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Research Article  |   April 1990
The Peabody Developmental Fine Motor Scale: An Interrater Reliability Study
Nancy A. Stokes; Jean L. Deitz; Terry K. Crowe
Author Affiliations
  • Nancy A. Stokes, MS, OTR/L, at the time of this study, was a graduate student in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, and a Staff Therapist at the Clinical Training Unit, Child Development and Mental Retardation Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. She is currently an Occupational Therapist with the Marysville School District, 4407 116th Drive, NE, Marysville, Washington 98270
  • Jean L. Deitz, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is Assistant Professor, Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  • Terry K. Crowe, MS, OTR/L, is a faculty member, Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Article Information
Pediatric Evaluation and Intervention / Research
Research Article   |   April 1990
The Peabody Developmental Fine Motor Scale: An Interrater Reliability Study
American Journal of Occupational Therapy, April 1990, Vol. 44, 334-340. doi:10.5014/ajot.44.4.334
American Journal of Occupational Therapy, April 1990, Vol. 44, 334-340. doi:10.5014/ajot.44.4.334
Abstract

This study examined the interrater reliability of two raters on the Fine Motor scale of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (Folio & Fewell, 1983). The sample comprised 32 children who were 4 or 5 years of age. Half of the children were considered to have normal development and half had an identified developmental delay. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients between the two sets of ratings were r = .97 for the delayed group and r = .77 for the normal group. Intraclass correlations were .97 and .76 for the delayed and normal groups, respectively. These figures appear to reflect the increased variance of the performance of the children with developmental delays. The percentage agreement between the two raters was greater for the group of normal subjects. The results suggest that the Fine Motor scale of the Peabody scales includes enough items to minimize the total score difference between two raters. Individual test items with poor agreement between the two raters were identified.