Abstract
We tracked the motor skill development of young children aged 3–6 years and investigated the influence of middle-income home environment on the development of motor skill. 268 children were selected from kindergartens in Beijing. The Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) tool was used to test the development of locomotor and object-control skills (LS and OS), and a survey of children's behaviour and home environment was conducted. During the follow-up, the LS and OS of children aged 3–6 years continued to grow, with an annual growth rate of 20% and 30%. Five LS indicators and two OS indicators were significantly higher in the 3–4-year group than in the 4–5 and 5–6-year groups (p < 0.01). The age-sex trend model showed that girls' locomotor skill developed at a significantly higher rate than that of boys (β = 6.3004 and 4.6782, p < 0.001). Three-year-old boys performed significantly better than girls on object-control motor skill (p < 0.05). Factors affecting the rate of children's motor skill development in middle-income families included the frequency of playing with friends (β = 0.133, p = 0.032) and the frequency of bicycling, skateboarding, dancing, running, and jumping (β = 0.041, p = 0.042). Family income, parents' education level, and family activity area did not significantly affect the growth rate of motor skills. For middle-income families, the improvement of material environment at home like more playing spaces and toys did not speed up the motor development, while more opportunities to play with friends and engage in a variety of sports activities could promote children's motor skill development.
Highlights
Motor skill development plays an important role in children’s health and development and is the foundation for performing physical activities [1,2,3]
Dividing the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) average annual growth value by the baseline value to the average annual growth rate resulted in an annual growth rate of 14.7– 22.2% for locomotor skills and 30.6–31.7% for objectcontrol skills
The convergence test showed that the models all conformed to the principle of convergence; the development trend of children in each age group was basically consistent and could be described by a single curve
Summary
Motor skill development plays an important role in children’s health and development and is the foundation for performing physical activities [1,2,3]. The first six years of childhood are devoted to learning and practicing fundamental motor skills in an exploratory and experiential manner, including locomotor skill, object-control skill, and posturecontrol skill [4]. These motor skills need to be developed at an appropriate level between the ages of three and six, and different types of movements should have their own developmental patterns [5]. Studies on motor development characteristics at the childhood stage have produced diverse results. Previous study found a gradual decrease in the average annual growth value of motor skills with age in a study of 1,614 Belgian children aged 3–6 years [6].
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