Top-down and bottom-up approaches to motor skill assessment of children: are child-report and parent-report perceptions predictive of children's performance-based assessment results?
BACKGROUND/ AIM: Therapists use different types of tests, scales, and instruments to assess children's motor skills, including those classified as being top-down and bottom-up. The aim of the study was to investigate the ability of measures of children's motor skill performance from the perspectives of children and parents (a type of top-down assessment) to predict children's performance-based motor ability test results (a type of bottom-up assessment).


METHODS
A convenience sample of 38 children and parents was recruited from Victoria, Australia. Motor skill performance was evaluated from a top-down perspective using the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ) and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children--Second Edition (MABC-2) Checklist to measure children's and parents' perspectives respectively. Motor skill performance was also evaluated from a bottom-up approach using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency--Second Edition (BOT-2). Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis to determine whether the PSDQ or MABC-2 Checklist was predictive of the children's BOT-2 performance results.


RESULTS
Two predictive relationships were identified based on parents' perspectives, where the total score of the MABC-2 Checklist was found to be a significant predictor of the BOT-2 Manual Coordination motor composite score, accounting for 8.35% of its variance, and the BOT-2 Strength and Agility motor composite score, accounting for 11.6% of its variance. No predictive relationships were identified between the children's self-report PSDQ perspectives and the BOT-2 performance scores.


CONCLUSIONS
Therapists are encouraged to utilize a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches and purposefully to seek parents' and children's perspectives when evaluating children's motor skill performance.
Occupational Science and Therapy Program, School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing, and Behavioural Sciences, Deakin University-Waterfront Campus, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
Johanna
J
Kennedy
Ted
T
Brown
Karen
K
Stagnitti
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010290:Parents; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014739:Victoria