Through development, a child's varied movement contexts provide different opportunities or affordances for action that are fundamental to promoting motor competence. Although home is the primary environment for infants, as children age, school and sport environments gain importance. Studies focusing on affordances for motor behavior in children have mainly addressed the home microsystem, providing an incomplete picture of affordances across different settings, particularly later in development. Here, we undertook a narrative literature review of various affordances for children's motor development. This review revealed that prior studies of school and sports contexts have not specifically focused on those environmental properties that promote or hinder motor learning opportunities, meaning that future research should assess these relationships through manipulations of environmental features in these different microsystems.

Este estudo objetivou analisar a qualidade dos ambientes domiciliares na região central do Rio Grande do Sul para a ocorrência de oportunidades de estimulação motora. Fizeram parte do estudo 410 famílias de crianças com idades entre 18 e 42 meses. Para a avaliação foi utilizado o questionário "Affordances in the Home Enviroment for Motor Development Self-Report" - (AHEMD-SR) que aborda a qualidade e a quantidade de fatores no ambiente que são favoráveis à intensificação do desenvolvimento motor infantil. Foram utilizadas análises descritivas e os testes t para amostras independentes e ANOVA para comparação das médias. A análise dos dados evidenciou que as famílias com menor renda (p = 0,00) e cujos pais têm menor grau de instrução (p = 0,00) possuem lares que promovem menos oportunidades de estimulação motora às crianças. Os resultados menos satisfatórios foram em relação à provisão de materiais que estimulem o desenvolvimento da motricidade infantil no espaço externo das residências (entre 64,4% e 65,1% classificados como muito fraco). Conclui-se que, em grande parte das residências avaliadas, há uma carência na provisão de materiais que promovam a estimulação do desenvolvimento da motricidade infantil. O estudo dá fortes indícios que estas restrições podem ser decorrentes do baixo nível socioeconômico e grau de escolaridade das famílias pesquisadas.

Parents' perceptions of children's motor competence are important because they influence the way parents interact with their children to promote motor skills development. Thirty-six mothers of 16- to 66-month old children (61%, 22 boys and 39%, 14 girls, n = 36) estimated their child's performance while the child was being evaluated, by another trained researcher, with the same scale (Peabody Developmental Motor Scale 2nd Ed.) in a different room. Underestimations, accurate estimations, overestimations, and parental accuracy were investigated. Mothers overestimated significantly their child's stationary and locomotion skills and their GMQ and Total Motor Quotients (TMQ). Identical levels of motor performance were found in girls and boys, and estimation accuracy was similar for both genders. We discuss our results in the context of the parents' routines (little time interacting with children actively) and the relevance of their perceptions of the children's abilities as a further influence on the children's development and engagement in physical activities.