Developmental motor screening scale for preschool children: An item response theory analysis

Abstract

Developmental Motor Screening Scale for Preschool Children (DMSSPC) exhibits high reliability and validity. This study aims to analyze this tool by Item Response Theory (IRT). Data of this study were collected from Kids In Taiwan: National Longitudinal Study of Child Development & Care (KIT). Four hundred and fifty children's parents (216 boys and 234 girls) from New Taipei City were recruited. DMSSPC includes gross motor (stability and locomotion, body coordination) and fine motor (grasp and manipulation, visual motor integration) domains. The ConQuest software was used to perform the IRT analysis, including difficulty estimates and mean square error (MNSQ). After IRT analysis, the difficulty estimates of DMSSPC were −3.33–1.85, and the MNSQ values were 0.53–1.76. The difficulty estimates for the DMSSPC ranged from −2.08–1.99 for the fine motor and from −3.43–2.33 for the gross motor. The MNSQ values of fine motor and gross motor were 0.52–1.83 and 0.50–1.59, respectively. According to the IRT analysis, the difficulty estimates and MNSQ values of DMSSPC were within reasonable limits. Future studies will develop the Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) of DMSSPC based on the IRT results.