by Anna Barnett and Sheila E Henderson
Purpose: Provides an objective measurement of gross and fine motor coordination difficulties in children and young adults aged 3 – 25 years.
Age: 3 to 25 years
Admin: Test: Individual; paper and pencil Checklist: Individual or group paper and pencil
Time: 30-45 minutes
Norms: The Movement ABC-3 norms are based on an all-new sample of 1279 children and young adults who were tested between August 2021 and February 2023 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand
Scores/Interpretation: Task-level scaled scores, domain-level t-scores, Total Motor Score, percentile ranks
Qualification Level: B
The Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Third Edition (Movement ABC-3) provides an objective measurement of gross and fine motor coordination difficulties in children and young adults aged 3 – 25 years.
Movement ABC-3 Benefits:
- Identify delay or impairment in motor development
- Plan intervention
- Measure change and monitor progress over time
- Widely known and respected for use in research related to motor development
- Gain a holistic picture of motor performance using the Checklists to complement observational assessment
The Movement ABC-3 updates include:
- Revised and updated test content and items
- New manipulatives
- Extended age range down to 3 and up to 25
- Co-collected sample between the UK and ANZ
- Unified contructs across ages
Three Movement ABC-3 subtests:
- Manual Dexterity
- Aiming & Catching
- Balance & Locomotion
Separate Checklists for each age band:
- Parent/Teacher/Other
- Self (age band 3 only)
Test content and structure
The test contains 10 tasks for each of 3 age ranges: 3 – 6 years (3-year-olds complete 7 tasks); 7 – 11 years and 12 – 25 years. The tasks cover the following 3 domains:
- Manual Dexterity
- Aiming & Catching (ball skills)
- Balance & Locomotion
Task, domain and Total Motor scores are provided. A profile of a child’s performance over the different sections of the test can be examined and a ‘traffic light’ system helps map areas of strength and concern.
The assessment is paralleled by an observational approach to perceptual-motor aspects and emotional and motivational difficulties the individual may have in relation to motor tasks.
Features
- Norms based on a sample of 1279 collected jointly in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand
- Extensive international research built over the previous version of the assessment and this version - featuring in over 500 studies
- Numerous translations worldwide
The Movement ABC-3 Checklists
The Movement ABC-3 Checklists provide a means for assessing movement in everyday situations in which the child or young adult participates.
Use the checklist to:
- Assess groups of students in classroom situations
- Obtain parents’ or teachers’ views on an individual’s movement in everyday settings
- Measure the extent to which a young person’s attitudes and feelings about motor tasks are situation specific or more generalised
- Ascertain the impact of motor difficulties on an individual’s participation in everyday activities
