Identification of Children with Movement Problems in Singapore: Usefulness of the Movement ABC Checklist

This investigation is concerned with the identification and assessment of Singaporean primary school children who have developmental coordination disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). The present study forms part of a larger project concerned with the suitability of currently available assessment techniques and intervention programs for use in Singapore. In this paper the usefulness of the Movement ABC Checklist and Test as an assessment instrument is explored. The data on a sample of 212 7- and 8-year-olds compared favorably with data from the standardized sample in the United Kingdom. Age and gender differences were similar, and the effects of increasing task difficulty within the checklist were generally confirmed. The checklist identified 15.6% of children as having movement problems or being at risk, which was close to the value obtained in the U.K. The Movement ABC Test provided evidence of the validity of this figure as it successfully differentiated the selected children from age-matched controls who scored well on the checklist. Although some of the items in both instruments need modification, the results suggest that the Movement ABC package is a workable research tool in the Singaporean context.