Abstract
LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese.
 The purpose of this study was to determine the gender difference in gross motor performance of Hong Kong preschool children. The secondary purposes were to determine whether there was a relationship between body mass index and motor performance as well as to determine the influence of preschool types (large play area vs. small play area) on the motor performance of preschool children. A total of 239 children (121 boys, 118 girls) aged 3 to 6 years from two types of preschools was assessed on locomotor and object control skills of the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2, Ulrich, 2000). Results showed that there was no gender difference in children’s gross motor skills when adjusted by the age effect. There was also no relationship between body mass index and motor performance of preschool children. When partial out age effect, children from preschools with larger play area performed better locomotor skills than those from preschools with smaller play area, however, children from preschools with larger play area had worse object control skills than those from preschools with smaller play area.
 本研究目的是調查幼兒學童之肌動技能表現，此研究樣本包括二百三十九名年齡介乎三至六歲來自四間幼稚園的香港學童(男 童=121，女童=118)，測試項目共有六項身體移動、六項物件操控及身高、體重。結果顯示研究分析若分離年齡的影響，幼兒之肌動技能表現是沒有性別差異。而體質指數亦與幼兒之肌動技能表現沒有顯著相關。另外，學童就讀於較大活動埸地的幼兒園於身體移動技能上，較那些就讀較小活動埸地的幼兒園為佳，反之，前者於物件操控技能上較後者為差。
Highlights
Motor development is a lifelong process. Gallahue and Ozmun (2006) depicted a transactional view of causes and interactions among individual factors, environment factors, and task factors in which motor development can be studied as a process
The first phase of the model is the reflexive movement phase that starts at birth to one year old which is followed by the second phase of rudimentary movement phase of stability movements such as gaining control of the head, neck, and trunk muscles; and other movements like finger grasping and the locomotor movements of creeping, crawling, and walking
If age was not adjusted, gender differences were found for all motor skill measures with boys having better motor performance scores than girls
Summary
Motor development is a lifelong process. Gallahue and Ozmun (2006) depicted a transactional view of causes and interactions among individual factors (e.g., heredity), environment factors (e.g., experience, learning), and task factors (e.g., physical and mechanical factors) in which motor development can be studied as a process. Gallahue and Ozmun (2006) depicted a transactional view of causes and interactions among individual factors (e.g., heredity), environment factors (e.g., experience, learning), and task factors (e.g., physical and mechanical factors) in which motor development can be studied as a process. Motor development can be studied as a product in which movements produced can be described by words or compared with normative data in various human stages (infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood). This paper focuses solely on the development of gross motor skills. In order to achieve specialized sport skill proficiency, a person goes through different stages of motor development. Gallahue and Ozmun (2006) presented this model on the phases of motor development with different movement phases in corresponding to the human age. The third phase is the fundamental movement phase that starts at two to seven years and the last phase is the specialized movement phase that starts at seven to fourteen years and up
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