Cross-cultural assessment of process skills

A standardized activities of daily living evaluation that has acceptable psychometric qualities, can relate discrete component skills to functional performance, includes culture-relevant test items, is standardized on culture-specific samples, and is free of cultural bias is needed to evaluate diverse cultural populations. The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) (Fisher, 1990a) offers a unique solution. The AMPS consists of 35 motor and process skill items assumed to represent two universal taxonomies that are free of cultural bias. The study described in this paper focused on the 20 process skill items of the AMPS process skills scale. To test the hypothesis that the AMPS process skills scale is suitable for cross-cultural applications, a translation of the AMPS was calibrated on a group of 20 Taiwanese subjects. The validity and reliability of the AMPS process skills scale were examined when applied to this sample. Examination of reliability included the extent to which rater scoring remained stable over time. The results revealed that the AMPS process skills scale has high intrarater reliability and is valid when applied to young nondisabled Taiwanese subjects. The results suggested that the AMPS could be applied to Taiwanese samples. However, further investigation is needed to determine whether Taiwanese activities can be calibrated onto the same scale as North American activities to make a single cross-cultural AMPS.