Motor Screenings for Primary School Children-A Review

Abstract

Importance: Motor deficits must be detected as early as possible to avoid negative consequences for the affected child. Within the framework of a sequential diagnostic strategy, screening should be used first in order to keep the testing effort for all children as low as possible. Objective: The present study investigates the question of whether such motor screening procedures exist for primary school children and meet all necessary psychometric properties. Evidence review: The literature search was conducted by January and February 2023. The electronic sources Dialnet, ERIC, PSYNDEX, PubMed, and SpoLit were systematically searched (publications in English, German, French and Spanish). Results: A total of 1092 publications were found based on the selected keywords. After removing duplicates and screening the articles for eligibility, 433 publications were included in further analysis. In this process, 11 putative screenings were found. However, only one of them meets all the required psychometric properties in a high degree. Conclusions: Actually, only MobiScreen 6-8 fulfills all criteria and can be recommended for the first step in a sequential diagnostic strategy. An appropriate screening for children between eight and ten years is lacking.