Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function (MUUL)
What It Measures
The Melbourne Assessment measures how well a child moves an arm and hand, not how much they can accomplish with it. Two children might both get a spoon to their mouth; this test looks at whether the movement getting there was smooth, direct, and within a full range.
Fourteen tasks ask a child to reach for, grasp, release, and manipulate simple objects. Each is video recorded and scored later against 30 individually defined scoring criteria on 3-, 4-, or 5-point scales. Those scores sum into four separate subscales: range of movement, accuracy of reach and placement, dexterity of grasp and release, and fluency of movement. Each is reported as a percentage of its own maximum. There is no combined total.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: The kit includes the manual, test items, and scoring materials; test equipment must be set up to specification and video recording is required.
Learn More: Another version is the Melbourne Assessment 2 (MA2)