The Assessment of Motor Coordination in Children with the Movement ABC test: A Comparative Study among Japan, USA and Spain

Abstract

The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC; Henderson and Sudgen, 1992) is one of the most popular instruments in the assessment of children with movement coordination problems. It is generally assumed that the published norms for the test are valid for use with European children and one of the aims of this study was to compare the results of Miyaharas study with Japanese children (53 boys, 49 girls) and the American standardization (237 boys, 284 girls) with the Spanish sample (202 boys and 183 girls). The cross-cultural comparisons revealed that there are many differences in performance among children of these samples. These differences were distributed among tasks and countries in the two age bands. Gender differences in all samples shown that girls outperform boys in manual and balance tasks, and boys got better scores in ball skills. This data and its analysis so far suggest different consequences: 1) The question of cultural differences in motor skill learning and performance; 2) The problem of gender differences in motor coordination; 3) The norms of the test. As a final consequence it will be necessary to study this test in a larger and more broadly based sample of Spanish boys and girls for it to be accepted as a useful test in the assessment of motor coordination in Spain.