Interrater and intrarater reliability of the ABILHAND Kids in children with cerebral palsy

The ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire is a measure of manual ability for children
with upper limb impairments. The scale measures a person's ability to manage
daily activities as a test focused on the child's difficulty perceived by the
child's parents.The questionnaire has been validated in cerebral palsy children
(age 6-15).The questionnaire was developed using the Rasch measurement model.
The ABILHAND kids consists of 21 manual activities perceived by the children
parents. Each item is answered on a 3-level scale (impossible, difficult, easy)
and item difficulty increases with bimanual involvement. There is no specific
training needed.
In the literature there is insufficient evidence concerning the reliability of
the ABILHAND kids. The test retest reliability was only described by the
Pearson's r correlation coefficient (0.91). There remain insufficiencies about
the interpretation of the results and further research is needed.

- to determine possible differences in the results of the ABILHAND kids
questionnaire between parent, occupational therapist and rehabilitation doctor
- variance of the results in time

All children receive rehabilitation therapy. The 21 items of the ABILHAND kids
questionnaire are recorded on video in a regular therapy session of 30 minutes.
Of each child two video's are recorded, the last one 1 to 2 weeks after the
first. All raters watch both video's and the results between the three raters
are compared. The parents also fill in the questionnaire based on their memory.

The risks of scoring the questionnaire and the video observation are negligible
and is a non invasive measurement tool. The questionnaire is yet a frequent
used measurement tool in rehabilitation settings for children (including
Zwolle). Because the video's are recorded in regular therapy sessions, the
extra burden is marginal. These children are also used to video recording on
regular basis to evaluate i.e. hand function.