Clinical and video based evaluation of the Heel-to-toe Walking task in Movement ABC

• Main Authors: Jannicke R. Jacobsen, Jennifer Asplund
• Format: Article
• Language: Danish
• Published: Norwegian Physiotherapist Association 2010-06-01
• Series: Fysioterapeuten
• Subjects: Movement Assessment Battery for Children; Movement ABC; children; motor function; motor difficulties; subjective assessment; Physical Therapy Modality; Physical Therapy speciality
• Online Access: https://fysioterapeuten.no/Fag-og-vitenskap/Fagartikler/Klinisk-og-videobasert-vurdering-av-oppgaven-Heel-to-toe-Walking-i-Movement-ABC

Intention: The Movement ABC is a frequently used standardized test battery designed to identify motor difficulties in children. Although much research has been conducted, data on single task level is desirable. We wanted to investigate one dynamic balance task, Heel-to-toe Walking by comparing the task assessments with video-based assessments. Design: The study is quantitative, but emphasizes also the test examiners qualitative assessments. Material: Our subjects were 31 healthy seven year-old children from two randomly picked schools. Two physiotherapists were test examiners, and the authors conducted the study and interpreted the videos. Method: All children performed the task once, being filmed while the examiners observed and registered the results. One video was unusable. The clinical assessments were compared with video-based assessments. Results: The assessments were identical for 23 children (77 percent), but varied from zero to one point for four children, and from three to four points for three children. The correlation was high (Pearsons r = 0.8). Conclusions: The agreements between the two methods were strong to excellent for 90 percent of the children, but the disagreements were alarmingly large for the remaining 10 percent and may result in misclassifications. More research is needed to investigate the validity of the Heel-to-toe Walking task.