The Relationship between Social Environmental Factors and Motor Performance in 3- to 12-Year-Old Typically Developing Children: A Systematic Review

The association between smartphone and tablet usage and children development

Smartphone and tablet usage duration may relate to problems with early development in children. It is imperative to determine the appropriate duration of its usage by children. The purpose of the study was 1) to investigate the correlation between child development and smartphone and tablet usage duration, 2) to study the correlation of smartphone and tablet usage duration between children and their caregivers, and 3) to correlate child development and other factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted. Eighty-five community children with a mean age of 4.05 ± 0.91 years were recruited as study subjects. Development was assessed using the Denver Developmental Screening Test II, which includes gross motor, language, fine motor-adaptive and personal-social developments. Subsequently, details of smartphone and tablet usage for the next seven days were recorded. The average duration of smartphone and tablet usage was 82.78 ± 62.82 min/day. In addition, 32.94%, 11.76%, 9.42%, and 2.35%, of children were classified as suspected fine motor-adaptive, personal-social, language, and gross motor development, respectively. The main findings revealed a highly significant correlation between a child's smartphone and tablet usage duration and their gross motor development. Children's smartphone and tablet usage duration showed a positive significant correlation with the duration spent on smartphones and tablets by mothers and relatives. Father's medical history and family income showed a significant correlation with child development. Thus, caregivers must pay attention to the smartphone and tablet usage time of children, mothers and relatives to prevent abnormal development in children.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Motor Development of Schoolchildren in Rural and Urban Environments

Social and school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to significant stagnation in children's motor development, but precise data on this are lacking. We aimed to examine the impact of the pandemic and society closure on motor development of school children and to find differences between rural and urban environments. From the SLOfit database, we obtained anonymous results from 756 6^th grade children before the pandemic (11.3 ± 0.5 years, 52.5% boys) who performed physical fitness measurements in 2017 and 2019 in 8th grade and from 853 6^th grade children (11.4 ± 0.5 years, 51% boys) who performed measurements in 2019 and 2021, after 3 pandemic waves. The results of eight physical activity tests and the overall physical fitness index were compared between the prepandemic and the pandemic generation. We divided the sample into four groups (rural and urban prepandemic group and rural and urban pandemic group) and compared the changes in test scores between 6th and 8th grade. We found a statistically significant decrease in the physical fitness index of the pandemic generation (from 51.6 ± 29.6 to 45.8 ± 30.3) compared to the prepandemic generation (from 50.4 ± 30.5 to 50.5 ± 29.7), p < 0.001. The greatest effects of pandemic closure were found in the 600-meter run, in polygon course backwards test, in the number of sit-ups in 60 seconds, and in the 60-meter sprint. Children from rural areas showed worse decrement in physical fitness index compared to urban areas, except for 600-meter run. We conclude that the pandemic closure has had a significant inhibitory effect on the motor development of schoolchildren and has reduced their overall physical fitness with worse decline in rural areas. The pandemic generation of children needs more physical education in schools and other systemic interventions to mitigate these consequences.