Prevalence and Correlates of Low Fundamental Movement Skill Competency in Children

Abstract

Low competency in FMS is strongly associated with lower cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity levels in children and adolescents. The characteristics of students with competency in FMS differ by gender and skills types and show that interventions need to target girls from low SES backgrounds and boys from non-English-speaking cultural backgrounds. The high prevalence of low competency in FMS among Grade 4 students indicates that FMS interventions need to start during the preschool and early school years.

A longitudinal study of gross motor coordination and weight status in children

“…This latter factor is more than likely to impact upon motor (in)competence as well as the risk to develop overweight or obesity over time (15,(24)(25)(26)(27). Our results substantiate the point of reverse causality by demonstrating that among the followed-up participants higher baseline BMI z-scores resulted in a decrease in KTK MQ's, whereas at the same time lower baseline KTK MQ's resulted in an increase in BMI z-scores over 2 years.…”

“…Evidence from multiple cross-sectional studies clearly indicates an inverse association between both factors (8,9). Regardless of motor assessment tool and body mass index (BMI) based classification method being used, lower fundamental motor skill mastery (i.e., qualitative measures related to movement execution) as well as poorer performances on gross motor skill and coordination tests (i.e., quantitative measures related to motor outcome) have been consistently reported in overweight and obese children as compared to healthy-weight peers and/or age-related standards (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Such weight status related impairment in motor development starts to manifest itself in the preschool population (17)(18)(19)(20).…”

The effectiveness of a fundamental motor skill intervention in pre-schoolers with motor problems depends on gender but not environmental context

“…Perhaps the reason for this difference then is related to the delivery of the practice, and the fact that boys engage more in object control related games and activities during free play than girls (Garcia et al, 1994;Hardy et al, 2012). Accordingly, the object control activities provided during the intervention might have been more challenging for the girls because they had little experience with similar activities outside the intervention.…”

“…The association between proficiency in FMS and different measures of physical activity (PA) has been observed in many cross-sectional studies and it is a common finding that children with poorer FMS are less active (e.g., Bouffard, Watkinson, Thompson, Causgrove Dunn, & Romanow, 1996;Fisher, Reilly, Kelly, Montgomery, Williamson, Paton, & Grant, 2005;Hardy, Reinten-Reynolds, Espinel, Zask, & Okely, 2012;Morgan, Okely, Cliff, Jones, & Baur, 2008;Okely, Booth, & Patterson, 2001;Williams et al, 2008;Robinson et al, 2012).…”

“…It is remarkable, however, that despite the wealth of knowledge on correlates of PA and motor competence at different stages of life (Cools et al, 2011;Hardy et al, 2012;Sallis et al, 1999;Venetsanou & Kambas, 2010), research into the role of these factors in FMS intervention is relatively scarce. For example, to our knowledge, only two studies have investigated whether the effectiveness of an FMS intervention may depend on the gender of the child, while previous research has found distinct gender differences during learning various (motor) skills (Garcia, 1994).…”