An illustration-based developmental motor screening questionnaire for young children: Development and a Rasch analysis

This study aimed to develop an illustration-based developmental motor screening questionnaire (DMSQi) for young children and examined its psychometric properties. 463 young children and their caregivers were collected and received the DMSQi assessment. DMSQi is made up of two domains. The gross motor (GM) domain includes body coordination and stability/mobility subdomains. The fine motor (FM) domain includes visual motor integration and hand grasp/manipulation subdomains. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest reliabilities (ICCs) of DMSQi were 0.88-0.98 and 0.85-0.95, respectively. For concurrent validity, the GM and FM domains of DMSQi were highly correlated with the corresponding domains of Peabody Developmental Motor Scale, second edition (r = 0.85-0.95). DMSQi had good discriminant validity for age (p < .001). Most items (96%) were fitted and the item difficulty was from -7 to 5 scaled by Rasch analysis. DMSQi is easy, quick, and culture-specific. It has good reliability, validity, and item fit for assessing the motor development of young children. Highlights An illustration-based developmental motor screening questionnaire (DMSQi) with good psychometrics for young children was developed. DMSQi had good reliability, validity, and appropriate item difficulty and item fit scaled by a Rasch analysis. The DMSQi is an easy and quick questionnaire assessing the motor development of young children.