Author(s): Isabelle Roskam, Elise Brassart, Marine Houssa, Laurie Loop, Bénédicte Mouton, Alexandra Volckaert and Pierre Mahau
Objective: Although a certain level of motor activity is considered to be typical in preschoolers, in the most severe cases it interferes with the child’s social and academic development. Valid assessment procedure of children’s motor activity is therefore a very important issue. The current study aims to validate the Triaxial Accelerometry for Preschoolers (3AAP), a method using the measurement of children’s wrist acceleration as a way to estimate their motor activity. Method: Data were collected from a community sample of 226 preschoolers and from a sample of 32 preschoolers clinically referred for externalizing behavior concerns. The participants’ motor activity was assessed using a triaxial accelerometer (a sensor worn on the wrist) in three different conditions of assessment, i.e. at school, in a lab session and during a computerized task administration. Results: The 3AAP variables, i.e. the peak, the mean level, the intra-individual variability, and the median of motor activity as well as the percentage of time spent in the lower range and conversely in the higher range of motor activity, were highly intercorrelated and normally distributed. They were significantly correlated with externalizing behavior-related scales from the CBCL, the SDQ and the UCG, and low correlations were reported with internalizing behavior-related scales from the same instruments. Test-retest correlations after a 10-week interval were moderate to high. Significant differences were displayed between the three conditions of assessment as well as between referred and normally-developing preschoolers. Conclusion: The 3AAP scores are good candidates for an objective, low-cost and reliable measurement of preschoolers’ motor activity that could be helpful both for research and clinical purposes.
