Motor skills test for four to six year old children
The motor function test for four to six year old children (short MOT 4-6) is a standardized , but now outdated motor diagnostic method for measuring the motor of development for children in pre-school age .
Authors
The MOT 4-6 was developed by the educationalists Renate Zimmer and Meinhart Volkamer , who taught together at the University of Osnabrück . Both dealt intensively with movement , sport, psychomotor skills and the motor development of children.
Origin / development
The test partly contains tasks that have been adopted and modified from older test procedures, as well as tasks that have been redesigned for the procedure. The first rough version was published in various magazines in 1973 after a 10-year trial period with around 1,200 children. Between 1973 and 1977 it was further modified until it reached its current form. The final manual was finally published in 1987.
Area of responsibility
The MOT 4-6 records a child's level of motor development and enables the individual performance to be classified with a comparable age group. If the test is carried out several times at different times with the same test person, any changes in characteristics can be identified and the support measures can be individually adapted. In addition, the results support the decision as to whether and what type of psychomotor support measures are recommended. Since this is a standardized procedure, the results are also an important criterion for the authorities to decide whether and what type of psychomotor support measures are recommended and about the grants for them.
tasks
- Jump in tires - serves to warm up the child, is not scored.
- Balance forward - you should balance forward over a strip of carpet lying on the floor.
- Tapping - as many points as possible should be made on a sheet of paper in the given time.
- Pick up the cloth with your toes - you should pick up a cloth lying on the floor with your toes and hold it (both feet).
- Skipping rope sideways - you should jump sideways over a rope lying on the ground as often as possible in a given time.
- Catch a stick - a stick should be grabbed by the hand as quickly as possible and the test leader drops it.
- Place tennis balls in boxes - three tennis balls should be placed one after the other from one box to another as quickly as possible.
- Backwards balance - you should balance backwards over a strip of carpet lying on the floor.
- Target throw on target - a tennis ball is to be thrown onto a target from a distance of 3 m.
- Collect matches - there are 20 matches on the left and right of a matching box. These should be placed in the box one after the other, but with both hands at the same time.
- Winding through a tire - it should be wound through a tire without touching it and so that only the feet touch the ground.
- One-legged jump in hoop - aim to jump one leg into a hoop and hold for 5 seconds.
- Catch a tennis ring - a tennis ring is to be caught from a certain distance and thrown by the test leader.
- Jumping jack - the jumping jack should be performed for 10 seconds.
- Jump over rope - you should jump over a rope (2 different heights).
- Roll around the longitudinal axis - a full roll should be performed around the longitudinal axis when the body is fully extended (both directions).
- Stand up / sit down - while holding a ball over your head with both hands, you should get up from the cross-legged position and sit down again.
- Jump in the tire - you should jump in and out of the tire with a 180 ° turn.
Division of tasks
With the variety of tasks, care was taken to ensure that special motor skills are covered. They can therefore be assigned to different motor dimensions:
- Overall physical dexterity and coordination skills (Exercise 7, 11, 14, 16, 18)
- Fine motor skills (exercise 3, 4, 10)
- Balance (Exercise 2, 8, 12, 17, 18)
- Responsiveness (Exercise 6, 13)
- Jumping ability (exercises 15, 18)
- Movement speed (Exercise 3, 5, 7)
- Motion control (exercise 9, 10)
Material and duration
The test time for a child is 20 to 25 minutes. The room in which the test is carried out must be at least 4 × 6 meters. There is also a special test kit with the materials, which consists of standardized sports equipment and everyday objects.
evaluation
0–2 points are awarded for the tasks, depending on their performance . The sum of all points results in a raw value . This is evaluated with the help of tables of norms, whereby the exact age of the child is taken into account. So-called standard values must be determined in order to interpret the values on the table of standards . A standard value is the motor ratio (MQ value) . The MQ-value distinction between very good (145-131 MQ), good (130 to 116), normal (115-86), below average (85-71) and striking (70-56) results.
Closing remarks
The tasks, which are relatively varied for children, are to be set up with gym material and everyday objects. Nevertheless, the time and effort officially stated in the test instructions as 20 to 25 minutes per child cannot be kept due to the large number of tasks, especially with children who have difficulties performing the test tasks. For many children, it is even more difficult that they have linguistic difficulties understanding the task at hand. Finally, the consequences of the well-known lack of exercise in children should not go unmentioned. The significantly worse basic motor skills as a result - with the same implementation - result in lower average scores than when the MOT 4-6 was created in 1984.
There should be further studies on the validity of the procedure, in particular on the validity of children in the border area between normality and abnormality. This test procedure is carried out as a school entrance examination and is therefore indispensable in curative education as a diagnostic tool for children with motor deficits.
Remedial educational perspective
The MOT 4-6 shows a child's level of motor development. The motor skills test provides evidence of individual children's needs. Are z. B. If there are deficits in the ability to react, this is noted in the funding plan as a funding goal. The motor skills test is repeated after a while under the same conditions to see whether the support measure was effective in the motor area.
literature
- Dietrich Eggert: Diagnostic inventory of basic motor skills in primary school children with learning and development problems . Borgman publishing, Dortmund 1993, ISBN 3-86145-028-3 .
- Gabriele Winkler, Ina Paul, Horst Kummer, Robert Prohl, Jürgen Scherer: Lived psychomotor skills in kindergarten - children and teachers moving together . Karl Hofman, Schorndorf 1997, ISBN 3-7780-7560-8 .
- Renate Zimmer: Motor skills and personality development in preschool children . Karl Hofmann, Schorndorf 1981, ISBN 3-7780-4801-5 .
- Renate Zimmer, Meinhart Volkamer: Motor skills test for four to six year old children: Mot 4-6; Manual / MOT 4-6. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Beltz test, Weinheim 1987.
- Renate Zimmer: Psychomotor skills - new approaches in physical education classes and special gymnastics . 4th unchanged edition. Karl Hofmann, Schorndorf 1995, ISBN 3-7780-9904-3 .