Performance on the movement assessment battery for children by australian 3-to 5-year-old children

Background The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) was developed as a means of identifying those at risk of motor impairment. This test has been widely adopted as a means of assessing Australian children, but no attempt has been made to test the validity of its normative data for Australian samples. This study examines the 4- and 5-year-old Australian data in comparison with the Movement ABC age norms. Additionally, a 3-year-old sample was tested to determine if the test is suitable for discriminating motor performance in this age group. Methods Representative samples of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children from two Australian cities (Sydney and Perth) were tested on the Movement ABC band-one tests and the results compared with 4- and 5-year norms. Results There was significant age-related change in performance across the Australian samples with significant gender effects on some tasks. The Australian 4-year-old children performed better than the American sample on most tests, but this difference had disappeared by 5 years. Conclusions The results indicate that the Movement ABC is a useful tool in discriminating among pre-school Australian children as young as 3 years of age. The differences between Australian and American children indicate that further studies comparing other age groups are warranted, but the differences did not appear to be sufficiently large to have clinical significance.