Cross-cultural validation of the Arabic version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire DCDQ'07, in a Lebanese sample of children.
Arabic-speaking BCBAs can now screen Lebanese school-age kids for motor-coordination issues with a validated parent form.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Faught et al. (2021) translated the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire into Arabic.
They tested the new DCDQ-AL with Lebanese children aged 5-15.
Kids had mixed diagnoses and some were neurotypical.
What they found
The Arabic form gave steady scores across two weeks.
It also matched teacher ratings of motor skills.
Authors say it is ready for school screening.
How this fits with other research
Zanella et al. (2021) did the same job in Brazil. They checked the PDMS-2 motor scale and also found good numbers.
McGeown et al. (2013) followed the same steps in Korea with the QABF. All three studies show Western tools can travel if you translate and test them right.
Ge et al. (2024) went a step further in China. They not only translated the SSDS but also proved the five-factor shape stayed the same. G et al. did not test factor shape, so Jiajia gives a fuller picture of what replication can look like.
Why it matters
If you serve Arabic-speaking families you now have a free, quick screen for motor problems. Hand the 15-item DCDQ-AL to parents while they wait. A low score tells you to refer to OT and to watch how clumsiness might shape problem behavior. No Arabic norm tables exist yet, so use the cut-offs the paper gives until local data grow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The revised version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ'07) is a parent questionnaire designed to identify Developmental Coordination Disorder in 5-15-year-old children. AIM: The aim of this study was to carry out the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the DCDQ'07, to examine psychometric properties, and to define the cut-off scores of the Arabic-Lebanese version of the questionnaire (DCDQ-AL). METHOD: 38 parents of children with and without motor difficulties participated in the translation and cross-cultural phase. As for the validation phase and the study of the psychometric properties, a total of one hundred and twenty-four typically developing children (N=124) aged between 5 and 15 years were recruited through schools in different districts across Lebanon, whereas the clinical sample (N = 56) of children with motor difficulties was recruited via psychomotor rehabilitation centers in Beirut and psychomotor therapists working in private clinics across the country. This study used the Movement Assessment Battery for Children - second edition (MABC-2) motor test developed to classify children according to their degree of motor impairment. RESULTS: For test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability, excellent Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were shown with values of 0.94 and 0.9, respectively. The internal consistency value for the DCDQ-AL was high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.947). Correlations between the DCDQ-AL scores and Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) show adequate convergent validity (ρ = 0.65, p < .001). Differences in DCDQ-AL scores between children with and without motor difficulties (p < .001) provide clear evidence of discriminative validity. The Lebanese cut-offs are very similar to the Canadian version, except for the 5-7 age band. The DCDQ-AL shows a sensitivity of 0.91 and specificity of 0.77. The adapted questionnaire showed solid psychometric properties, allowing us to conclude that the DCDQ-AL can be used to support a diagnosis of DCD. CONCLUSION: The results provide evidence that the DCDQ-AL is a valid clinical screening tool for DCD that can assist Arabic speaking professionals in screening children aged 5-15 years old who are at risk of having DCD.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103999