What is the Ignite Challenge?
The Ignite Challenge is a performance measure that assesses 13 advanced gross motor skills that tap into a child's co-ordination, agility, balance, fitness and strength. It was designed for use with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other who are age 6 years and up, and Children with ASD should be in DSM-5 Level I support for social communication (APA, 2013) and ACSF-SC level I or II (DiRezze et al., 2016).
As a pre-requisite for this test, the child should be able to consistently walk within the 0.45cm test pathway from start to finish, keep feet within the path for all steps, and follow test instructions for at least 30 minutes.
How was the Ignite Challenge developed?
The ‘Ignite Challenge’ (Wright et al., 2024) is a 13-item performance-based measure that is designed for use with children with ASD or those with other neuromotor disorders such as Developmental Co-ordination Disorder who are age 6 years and up, and are able to do a 30-60 minute movement skills test (including breaks) under assessor’s guidance without parent’s additional assistance. The Ignite Challenge was developed at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital (Toronto, Canada) as part of the Igniting Fitness Possibilities (IFP) Program (funded by the Milos Raonic Foundation and National Bank) with assistance of Igniting Fitness Possibilities coaches and instructors and tested in our IFP programs at University of Toronto and other IFP partner sites. Revisions to the Ignite Challenge manual to further support its use with autistic children were made by Virginia Wright with assistance of graduate student K Hennessy at Holland Bloorview (Toronto), and researcher A Wright and physiotherapists (K Evans and C Bauve) at Novita, Adelaide, South Australia.
The Ignite Challenge comprises 13 skills that: 1) are considered important for children and youth to be able to perform in school and recreation, 2) focus on challenges to speed, balance and coordination that are commonly seen in autistic children and 3) integrate upper/lower limb movements and dual task performance.
See: Wright FV, Wright A, Bauve C, Evans K. (2024). Getting into the game: evaluation of the reliability, validity and utility of the Ignite Challenge scale for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder. Disabil Rehabil. 46(7): 1374-1390.
How is the Ignite Challenge administered?
The Ignite Challenge is meant to be administered by a pediatric physical therapist physical therapist or occupational therapist, physical education teacher, kinesiologist/ exercise physiologist/ who has experience administering gross motor test with children. It requires 45 to 60 minutes to complete.
Testing is conducted on and around the Ignite Challenge assessment track following item-specific guidelines outlined in the Ignite Challenge manual. The 10 metre long track's outline can be taped to the floor in a hallway or large therapy gym. The equipment needed consists of basic gym skills items such as soccer/basketball/tennis/bouncy balls, pylons (cones), a plastic bowling pin, masking tape, and a stopwatch. All test equipment should be assembled in advance to make the test flow smoothly. For every item, the assessor will do a demonstration of the task. The speed of the assessor’s performance should be kept fairly slow so child is not discouraged at the outset by tester’s super speed, but need to be 100% accurate. The child is given a chance to walk through all or part of the task before testing. Then the child is given the two chances to perform each item.
Oon the first trial of each item, the tester’s goal is for the child to be as accurate as they possibly can, even if it takes a bit longer to do it. They will then be given one more chance to see: i) if they can be more accurate if they did not do mange without performance errors, or ii) if they did it perfectly, to try to speed up while staying accurate. If a top score of ’4’ is achieved on the first try, a second trial is still done to determine the child’s consistency in high level performance. Throughout the test, the child is also given the chance to say ‘no’ to doing an item or to doing the repeat trials to keep the experience positive and engaging.
Some items can be discouraging for some children and it is important to keep going with testing all of the items rather than getting too frustrated with a single item. The child's test performance should be scored live (no need to videotape) using the Ignite Challenge worksheet. The assessor transfers the scores over to the summary score form and excel spread sheet for automated scoring after the assessment is done.
