The Movement Assessment Battery for Children

A Comparison of 4-Year-Old to 6-Year-Old Children From Hong Kong and the United States

Chow, Susanna M. K.
Henderson, Sheila E.
Barnett, Anna L.

Susanna M. K. Chow, MSc, MA, is Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Sheila E. Henderson, PhD, is Reader in Psychology, Department of Psychology and Special Needs, Institute of Education, University of London, 25 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AA, United Kingdom; [email protected].
Anna L. Barnett, PhD, is Research Officer, Department of Psychology and Special Needs, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom.

This article was accepted for publication October 21, 1999, under the editorship of Editor Emerita Elaine Viseltear.

American Journal of Occupational Therapy 55(1):p 55-61, January-February 2001.

Objective

There is little information available on the appropriateness of tests developed in the West for children of different ethnicities. The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) for use with Hong Kong Chinese preschool children.

Method

The performance of 255 Hong Kong Chinese children between the ages of 4 years and 6 years was compared with that of the 493 children of the same age from the United States who took part in the most recent standardization of the Movement ABC.

Results

The test content was found to be suitable for use with Hong Kong Chinese children. However, cross-cultural differences were found on a number of the test items. Chinese children performed significantly better on items contained in the manual dexterity and dynamic balance sections, whereas American children were better at the projection and reception of moving objects.

Conclusion

These findings highlight the need to ensure that norms for all tests are appropriate for the specific cultural groups being assessed.