Abstract
Skill development is influenced by many factors and, among many, opportunity of practice and appropriate instruction provided by teacher might be considered as key elements but still need to be empirically investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare gross motor development of young children enrolled in physical education, provided by a specialist teacher, and children enrolled in recreational activities, provided by a regular teacher, in kindergarten. Fifty children were divided into two groups: 25 children (age of 5.3 ± 0.3 years) constituted the physical education (PE) group and received activities, once a week, ministered by a physical education teacher; 25 children (age of 5.2 ± 0.4 years) constituted the recreational (RE) group and received activities, also once a week, supervised by a classroom teacher. All these children were evaluated performing the locomotor and object control subtests of Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2) at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Performance of both subtests were scored, according to the performance criteria of TGMD-2, by three experimenters, obtaining the raw skill score and the equivalent motor age for each subtest. Results revealed that both children’ groups showed similar raw skill score and equivalent motor age before enrollment in any activities, at the beginning of the year. Differently, after enrolment in the respective activities, PE children showed higher raw skill score and equivalent motor age than RE children. These results demonstrated that regular physical education, composed by structured practice, ministered by a specialist promote gross motor development of children even at young age such as in kindergarten.
Highlights
Debatable, fundamental motor skills are considered as building blocks of latter motor skill acquisition related to sport-specific movements (Clark, 1994; Gallahue, 1982) and skillfulness (Clark, 1994)
Considering that the TGMD-2 might provide useful information regarding children’s gross motor development and its progress throughout the school age (Ulrich, 2000) and that the effects of physical education activities in children’s motor development still need to be examined, the purpose of this study was to examine the gross motor development of children enrolled in regular physical education activities, provided by a specialist, and children enrolled in recreational activities provided by a regular teacher, in kindergarten
The present study examined the gross motor development of children enrolled in regular physical education, provided by a specialist teacher, and children enrolled in recreational activities, provided by a regular teacher, in kindergarten
Summary
Fundamental motor skills are considered as building blocks of latter motor skill acquisition related to sport-specific movements (Clark, 1994; Gallahue, 1982) and skillfulness (Clark, 1994). The acquisition of gross motor skill is critical, but despite its importance, gross motor development has been overlooked by many who work with early education (Clark, 2007). Many might be the reasons for little attention to gross motor skill acquisition, but the main reason comes from the assumption that maturation would underlie gross motor or fundamental motor skill development. Maturation plays an important role in motor development course and acquisition rate, but it might not be considered the sole factor contributing to motor skill development (Thelen, 1986; Ulrich, 1989). The idea that maturation is the driving force responsible to early motor skill acquisition is a misconception that limited our understanding of the early underlying motor development processes. Since maturation was though to be the driven force for early motor skill acquisition, these skills were not required to be taught in daily physical education in kindergarten and even in early elementary school years
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