Motor competence assessment in children: Convergent and discriminant validity between the BOT-2 Short Form and KTK testing batteries

•There are moderately strong positive associations between KTK and BOT-2 Short Form testing batteries.•There is a fair agreement between KTK and BOT-2 Short Form, especially for children with an average motor competence.•Agreement between both testing instruments is lower for children with relatively high or low motor competence.•Overall, there is reasonable proof of convergent validity between KTK and BOT-2 Short Form.•The use of more than one motor competence assessment instrument might be necessary when trying to identify children with low motor competence.

This study investigated convergent and discriminant validity between two motor competence assessment instruments in 2485 Flemish children: the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2 Short Form (BOT-2 Short Form) and the KörperKoördinationsTest für Kinder (KTK). A Pearson correlation assessed the relationship between BOT-2 Short Form total, gross and fine motor composite scores and KTK Motor Quotient in three age cohorts (6–7, 8–9, 10–11 years). Crosstabs were used to measure agreement in classification in children scoring below percentile 5 and 15 and above percentile 85 and 95. Moderately strong positive (r = 0.44–0.64) associations between BOT-2 total and gross motor composite scores and KTK Motor Quotient and weak positive correlations between BOT-2 Short Form fine motor composite and KTK Motor Quotient scores (r = 0.25–0.37) were found. Levels of agreement were fair to moderate. Therefore, some proof of convergent and discriminant validity between BOT-2 Short Form and KTK was established in this study, underlining the notion that the evaluation of motor competence should not be based upon a single assessment instrument.