Assessing Basic Motor Competencies in Preschool: The MOBAK-KG test

Initial situation

Systematic quality assurance increasingly raises the question of the extent to which children achieve learning outcomes in exercise, sport, and physical education. The central learning objectives of physical education are the curriculum-based basic motor competencies, which enable children to play an active part in the culture of sport and exercise.

Targeted diagnostics are an indispensable prerequisite for the systematic promotion of basic motor competencies. A description of children’s level of motor competencies provides information that helps teachers to adapt their methodological and didactic behavior to the children’s requirements. The assessment and measurement of basic motor competencies requires valid and practicable survey tools.

Test setup and content

MOBAK-KG is designed for 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers in the first and second year of the Swiss kindergarten program and enables an assessment of questions on the status and development of their basic motor competencies. The MOBAK-KG instrument can be used from the beginning of the first until the end of the second year of kindergarten. In Switzerland, kindergarten is a two-year preschool program integrated into the compulsory education system, with children typically enrolling at age four.

The MOBAK tests capture basic motor competencies of self-movement with four items (balancing, rolling, jumping, running) and object movement with four items (throwing, catching, bouncing, dribbling). The difficulty and complexity of the requirements encountered in the MOBAK items are adapted to the children’s age and grade level. For children in primary school, there are further MOBAK instruments available that build on each other (MOBAK-KG: ages 4–6, MOBAK-1-2: ages 6–8, MOBAK-3-4: ages 8–10, MOBAK-5-6: ages 10–12), each of which covers two grade levels and a three-year age span.

Test implementation

MOBAK-KG enables a standardized and economical assessment of basic motor competencies for scientific testing as well as testing in physical education teaching practice. The implementation of the instructional MOBAK items is quickly and easily achieved in a gymnasium.

For scientific testing, as in the present EMOKK study, we recommend a supervised operation in which a test leader completes each of the eight items with three or four children one after another. The full testing cycle takes about 35 minutes and can be completed comfortably within a 45-minute physical education lesson.

Test assessment and test evaluation

The assessment of the MOBAK items is easily feasible due to dichotomous coding (pass vs. fail) and clear standardization criteria. The evaluation can be carried out via the two MOBAK competency domains self-movement and object movement. The evaluation is greatly facilitated by the formation of totals. Through simple raw value sums, it is also possible to diagnose children in special need of support without reading standard values.

Test quality criteria

We conducted psychometric analyses, including an investigation of factorial validity by means of confirmatory factor analyses in four validation studies, measurement invariance across genders, age groups, and time, and cross-sectional and longitudinal stability. The results provide strong evidence for the reliability and validity of MOBAK-KG, demonstrating its suitability for assessing basic motor competencies in preschoolers.

Norms

Standardization was achieved through the calculation of frequency distributions, standard norms, and percentile norms based on N = 3,922 four- to six-year-old children in the first and second year of kindergarten (M = 68.10 months, SD = 6.84, 50.1% male), differentiated by age and gender, thereby enabling an age and developmentally appropriate interpretation of individual test results. In addition, the longitudinal data allow for the analysis of developmental trajectories and the identification of group differences.

Conclusion

MOBAK-KG is a standardized and psychometrically validated instrument for the assessment of basic motor competencies in preschoolers and offers practical applications in both educational and health promotion contexts. Its availability in German, Italian, French, and English further supports its broad use across Switzerland and other language regions.