Motor ability tests based on pass-or-fail criteria (pass-or-fail tests) are used to assess proper motor development of infants or young children. Motor ability tests which employ CGS scales (CGS-scales tests) are also used for various age groups including young children. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between pass-or-fail tests and CGS-scales tests, which involve different scales. The relationship between 26 pass-or-fail tests and 6 CGS-scales tests were examined by canonical correlation analysis and principal component analysis with external criteria, for young children aged 3 to 6 yr. The results suggested that the relationship between them is high and unidimensional. In 26 pass-or-fail tests, 27.4% of the total variance could be explained by CGS-scales tests and 72.6% could not. The former, showing related variance, would be a unidimensional structure and the latter, showing unrelated variance, a multidimensional structure. The two types of tests have a tendency to show a lower correlation with increasing child age. This would indicate that the range of motor abilities which can be measured by both pass-or-fail and CGS-scales tests decreases with age.