[The value of motor tests in neuro-developmental diagnosis]

Recording and judgment of (psycho) motor behavior are important tools in developmental and neuropediatric diagnosis: During infancy and early childhood the developmental course of various motor functions has to be registered, and the alterations of spontaneous or provoked movements have to be assessed by neuropediatric evaluation. Present knowledge of underlying neurophysiological mechanisms is scarce; therefore, in the stage of collecting data, it is essential to gather information about motor phenomena by a valid and comprehensive assessment of motor skills and movement patterns together with the modifying and influencing variables. Motoscopic methods are useful in recording motor skills and movement patterns; however, they are influenced by subjective errors depending on the examiner's training and experience. Motometric tests yield information about the coordinative functions and gross motor skills (e.g. body coordination test; KTK) or about manual dexterity and fine motor functions (e.g. the "insertion test"; Gleiss). For an objective recording of motor performance and particularly for assessment of the course of movements in performing motor tasks motographic methods are necessary (e.g. diadochometry). Problems and possibilities of these (psycho) motor tests are discussed briefly. Development and application of motodiagnostic methods are still in an early stage so that conclusions about underlying neurophysiological mechanisms have to be drawn very carefully, e.g. in the diagnosis of so-called cerebral dysfunction.