Fundamental Motor Skills of Public and Private School Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to classify and compare the fundamental motor skills (FMS) of children from public and private schools and verify the compatibility of FMS with students’ chronological age. Participants were 81 healthy children (10.6±1.2 years). The TGMD-2 was used to evaluate FMS. Private school students had a higher score on the locomotor subtest than public school students (p=.032), with no difference on the object control subtest (p=.733). The Gross Motor Quotient indicated that the students of both schools presented similar performance ratings classified as “very poor”, “poor” and “below average”. For the locomotor and object control subtests, all schoolchildren had equivalent motor age lower than their chronological age. Students from both schools had a delay in motor development, while private school students demonstrated greater efficiency in locomotor FMS.