Teachers' Use of the MABC Checklist to Identify Children with Motor Coordination Difficulties

Children with motor coordination problems often have difficulty succeeding in the classroom. No previous research could be located in which classroom teachers used screening tools to determine the severity of the children's motor coordination problems or their need for consultation from occupational and physical therapists. The purposes of this study were: 1) to examine the relationship between teachers' scores on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) checklist and the physical therapist's scores on the MABC test; and 2) to examine the degree of concordance in decision making by determining if the teachers and physical therapist, using these two measures independently, identified the same children with motor difficulties and those without motor difficulties. Teachers completed the MABC checklist and the physical therapist administered the MABC test to 103 children. The relationship between the teachers' and physical therapist's scores was examined using the Pearson product-moment correlation. Sensitivity and specificity of the checklist were assessed with the MABC test scores as the criterion measure. The correlation between the teachers' scores and the physical therapist's scores was r = 0.51. The sensitivity of the checklist at the 15th percentile cutoff point was 14.3%, and specificity was 97.8%. The sensitivity of the MABC checklist was so low that many children at risk for motor problems based on the MABC test were not identified. Thus, the independent use of this checklist by teachers to identify children with motor coordination problems is not recommended.