The aim of this systematic review was to provide an overview of the effectiveness of fundamental movement skill interventions in young children (2–5 years) and to identify elements that determine the effectiveness of these interventions. A systematic literature search was conducted in four electronic databases (PubMed, Academic Search Complete, Education Resources Information Centre and SPORTDiscus). First, intervention-related data (e.g., intervention length, volume, focus, and content) were extracted. Next, the methodological quality and risk of bias of the selected studies were evaluated using a 10-item checklist. Sixteen studies (13 randomised controlled trials and 3 controlled trials) met the inclusion criteria of which 9 had a high methodological quality. Fourteen studies reported statistically significant intervention effects, ranging from small negative to very strong positive effects. Four studies executed a retention test of which two showed positive effects. Elements that influence the effectiveness are: incorporating all fundamental movement skills in the intervention with a variety of activities; combining deliberate practice and deliberate play; the intervention length; the intervention volume and; providing a training programme with coaching during the intervention for the professional involved in delivering the intervention. However more studies containing retention tests are needed.
Many children aged 9–12 appear to have low levels of fundamental movement skills (FMS). Physical education (PE) is important because PE-teachers can teach children a variety of FMS and can influence PE-motivation. However, declined levels of PE-motivation are reported in the final grades of elementary school. Therefore, more insight in the relations between PE-motivation and FMS is needed.Purposes: In the first phase, instruments to measure the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, classmate relatedness and teacher relatedness) and PE-motivation (autonomous and controlled) in 9–12-year-old children were developed and validated. The purpose of the second phase was to examine the influence of basic psychological needs on PE-motivation, the influence of PE-motivation on locomotor skills, object control skills and balance skills, and the direct influence of basic psychological needs on FMS for boys and girls aged 9–12.Participants and data collection: In the first phase, 172 children (82 boys, 90 girls, M = 10.72 years ± 0.77) filled out questionnaires assessing the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs and motivation for PE. Forty-eight children completed the questionnaires again 4 weeks later. In the second phase, a total of 138 children (66 boys, 72 girls, 10.8 years ± .79) (three schools from phase 1 and one new school) participated. Children from the new school also completed the questionnaires and all children conducted the subtest for speed and agility, upper limb coordination and balance of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2.Data analysis: In phase 1, linear weighted Kappa's and the Mokken Scale Program for polychotomous items were used to test reliability and validity. In phase 2, Pearson's correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were performed to examine the relations.Findings: Regarding phase 1, all subscales were reliable and the validity was considered moderate to strong except for the autonomy subscale, which was not reliable and valid. With respect to phase 2, all basic psychological needs, except autonomy among girls, had moderate to strong correlations with autonomous PE-motivation. Teacher relatedness was the most important predictor for boys and girls, while the second predictor was classmate relatedness for boys and competence for girls. No positive significant relations between basic psychological needs and FMS and between PE-motivation and FMS were found. In contrary, moderate but negative relations between teacher relatedness and balance skills and between autonomous PE-motivation and balance skills were found for boys.Conclusions: The results confirmed the importance of the basic psychological needs in the prediction of autonomous PE-motivation in 9–12-year-old children. Although all needs should be supported by the PE-teacher, it is important to be aware of the different impact of the needs on autonomous PE-motivation for boys and girls. Despite the missing relations with FMS, PE-teachers seem to be able to autonomously motivate children for PE regardless of their FMS proficiency.
The main aim of this study was to evaluate a new combination of test items on its practical use as a tool for determining the fundamental movement skills performance in 6- to 10-year old primary school children. This combination of tests should cover the different aspects of fundamental movement skills (i.e., locomotion, balance and object control), measure performance levels within the broad spectrum of this age range in both boys and girls and be able to detect the existing performance differences between ages. For this purpose, 1121 primary school children (6–10 years) were assessed during their regular PE class using three test items of the Korper Köordinations Test für Kinder (KTK-3), i.e., walking backwards (WB), moving sideways (MS), jumping sideways (JS), and an eye hand coordination test item (EHC). Univariate General Linear Model analyses were used to evaluate main and interaction effects of sex and age on the test outcomes. Pearson 's correlation coefficients were calculated to confirm the different constructs measured by the four test items. Moreover, in line with previous studies the raw scores were converted into movement quotients (i.e., MQKTK−3 and MQKTK−3+EHC) to classify the children 's performance level. Accordingly, percentage of agreement and Cohen 's kappa between both classifications was determined to gain insight in the influence of the addition of the EHC to the KTK-3. Significant effects for sex and age were found. Girls outperformed boys on WB and boys outperformed girls on EHC (P < 0.05). On all test items children of a certain age group scored better than their 1-year younger peers, except at WB between 10- and the 8- and 9-year olds and at MS and JS between 10-year olds and 9-year olds. Moderate positive associations between the test items were found (P < 0.05). An 80.8% agreement of classification of children was found based on the MQKTK−3 or the MQKTK−3+EHC [Cohen 's kappa 0.59 (P < 0.001)]. Consequently, The KTK-3+EHC appears to adequately cover different aspects of the fundamental movement skills. It provides practitioners a tool that can objectively assess the broad performance spectrum within young children in applied settings, which better meets children 's individual developmental needs. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2018.00075
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