The Targeted Motor Control Screening Tool Is Valid for 4-Year-Old Children.
Laura Brown, Amanda Bacon, Verity Pacey and 1 others
PMID 38742841WHAT IT FOUND
The Targeted Motor Control screening tool correlates moderately with a detailed assessment in 4-year-olds.
A score below 9 flags children at risk of motor delay. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to administer. The sensory items showed weaker agreement than motor items.
Key findings
01The TMC showed moderate concurrent validity with the NSMDA for gross and fine motor skills, but low validity for sensory items.
02A TMC score of less than 9 was the optimal cut-off for detecting atypical motor development, with 82.4% sensitivity.
03Interrater reliability for the TMC was good, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.87.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study included children who could follow verbal instructions in English, so results may not apply to non-English speaking children. Children with impairments preventing completion of TMC items were excluded, so the tool's validity in children with severe disabilities is unknown. The specificity of 66.7% means about one-third of children flagged as at-risk do not have atypical development on the NSMDA. The concurrent validity for sensory items was low, suggesting the TMC may not accurately screen sensory processing concerns compared to the NSMDA. The study was conducted in Australia, so cultural or linguistic factors may affect generalizability.
Declared interests
Funded by a Macquarie University New Staff Grant. The funders played no role in the design, conduct, or reporting of this study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the TMC to diagnose developmental coordination disorder or other specific conditions. It is a screening tool that identifies children at risk of motor delay who require further comprehensive assessment. The low specificity means many children scoring <9 will not have atypical development on the reference standard.