Mastery of fundamental movement skills among 6-year-old Flemish pre-school children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess mastery of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) in 6- to 6.5-year-old Flemish pre-school children. The subjects were 236 6-year-old children (138 boys, 98 girls; mean age 6 years 2.4 months, SD 2.4). Children were individually assessed with the Motoriktest für Vier- bis Sechsjährige Kinder (MOT 4-6) in four performance areas. Scores on each item varied from 0 to 2 and generated a maximum total score (TS) of 34. Percentiles and descriptive analyses were used to report on frequencies of scores. The mean TS was 20.78 (SD 5.7), without significant gender differences. Score 2 was reached by more than 50% of children in 6/17 FMS: ‘forward balance’, ‘placing dots’, ‘grasping a tissue’, ‘passing through a hoop’, ‘height jump’ and ‘turning jump’. In conclusion, 6-year-old pre-school children scored well on 6/17 FMS (one stability, two fine motor and three locomotor tasks). Object control tasks showed lower skill levels than other performance areas.

Fundamental motor skills of Czech children at the end of the preschool period

“…Girls performed significantly lower in both "catching a beanbag (AC1)" and "throwing a beanbag onto mat (AC2)" test items. Our results are in accordance with previous studies which also found a significantly lower performance of objectcontrol skills in girls (Hardy et al, 2009;van Beurden et al, 2002;Van Waelvelde et al, 2008;Vandaele et al, 2011). Moreover, the overall score on the AC subtest for girls (25 th percentile) highlights poor object-control skills at the end of the preschool time.…”

“…Several studies focusing on assessment of FMS have pointed out poor or insufficient levels of FMS in relation to the healthy development of preschool children (Hardy et al, 2009;LeGear et al, 2012;Vandaele et al, 2011). A generally low level of FMS was found by Hardy et al (2009), in Australia, in 330 preschool children aged four years.…”

“…To be physically active and engage in sport-specific skills, the development of different performance areas such as stability, locomotion, object control and fine motor skills is necessary (Vandaele et al, 2011). Additionally, as early as the preschool period, gender differences in FMS may be an important factor to consider when creating effective motor interventions for the development of FMS (Cliff, Okely, Smith, & Mckeen, 2009).…”

“…Thus, current research in the area of FMS development focuses, mainly, on motor impairment and motor deficits (Cools, De Martelaer, Samaey, & Andries, 2009). Studies which focus on the assessment of FMS within a population of typically developing preschool children are rather scarce (Cools et al, 2009;Vandaele, Cools, de Decker, & de Martelaer, 2011). Hardy, King, Farrell, Macniven, and Howlett (2009) suggest that children should achieve an adequate level of FMS by the end of the preschool period, around the age of six.…”

Directly observed physical activity and fundamental motor skills in four-year-old children in day care

“…It is recommended that children below five years of age are physically active for at least two hours per day, and caregivers minimize the children's However, studies using objective physical activity measurements, such as direct observation or accelerometers, indicate that children in day care spend, in general, more than two-thirds of their waking time in sedentary activities and only approximately ten percent in MVPA (Bower et al 2008;Brown et al 2006;Nicaise, Kahan, and Sallis 2011). Further, many children may not develop mature forms of all major FMS (Okely and Booth 2004;Vandaele et al 2011) and in young children some motor skills show a secular decline (Roth et al 2010). These undesirable trends have been suggested to be partly due to education contexts that do not provide appropriate support and encouragement for skill-developing activities (Gagen and Getchell 2006;Okely and Booth 2004) and the general physical inactivity of present-day lifestyles (Roth et al 2010).…”