Abstract
Globally, more than half of school-aged children do not engage in the recommended 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Given that developing sufficient fundamental motor skills (FMS) competence during early elementary school years is important for a child’s physical and cognitive development, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an 8-week FMS-based afterschool program on physical and cognitive health outcomes among elementary children. Participants were 31 K–2 students (19 girls, 12 boys; Mage = 6.65 ± 0.98) from three public elementary schools in the southwestern United States who were assigned to the intervention group (FMS-based afterschool program; n = 20) or the control group (traditional afterschool program; n = 11). A 2 × 2 repeated measures MANOVA showed significant changes in FMS competence and MVPA between the intervention and the control group over time. However, no significant changes were found in cognitive functioning. The 8-week FMS-based afterschool program showed significant improvements in FMS competence and MVPA, compared to a traditional afterschool program. This finding suggests that structured FMS-focused strategies (e.g., fun games and goal setting) can be a critical component when implementing a physical activity program to enhance children’s motor skills and physical activity behavior.
Highlights
More than half of school-aged children do not engage in the recommended 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) [1] and the childhood obesity rate has increased from 13.9% in 2000 to 18.4% in 2016 in the United States [2]
Guided by Stodden and colleagues’ [13] conceptual model, the present study aimed to examine the effects of an eight-week fundamental motor skills (FMS)-based afterschool program on physical and cognitive health among K–2 elementary school children
After the eight-week FMS intervention, the intervention group showed significant improvements in FMS competence and MVPA relative to the control group, but no significant improvements were observed in cognitive functioning
Summary
More than half of school-aged children do not engage in the recommended 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) [1] and the childhood obesity rate has increased from 13.9% in 2000 to 18.4% in 2016 in the United States [2]. Research indicates that physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors are significant correlates of childhood obesity [3,4]. Childhood obesity and physical inactivity could result in serious adverse health consequences such as cardiovascular disease [5], type 2 diabetes [6], asthma [7], sleep apnea [8], depression [9], and psychosocial issues [10]. A growing body of research has revealed that fundamental motor skills (FMS) competence during childhood are important correlates of obesity, and contribute to children’s physical activity participation and cognitive health [11,12,13]. FMS competence has been considered as the building blocks. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 733; doi:10.3390/ijerph17030733 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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