Elsevier

Research in Developmental Disabilities

Volume 31, Issue 1, January–February 2010, Pages 33-45
Research in Developmental Disabilities

Psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire in community-based children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2009.07.018Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of this study was to adapt and evaluate the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) for use in Chinese-speaking countries. A total of 1082 parents completed the DCDQ and 35 parents repeated it after 2 weeks for test–retest reliability. Two items were deleted after examination of test consistency. Cronbach's α for the total score was 0.89 and test–retest reliability was 0.94. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed this version to be compatible with the original and two adaptations of the DCDQ. One-way ANOVA and the post hoc tests revealed that the non-DCD group scored significantly higher than the DCD group and the suspect DCD group, but the latter two did not differ significantly. Sensitivity and specificity of the DCDQ were 73% and 54%. The estimated area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.68. Compared to the dichotomized grouping in assessing sensitivity and specificity, which provides clinicians with all or none information about a child's probability of being DCD, the informative conditional effect plot could alert clinicians to the child with less conspicuous movement problems. This adaptation of the DCDQ could be used for identifying motor coordination problems in Chinese-speaking societies.

Introduction

Coordinated movement is fundamental to the development and learning of children. Children diagnosed with a Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have motor-based restrictions that affect their academic, recreational and home life (Cantell et al., 1994, Smits-Engelsman et al., 2003). Studies have also shown that DCD is a life-long disability, and social, emotional and academic problems associated with coordination difficulties may persist through adolescence and adulthood (Cantell et al., 1994, Geuze and Börger, 1993, Losse et al., 1991).

The estimated prevalence of DCD is as 4–10% (American Psychological Association, 1994, Henderson and Sugden, 1992, Wright and Sugden, 1996). In Taiwan, the prevalence of DCD for children ranged from 3.5% to 17.9%, depending on the study sample (Lin and Wu, 2002, Wu, 2002). The long-term primary and associated problems faced by children who have motor coordination problems demonstrate the need for early identification and intervention. Given that the diagnosis of DCD is made only if the impairment in motor coordination significantly interferes with the routines of daily life or with academic achievement (American Psychological Association, 2000), teacher and parent questionnaires which identify functional limitations across a variety of tasks and settings provide an economic and effective first step for assessing children (Green et al., 2005). The results of the questionnaires can then be confirmed by motor tests (Schoemaker, Smits-Engelsman, & Jongmans, 2003).

A number of questionnaires have been developed for the evaluation of children's motor coordination difficulties in the Western countries. One promising parent report instrument, developed in Canada, is the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) (Wilson, Dewey, & Campbell, 1998). The DCDQ is a 17-item questionnaire, designed to be a quick and easy-to-use screening tool for children aged 8–14.5 years. Parents rate their children's performance on ball, balance, and handwriting skills across home, school and play environments. The DCDQ was selected for use in Taiwan because it has demonstrated good reliability and validity in Canada (Wilson, Kaplan, Crawford, Campbell, & Dewey, 2000), the UK (Green et al., 2005) and the Netherlands (Schoemaker et al., 2006) not only in the age range for which the questionnaire was developed originally (8–14.5 years) but also in a younger age range (4–8 years) (Schoemaker et al., 2006). It has also demonstrated good sensitivity (Green et al., 2005, Schoemaker et al., 2006). The DCDQ is an efficient screening tool that provides reliable and valid information on children's current skills and deficits in natural environments.

Having a standardized parent questionnaire in Chinese to easily identify children at-risk for movement problems would benefit children, parents and teachers in all Chinese-speaking societies. The aims of this study therefore were: (1) to describe the process of cross-cultural adaptation of the DCDQ; (2) to evaluate the applicability of this parent report to a Chinese population aged from 6 years to 9 years, and (3) to investigate the reliability, validity, sensitivity and specificity of the test for use with children in Taiwan. To address these aims, the study was undertaken in two phases: I. Translation and adaptation Process, and II. Evaluation of the Chinese version of the DCDQ.

Section snippets

Measures

The Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire was developed for children between 8 and 14.5 years (Wilson et al., 2000). There were 17 statements rated by parents on their child's motor performance on functional home and school tasks, using a 5 point Likert scale, with anchor ratings of “extremely like my child” to “not at all like my child”. Ten of the statements described well coordinated motor performance, and seven were worded in the reverse to describe poor coordination. The total

The Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire–Chinese version (DCDQ-C)

As described previously, the DCDQ-C is a 17-item parent questionnaire of the translated DCDQ.

The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC)

The MABC assesses motor functioning across fine and gross motor tasks for children aged 4–12 years (Henderson & Sugden, 1992). Test–retest reliability is 0.92–0.98 (Croce, Horvat, & McCarthy, 2001). The MABC has acceptable concurrent validity, with correlation coefficients with other tests of motor skills (BOTMP, r = 0.53) and visual-motor skills (Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, r = 0.48) (

Internal consistency

The analysis of internal consistency was performed initially on the questionnaire with 17 items as designed using the entire sample (n = 1082). Cronbach's α was calculated, and showed an α coefficient for the whole questionnaire of 0.84, which is above the acceptable level of 0.70 (Cronbach, 1951), indicating a high internal consistency.

Next, a corrected item–total correlation was computed to examine the relationship between each item and the whole questionnaire. Table 2 shows the corrected

Discussion

This study describes the cross-cultural adaptation of a parent questionnaire for identifying children with DCD in the Chinese-speaking populations. The translation and adaptation were made with care and diligence. Through a series of rigorous procedures, a questionnaire adapted for the Chinese language demonstrated strong equivalence to the original DCDQ and the revised 2007 version, with cultural appropriateness for use with Taiwanese children.

This study also showed that the psychometric

Conclusion

The DCDQ was successfully adapted to Chinese for use in Taiwan. This is the first standardized parent questionnaire developed for screening children's movement problem in Chinese-speaking societies. This test demonstrated a high degree of reliability when applied to a community-based population of children. The first-order factor structure of the DCDQ-C was similar to that in Canada and the Netherlands indicating the robustness of the construct of the scale, and the similarity in types of motor

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Professors Anne Henderson and Sharon Cermak for their valuable comments on the manuscript. Drs. Yung-Wen Hsu and Chin-Kai Lin are acknowledged for their assistance in translation. We also thank the parents and their children who participated in our study. This study was supported through funding from the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, ROC (DOH92-TD-1035, DOH93-TD-M-113-038, and DOH94-TD-M-113-007 to MHT).

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