Development of Turkish normative data for the Test of Gross Motor Development-Third Edition (TGMD-III) in children aged 7-10 years

Motor development is one of the fundamental components in the formation of children's physical, cognitive and social development, the fulfillment of their daily activities and the realization of their physical fitness. In the light of this information, the objective of this study is to determine the norms of the Test of Gross Motor Development–III (TGMD-III) in children between the ages of 7-10 in Türkiye and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the test. The pilotage of this descriptive study, which was designed with a cross-sectional survey model, consisted of primary school students between the ages of 7-10 in Gümüşhane province (n=36). The study group consisted of 842 primary school students from 7 different geographical regions and cities in Türkiye. In the study, TGMD-III developed by Ulrich and Webster (2017) and adapted into Turkish by Kızılca et al. (2023) was used. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS (v25) statistical package program. According to the study findings, the test-retest reliability of TGMD-III was found to be acceptable (α=.784) and stable. The reliability of the locomotor (α=.703) and ball skills (α=.732) of the study group was acceptable, and according to TGMD-III, it was determined that the model had a perfect fit index with α=.838, and its validity was χ²/sd(103.440/59) =1.75. Furthermore, the normative values of the standardized TGMD-III score were determined by age, and the median values ranging from 76 to 86 were found to provide a valid norm framework for classifying motor skill level by age and reliably assessing individual differences in children aged 7 to 10 in Türkiye. In addition to these results, it was observed that as age increased, motor skill level also increased, and age was a significant predictor of motor skills (R2=.168); however, age and gender interaction did not play a decisive role in motor skills. In conclusion, it was determined that the TGMD-III accurately and reliably measures the constructs it aims to evaluate, and it can be effectively used to evaluate the motor skills of children aged 7–10 years in Türkiye.