THE KTK-3BS TEST FOR MOTOR COMPETENCE FROM 6 TO 19 YEARS: REFERENCE VALUES AND VALIDATION.

The Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK) (Kiphard & Schilling, 2007; Novak etal., 2017) is increasingly used to evaluate motor competence in children and123adolescents either from the perspective of development or from the talentidentification viewpoint. In spite of the original validation for individuals up to 14yrsof age, the KTK is often used in older individuals (O’Brien-Smith et al. 2019). In theseolder groups, the hopping for height test is usually omitted for safety reasons, whichhas resulted in the KTK-3 variation of the test (Novak et al., 2017). In order toovercome the absence of an object control item, the Faber test for ball skill (BS) wasadded, resulting in the KTK-3BS test battery for motor competence (Platvoet et al.,2018).The aim of this study was to provide updated KTK-3BS reference values for childrenand adolescents from 6 until 19 years of age. A total of 1536 (800 females) childrenbetween 6 and 19 years old participated in this study. A 2 (gender) x 14 (age groups)ANOVA revealed that boys outperformed girls on the jumping sideways test (p < .001)and the BS test (p < 0.01), while girls tended to score better on the balance beamtask (p = 0.11). No differences on the moving sideways test emerged (p = 0.55).Scores increased with age (p < 0.001 on all tests), and post hoc LSD tests revealedthat performance increased significantly from each age group to the next one. Onlythe balance beam tests tended to level off around the age of 16, while raw scores onthe other three tests continued to increase until the age of 19.The KTK-3BS test battery for motor competence is a valid tool for the evaluation ofmotor competence in children and adolescents from 6 to 19 years of age. The use ofthe same subtests irrespective of age group makes it a tool of high practical value,especially for the longitudinal follow-up of motor competence.References:Kiphard, E., Schilling, F. (1974). The Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder [BodyCoordination Test for Children]. Weinheim: Beltz Test, GmbH.Novak, RA, Bennett, KJM, Beavan, A., Pion, JA, Spiteri, T., Fransen, J., Lenoir, M(2017). The validity of a short form of the KörperKoordinationsTest für Kinder formeasuring motor competence in children aged 6-11 years. Journal of MotorDevelopment and Learning, 5, 2, 227-232.Platvoet, S., Faber, I., de Niet, M., Kannekens, R., Pion, J., Elferink-Gemser, M.,Visscher, C. (2018). Development of a tool to assess fundamental movement skills inapplied settings. Frontiers in Education, 3:75. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2018.00075