A Modification to the Assessment of Problem-Solving in Play to Enhance Its Utility: Evaluation of Validity, Responsiveness, and Reliability.
Rebecca M Molinini, Natalie A Koziol, Ketaki Inamdar and 11 others
PMID 39316782WHAT IT FOUND
A new scoring method for assessing problem-solving in play takes 10 to 18 minutes to score and can be learned in 4 to 8 hours.
It correlates strongly with standard cognitive tests in infants with motor delays, offering a feasible way to track progress over time.
Key findings
01The new scoring method takes 10 to 18 minutes to score, compared to hours for the previous method.
02Scores from the new method correlate strongly with Bayley cognitive raw scores in children aged 6 months and older.
03The new method shows excellent reliability between and within raters.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study did not compare the APSP-4 to a gold standard measure of problem solving because none exists for this population. The Bayley comparator has limitations in detecting delays in children with neuromotor issues, which may have affected the strength of correlations, particularly in younger children. Scoring still requires technology, such as Datavyu, Excel, or Google Sheets. The APSP-4 is designed to measure change over time and does not have normative scores, so it cannot be used to diagnose a delay based on a single assessment.
Declared interests
The study used data from two clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health (START-Play and SPEEDI). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use a single APSP-4 score to diagnose a problem-solving delay. The tool lacks normative data and is designed only to track change in a child's own performance over time.