ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the advantages and disadvantages of several assessment tools. The area where the assessment is to be administered should be as comfortable as possible, and its temperature and lighting should be ideal. The testing area should be free of unnecessary furniture or other obstacles and free from distractions, such as high noise levels. Motor development researchers in the first half of the twentieth century relied heavily on the use of product-oriented assessments. When employing this approach, the administrator is more interested in performance outcomes—for instance, how far or how fast a person can throw a ball—than the technique used to perform the task. The form or technique is generally of little interest to the product-oriented assessment administrator. Product-oriented assessments are similar to norm-referenced (NR) assessments because both measure quantitative performance outcomes. They differ in that with NR assessments, normative data have been established for the quantitative measures.
