Quantifying Instructional Interventions in Pediatric Physical therapy with the Motor Teaching Strategies Coding Instrument (MTSCI-1): A Pilot Study

Purpose: This paper presents the development and preliminary psychomotor testing of a new instrument, the Motor Teaching Strategies Coding Instrument (MTSCI-1), designed to quantitatively assess motor-teaching strategies used by physical therapists during therapeutic interventions with children. Method: The MTSCI-1 was developed to evaluate the use of strategies grounded in motor learning theories and concepts. The items were generated from a review of the literature. To evaluate reliability, two physical therapists used the MTSCI-1 to code videotaped treatment sessions of pediatric physical therapists. Kappa was calculated. Validation was examined by comparing scores of physical therapists with different years of experience. Results: The resulting instrument had two main sections: (a) task/movement characteristics, and (b) before-, during- and after-task strategies. Each activity trial was analyzed and frequency of strategies used was determined. Percentage of agreement and preliminary inter- and intra-rater reliability (κ=.66-.94) as well as content and construct validation were established. The instrument differentiated the use of some strategies among groups of physical therapists with varied years of experience. Conclusions: The MTSCI-1 may be considered in research studies to document the motor-teaching strategies of physical therapists. The MTSCI-1 may also facilitate the learning and training of therapists from various fields in the application of motor learning to maximize clients’ outcomes from their motor-teaching activities.