The assessment of Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency in children.

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective is to research the relationship between motor abilities and demographic characteristics such as age and sex, in healthy children aged 4-11 years.
METHODS: One hundred and twenty children in kindergarten (n = 30) and primary school (n = 90) were included in the study and evaluated by the Occupational Therapy Unit. All children were divided into four groups according to age, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 and 10-11 years. The primary school children were classified according to academic learning, being successful or unsuccessful. In this study, Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency was used to assess the gross motor skills and fine motor skills. These tests are running speed and agility (subtest 1/item 1), balance/walking forward heel-to-toe on walking line (subtest 2/item 6), bilateral coordination/tapping-foot and finger on same side synchronized (subtest 3/item 2), strength/standing broad jump (subtest 4/item 1), response speed (subtest 6/item 1), visual motor control/cutting out a circle with preferred hand (subtest 7/item 1), upper-limb speed and dexterity/pacing pennies in two boxes with both hands (subtest 8/item 2).
RESULTS: When the children were classified according to sex, there were significant differences in subtests 6 and 7. According to academic learning, there were significant differences in subtests 2 and 8. When the results were evaluated due to age, important differences were found in subtests 1, 2, 4 and 8.
CONCLUSION: It was seen that gross and fine motor skills in early childhood showed variety between age, sex and academic learning. The scores of motor abilities were better in successful children than unsuccessful children. The outcome of this study revealed that the Bruininks-Oseretsky test can be useful to investigate unexplored aspects of motor development.