Development and validation of an Arabic pediatric sensorimotor development test

AIM: The main concern of Arab rehabilitation therapists is the paucity of a valid clinical assessment tool that fits the demographic and cultural specificities of the pediatric population. This study aimed to describe and validate a localized evidence-based instrument for assessing sensorimotor development in Saudi Arabian children. METHODS: The Arabic Pediatric Sensorimotor Development Test (A-P-SMDT) designed for Saudi Arabian preschoolers was used for 110 children (3–6 years) in this prospective cross-sectional study. The instrument has two constructs: sensorimotor integration and visual perception and visuomotor integration, with 10 themes and 52 items. Face, content and construct validity and internal consistency were calculated. Cronbach’s α was used to test internal consistency. A Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test and Bartlett’s test of sphericity were used to test sampling adequacy. RESULTS: Five clinicians and 25 senior clinicians reported good face validity. The content validity index was 3.45, indicating the degree to which the content of the test matches a content domain. The Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.95, indicating excellent internal consistency. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure for sampling adequacy was 0.80. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (chi-square = 3400.43, df = 122, p = .00), indicating that the 10 test domains had a good level of correlation. CONCLUSION: The preliminary results on the Arabic Pediatric Sensorimotor Development Test showed acceptable reliability and validity, which could be useful for identifying children at risk of sensorimotor disorders and delays in a mainstream non-clinical population.