The Relationship Between Motor Fitness, Fundamental Movement Skills, and Functional Movement Screen in Primary School Children

Abstract

This study investigates motor fitness (MF), fundamental movement skills (FMS), and functional movement screen (FMS™) in 7-10-year-old children, and evaluates the relationship between FMS?MF and FMS™ combination with Seefeldt`s model for empirical research, thus to present effective strategies of physical development in children. A class was randomly selected in four school grades (1-4) along with 30 students from each to take the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2). A total of 117 children (42 girls, aged 7-10) participated in three tests: TGMD-2, MF tests, and FMS™. MF levels (good, fair, and poor) and FMS™ levels (high, moderate, and low) were classified according to specific percentile ranges. A multiple (R×C) chi-square test analysis of the relationship between MF, FMS, and FMS™ was applied and post hoc testing estimated the possibility of FMS and FMS™ predicting MF. The results showed that only 43% of children were rated “good” on MF. Most fourth-grade students exhibited a certain gap with mature FMS (TGMD-2 score 70.13±9.68< 96 full scores). Boys scored significantly higher on the object control subtest and the TGMD-2 total score compared to girls (p<0.001), while girls had a significantly greater score than boys on the FMS™ ( p =0.001). The results of multiple chi-square demonstrated FMS to be weakly correlated with MF, χ 2 (4,N=117) =14.605, p =0.006< 0.01, Cramer’s V = 0.25. Both 60.5% of “excellent” FMS and 59.6% of “high” FMS™ children were categorized as having a “good” MF level. On the other hand, only 23.1% of the “worst” FMS and 24.3% of “low” FMS™ individuals were classified as having a “good” MF level. Our results suggest that MF, FMS, FMS™ are relatively independent systems linking with each other, generating mutual interaction in children’s motor development. At different stages or different advantages of them motor development, we may emphasize training one or a few parts.