A Comparison of two tests of fundamental movement skills among Finnish children aged five to seven years: The Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder and The Test of Gross Motor Development 3rd Edition
Lignell, Sarah (2020)
2020
Master's Degree Programme in Public and Global Health
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2020-05-20
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004273968
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004273968
Tiivistelmä
Fundamental movement skills are the essential abilities that a person needs to be able to move, stabilize, and control body and objects (Cools et al., 2009). Good fundamental movement skills in childhood are associated with several health benefits (Cattuzzo et al, 2016). Measuring fundamental movement skills is crucial for obtaining valuable information on the current state of children’s skill proficiency and it enables early detection of motor delays or motor disorders. Known relationships with other assessment instruments increase the validity and reliability of the fundamental movement skills assessment and is vital for the selection of suitable instrument for measuring children’s skill proficiency. (Bardid et al., 2016.)
The aim of this master’s thesis was to compare the test results of the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder-test (KTK-test) and the Test of Gross Motor Development 3rd edition (TGMD-3) and to examine if they give a similar description of a child’s fundamental movement skills. The KTK-test measures fundamental movement skills through four tasks involving balancing skills and body coordination while the TGMD-3 focuses on locomotor and object control skills and includes 13 different tasks. The data of this thesis was obtained from the Skilled Kids-study and included 686 Finnish children aged five to seven years. In the results, means were compared with independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance. The association and relationship between the KTK-test and the TGMD-3 were analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficients and crosstabulations. Cohen’s kappa coefficient was used to measure the interrater reliability of the crosstabulations.
The results showed a statistically significant (p= 0,001) difference between boys and girls in the mean scores of the TGMD-3. Girls scored higher in locomotor tasks whereas boys outperformed girls in locomotor tasks and in total performance. Statistically significant moderate level of correlation was found between KTK Total score and TGMD-3 Total score (r= ,574, p< 0,001), KTK Hopping for height and TGMD-3 Total score (r= ,530, p< 0,001) , KTK Hopping for height and TGMD-3 Locomotor subscale (r= ,511, p< 0,001) , and KTK Total score and TGMD-3 Locomotor subscale (r= ,504, p< 0,001). Over half of the children in the lowest and highest quartile in the KTK-test were likewise categorized according to the TGMD-3.
The results of this master’s thesis showed a moderate association between the KTK-test and the TGMD-3 and indicated that these two tests give somewhat similar description of a child’s fundamental movement skills although they measure different parts of them. Results underline the notion that a child’s motor competence assessment should not be a result of a single assessment instrument. Instead, it should be a combination of instruments that are known to be reliable, valid and support each other.
The aim of this master’s thesis was to compare the test results of the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder-test (KTK-test) and the Test of Gross Motor Development 3rd edition (TGMD-3) and to examine if they give a similar description of a child’s fundamental movement skills. The KTK-test measures fundamental movement skills through four tasks involving balancing skills and body coordination while the TGMD-3 focuses on locomotor and object control skills and includes 13 different tasks. The data of this thesis was obtained from the Skilled Kids-study and included 686 Finnish children aged five to seven years. In the results, means were compared with independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance. The association and relationship between the KTK-test and the TGMD-3 were analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficients and crosstabulations. Cohen’s kappa coefficient was used to measure the interrater reliability of the crosstabulations.
The results showed a statistically significant (p= 0,001) difference between boys and girls in the mean scores of the TGMD-3. Girls scored higher in locomotor tasks whereas boys outperformed girls in locomotor tasks and in total performance. Statistically significant moderate level of correlation was found between KTK Total score and TGMD-3 Total score (r= ,574, p< 0,001), KTK Hopping for height and TGMD-3 Total score (r= ,530, p< 0,001) , KTK Hopping for height and TGMD-3 Locomotor subscale (r= ,511, p< 0,001) , and KTK Total score and TGMD-3 Locomotor subscale (r= ,504, p< 0,001). Over half of the children in the lowest and highest quartile in the KTK-test were likewise categorized according to the TGMD-3.
The results of this master’s thesis showed a moderate association between the KTK-test and the TGMD-3 and indicated that these two tests give somewhat similar description of a child’s fundamental movement skills although they measure different parts of them. Results underline the notion that a child’s motor competence assessment should not be a result of a single assessment instrument. Instead, it should be a combination of instruments that are known to be reliable, valid and support each other.