Utilization of a Mobile Application for Motor Skill Evaluation in Children

Abstract

The detection of needs in educational reinforcement must be done in the early stages of childhood during primary education to improve the acquisition of motor skills. An adequate early intervention can solve some detected difficulties, thus contributing to children’s motor progress and mitigating possible deficiencies such as weak motor coordination. In this work, we present a mobile application (app) that allows physiotherapists to design activities for the evaluation of motor skills. These activities can be adapted to the child’s progress and the corresponding reinforcement needs. We tested the app with children from ages 6 to 12, corresponding to the six primary school grades. The results show that these children did not have notable motor difficulties, although children in lower primary school years showed a higher level of error in movement precision. The results allow us to establish reference values for a future comparison with collectives with motor difficulties.