. Evidence was rated according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (level of evidence [LOE] 1–4) and transferred into recommendations. For recommendations based on formal consensus, two meetings of an international, multidisciplinary expert panel were conducted with a further five Delphi rounds to develop good clinical practice (GCP) recommendations. Results: Thirty-five recommendations were made. Eight were based on the evidence from literature reviews (three on ‘assessment’, five on ‘intervention’). Twenty-two were updated from the 2012 recommendations. New recommendations relate to diagnosis and assessment (two GCPs) and psychosocial issues (three GCPs). Additionally, one new recommendation (LOE) reflects active video games as adjuncts to more traditional activity-oriented and participation-oriented interventions, and two new recommendations (one GCP, one LOE) were made for adolescents and adults with DCD. Interpretation: The CPR–DCD is a comprehensive overview of DCD and current understanding based on research evidence and expert consensus. It reflects the state of the art for clinicians and scientists of varied disciplines. The international CPR–DCD may serve as a basis for national guidelines. What this paper adds: Updated international clinical practice guidelines on developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Refined and extended recommendations on clinical assessment and intervention for DCD. A critical synopsis of current research on mechanisms of DCD. A critical synopsis of psychosocial issues in DCD, with implications for clinical practice. The first international recommendations to consider adolescents and adults with DCD.

/pdf/international-clinical-practice-recommendations-on-the-2yj99eueyu.pdf

International clinical practice recommendations on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of developmental coordination disorder

Introduction The natural history of disease in relation to measures of disease frequency Early detection: Sensitivity and lead time Assessing the value of early treatment: Experimental studies Assessing the value of early treatment: Nonexperimental studies The clinical course of screen-detected disease The feasibility of screening nrograms Formulation of screening policy: Response curves and determinants of outcome Cancer of the breast Arteriosclerotic vascular disease Cancer of the cervix References Index.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3342212.pdf

Screening in Chronic Disease

Stability of serial assessments of motor and communication abilities in typically developing infants—implications for screening

Norms for the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS) and the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, second edition (PDMS-2) are based on cross-sectional data that do not provide information on how the scores of individual children vary over time. This study examined intra-individual variability of PDMS fine and gross motor scores of 77 typically developing children at 9, 11, 13, 16, and 21 months of age and PDMS and PDMS-2 fine and gross motor scores at 4 years. Correlations between scores over time ranged from .13 to .45. PDMS and PDMS-2 scores were correlated at .71 and .75 with significantly different means, indicating that the two versions are not equivalent for 4-year-old children. Most children scored above the 16th percentile, the suggested cut-off on the PDMS, at both 21-month and 4-year assessments, but their percentile ranks fluctuated considerably. Use of confidence intervals contributes to accurate interpretation of scores by differentiating true change in a child's score from change due to measurement error.

Scores of Typically Developing Children on the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-Infancy to Preschool

Objective: This study describes a preliminary evaluation of the construct and concurrent validity of the Speech Intelligibility Probe for Children With Cleft Palate. Design: The study used a prospective between-groups design with convenience samples. Participants: Participants (ages 39 to 82 months) included 5 children with cleft palate and 10 children with typical speech development and no history of craniofacial abnormalities. All children had age-appropriate language skills. Interventions: Each child completed the Speech Intelligibility Probe for Children With Cleft Palate by imitating single words. Each child's word productions were recorded and played back to listeners who completed open-set and closed-set response tasks. Recorded utterances that represented a contiguous 100-word sample of each child's spontaneous speech also were played back to listeners for completion of an open-set word identification task. Main Outcome Measures: Measures reported include group means for (1) intelligibili...

Preliminary results of an intelligibility measure for English-speaking children with cleft palate.

Construct-related validity of the TOCS measures: comparison of intelligibility and speaking rate scores in children with and without speech disorders.

Purpose: To evaluate the criterion-related validity of the TOCS+ sentence measure (TOCS+, ) for children with dysarthria and CP by comparing intelligibility and rate scores obtained concurrently from the TOCS+ and from a conversational sample.Method: Twenty children (3 to 10 years old) diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) participated. Nineteen children also had a confirmed diagnosis of dysarthria. Children's intelligibility and speaking rate scores obtained from the TOCS+, which uses imitation of sets of randomly selected items ranging from 2–7 words (80 words in total) and from a contiguous 100-word conversational speech were compared.Results: Mean intelligibility scores were 46.5% (SD = 26.4%) and 50.9% (SD = 19.1%) and mean rates in words per minute (WPM) were 90.2 (SD = 22.3) and 94.1 (SD = 25.6), respectively, for the TOCS+ and conversational samples. No significant differences were found between the two conditions for intelligibility or rate scores. Strong correlations were found betw...

Megan Hodge

Papers

Stability of serial assessments of motor and communication abilities in typically developing infants—implications for screening

Scores of Typically Developing Children on the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-Infancy to Preschool

Preliminary results of an intelligibility measure for English-speaking children with cleft palate.

Construct-related validity of the TOCS measures: comparison of intelligibility and speaking rate scores in children with and without speech disorders.

Criterion-related validity of the Test of Children's Speech sentence intelligibility measure for children with cerebral palsy and dysarthria.