Validity and reliability of a bilateral assessment of locomotor skills in children

Background: There is a paucity of empirical research on motor asymmetry in healthy children using currently available assessments. Objective: This study sought to develop bilateral tests for quantitative and qualitative assessment of locomotor skills in typically developing children and assess their validity and reliability. Methods: A sample of 78 children (35 girls, age 7.34 +/- 0.53 years) underwent testing using three newly constructed bilateral tests: side rolling, single leg skips and single leg hops. Results: Between-subject reliability (Cronbach alpha:.97 to .98, .98 to .99, .98 to .99, respectively), within-subject reliability (coefficient of variation: .04 to .10, .05 to .11, .07 to .13, respectively), and between-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: .81 to .92, .79 to .94, and .83 to .91, respectively), of all three tests were found to be very high. Further, considering laterality, the results indicate very high construct validity (explained variance by single-extracted factor ranged from 94.48 to 96.68, from 97.56 to 98.57, and from 96.53 to 98.09, respectively). Conclusions: The results suggest that the newly constructed tests can be implemented as a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of bilateral locomotor skills in children.