Direct Parent Engagement to Improve Fundamental Movement Skills in Children: A Systematic Review

Impact and Implementation of an Early Years Fundamental Motor Skills Intervention for Children 4-5 Years

Fundamental motor skills (FMS) are the cornerstone of a child's motor development, but concerns remain on the current level of FMS competencies, and intervention is required. This evaluation investigated if a targeted Early Years FMS intervention, delivered by a specialist physical education (PE) provider, improved the FMS of 4-5-year-old children across multiple sites.

METHODS

The Early Years FMS intervention ran for 18 weeks, 1 h/week, using a standardised programme of activities to develop FMS competencies across 219 children from 15 schools in the Midlands, UK. An adapted assessment was employed as a measure of FMS, assessing locomotor, object control, and stability skills at weeks 1, 9, and 18. The FMS were each rated as green = competent, amber = working towards, or red = not meeting the standards of the skill. A description of key programme implementation characteristics was described.

FINDINGS

Statistically significant increases in FMS competencies were achieved for 80% of participants at 18 weeks. Key implementation characteristics for the intervention included consistent staffing, a standardised programme, and a variety of pedagogical approaches delivered by specialist PE staff.

CONCLUSION

This evaluation provided important insights into the effectiveness and implementation of the Early Years FMS intervention to improve FMS competencies in children aged 4-5 years.

MiniMovers: An Initial Pilot and Feasibility Study to Investigate the Impact of a Mobile Application on Children's Motor Skills and Parent Support for Physical Development

The MiniMovers (MM) APP combines motor development theory with creativity expertise and has been designed to provide parents with developmentally appropriate activities to support children's motor skills. This study investigates how MiniMovers activities enabled parents to support their children's physical development. Families participated in an 8-week MM programme of activities from the MM APP (Mini, Mighty and Mega levels), with pre- and post-intervention data collected using multiple tools (e.g., motion capture system, force plate, eye-tracking glasses, and videos). Mixed research methods were applied among children (N = 8; aged 21-79 months) and their parents, providing quantitative analysis on children's performance (running, throwing, jumping, kicking, balancing and catching), as well as qualitative analysis on parents' attitude and behaviour (two-weekly feedback surveys and interviews). Lab-based measures showed significant improvements in run time, underarm throwing distance, and horizontal jump distance. Test of Gross Motor Development-3 showed a significant gain in running, underarm and overarm throwing, horizontal jump and kicking. Further, developmental stages indicated significant improvements in running, kicking and catching. Parents reported increased enjoyment and knowledge, children's enjoyment, independence and confidence. This pilot study provides support for the research and development of the MM App and suggests more research into the use of APPs to support home activities among families with young children.

Influence of different caregiving styles on fundamental movement skills among children

Purpose

This study investigated the influence of parenting and grandparenting caregiving styles on fundamental motor skills (FMS) of preschool children.

Method

A total of 1,326 preschool children (698 boys, 628 girls) aged 4-6 years were recruited from the kindergartens of Jinhua City, China. Locomotor skills (LM), ball skills (BS), and total fundamental movement skills (TS) of children were assessed by the Test of Gross Motor Development-3rd edition (TGMD-3).

Results

There were 978 children in parenting and 348 children in grandparenting caregiving styles. The LM, BS and TS scores of children were considerably (p < 0.001) increased with age (irrespective of sex or caregiving style). For the sex comparisons, BS scores of boys were significantly higher than girls (p < 0.001), while LM and TS scores were not different between boys and girls. For the caregiving style comparison, parenting is superior to grandparenting in developing of children's FMS. Parenting boys of 4-, 5-, and 6-years old showed better BS compared to age-matched parenting girls, whereas boys of 5-years old in grandparenting only showed better BS compared to same-age grandparenting girls (p < 0.05). Furthermore, parenting boys of 6-years reported higher LM (p < 0.01), BS (p < 0.001), and TS (p < 0.001) scores compared to grandparenting boys, but girls' FMS at all ages were not significantly different between the caregiving styles.

Conclusion

Parenting caregiving style is positively associated with proper development of FMS among children. Girl children with poor FMS in grandparenting may need a special care or intervention programs to promote their FMS.