Movement Skill Assessment

This unique text focuses exclusively on the assessment of movement skills, offering background information, discussions of six levels of movement skill assessment, and strategies for implementation. Practical and user-friendly, Movement Skill Assessment helps readers acquire the skills they need to successfully carry out their assessment responsibilities.

Filled with information on more than 150 tests and including more than 650 references, the book emphasizes a top-down, functional approach to the assessment of movement skills. Part I addresses basic issues that the reader should understand before attempting to assess movement skills:

-Purposes of movement skill assessment in educational and therapeutic environments

-Definitions and classifications of movement skills

-Measurement concepts and calculations

-Theoretical approaches to movement skill assessment

-Validity and reliability
Readers will also find a detailed history of movement skill assessment, beginning before 1850 and continuing through 1974, after which a proliferation of assessment instruments appeared.

Part II discusses the six levels of the movement skill taxonomy:

-Movement skill foundations

-Motor abilities

-Early movement milestones

-Fundamental movement skills

-Specialized movement skills

-Functional movement skills
This section also includes eight in-depth critiques of popular assessment instruments, such as the Test of Gross Motor Development, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Checklist, and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency.

In Part III readers will learn how to achieve the goals of movement skill assessment. They'll find an overview of the assessment process, from selecting an appropriate measurement tool to collecting and treating data to interpreting results; a comparison of bottom-up and top-down assessment strategies; and an examination of the latest trends and developments in movement skill assessment.

The book's appendixes categorize and summarize 45 commonly used assessment instruments, present 35 selected standards for test users from the Task Force on Standards for Measurement in Physical Therapy, and provide a Z-score table for performing normative calculations.

Allen Burton, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies at the University of Minnesota. Since 1986, he has taught a successful graduate-level course that directly addresses issues related to movement skill assessment. He has also made many workshop presentations and written numerous articles for refereed journals on the topic of movement skill assessment.

One of two associate editors for Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, Burton is a member of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. Honors he has received include the Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Minnesota's College of Education (1991) and the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation Research Scientist Award in Mental Retardation (1988-89).

Burton earned his doctorate in physical education and human movement studies from the University of Oregon.

Daryl Miller, a special education administrator for a large suburban school district in Minnesota, has more than 25 years' combined experience as a therapist, teacher, and coach. Miller developed assessment guidelines and procedures at the local and state levels and was a founding member of state organizations for allied health professionals and adapted physical education specialists. He earned his specialist certificate in educational administration from the University of Minnesota.