[Reliability and convergent construct validity of the abridged development scale and a Spanish translation of the...

Motor development is the acquisition and evolution of motor skills; its evaluation allows detection of abnormalities and permits a suitable opportunity for bringing them to medical attention. Several instruments have been designed to characterize motor development in early childhood, among them the Neurosensory Motor Development Assessment test. In Colombia, studies on the psychometric properties have not been published on any of these tests. Although surveillance of the motor development uses the Abridged Development Scale, characterization of its validity or reproducibility have not been undertaken previously.

A statistical comparision was undertaken to evaluate the reliability of the motor component of the Abridged Development Scale and a translation to Spanish of the Neurosensory Motor Development Assessment instrument was developed. The convergent construct validity between the two tests was assessed.

An evaluation of diagnostic technologies was done. The sample consisted of 260 children, aged 4 to 5 yrs. The analysis included intraclass correlation coefficients, the Bland and Altmans limits of agreement, and the Spearmans correlation coefficient (r).

The intraclass correlation coefficients and the mean of differences for the Neurosensory Motor Development Assessment were of 0.91 and 1.23 and for the Development Scale 0.96 and 0.02, respectively. The convergent construct validity was 0.51.

Both instruments have good inter-rater reliability. The convergence between the tests was moderate, possibly explained by the differences in the approach to measurement of each instrument.