Examination of the Reliability and Responsiveness of a Japanese Version of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire for Children: Toward Application in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder.

All 33 children were developing typically. Children with DCD or ADHD, the group the instrument is meant for, were not studied, and those with a diagnosis of autism or ADHD were excluded. The sample was small and drawn from a single after-school centre in Nagasaki, which the authors say ruled out factor analysis to check what the questionnaire actually measures. Validity was checked only against how vividly children rated their own imagery of one ball task, which the authors describe as a related but different construct, so it is not established that the questionnaire captures general imagery ability. Reliability was tested only over 1 to 3 weeks and responsiveness only around a single practice session, so nothing is known about longer intervals. The internal visual imagery subscale was unreliable (0.48 consistency, 0.45 repeat-test agreement), so scores on that subscale in particular should not be used to judge a child. The study was not prospectively registered.

Funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant 24KJ1821). The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Rose Martini, who developed the original questionnaire, reviewed the Japanese translation.

Do not assume this questionnaire is now validated for children with DCD, even though the title points that way. Every child in the study was developing typically, and the 'internal visual imagery' part fell below the study's own reliability cut-offs, so a low score on that part alone should not be read as a genuine imagery difficulty.