Pediatric normative data for the Complete Minnesota Dexterity Test.

Background: Previous research has established normed and validated assessments to measure manual dexterity in children. However, there currently are no validated brief assessment tools that are specifically designed to measure unilateral and bimanual dexterity in this population.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to develop normative data for the Complete Minnesota Dexterity Test (CMDT) for children and adolescents. Additionally, we assessed the CMDT's test-retest reliability and concurrent validity with the Box and Blocks Test (BBT).

Study design: Cross-sectional observational quantitative study.

Methods: Participants were 181 healthy children, aged 7-18 years, with no known physical, cognitive, or emotional conditions which could impact performance. The five subtests of the CMDT were completed for two trials with each hand, and one trial of the BBT was completed with each hand. Age group norms for each CMDT subtest were computed using means and standard deviations. Test-retest reliability was computed using test-retest correlations. Validation of the CMDT was examined using Pearson correlations between the first trial of each CMDT subtest and the BBT score.

Results: A total of 98 females and 83 males participated and were divided into eight age groups, with 19-26 participants per group. Normative data were obtained for the placing, turning, displacing, and one-hand and two-hand turning subtests. Reliability measures for all subtests were high, with test-retest correlations ranging from 0.89 to 0.93 (p < 0.0001). There was a high degree of correlation between the CMDT and BBT (r = -0.64 to -0.82, p < 0.0001).

Conclusions: The CMDT's robust construct validity supports its use for the assessment of manual dexterity in children. There were not clinically meaningful improvements on retesting, therefore one trial of each subtest is sufficient.