The Effect of Fundamental Motor Skills Intervention Program on Kindergarten Students

Abstract

Background: The ability of motor skills becomes the basis for children to master movement skills. There are still many students whose motor skills are below average. Objective: The aim is to compare the fundamental motor skills (FMS) regular program with the intervention FMS program conducted in 12 meetings within 6 weeks in schools. Methods: 80 kindergarten students were sampled and split into two equal groups where 40 students were placed in the control group to receive regular training and the rest 40 students in the intervention group. The test of gross motor development-2 (TGMD-2) was employed while measuring the motor skills through pre-test and post-test approach. Results: There was an increase in motor skills in both learning groups. After testing with the Mann-Whitney test, obtained with the mean range of 21.44 in the regular FMS program which was found lower comparing to the other one of the FMS in the intervention program of 59.56, Sig. equal to 0.000 <0.05, meaning that this discrepancy was statistically significant at p-value = 0.05. These latter findings imply that motor skills were highly increased in the intervention group rather than in those who followed the regular FMS program. Conclusion: The FMS learning through intervention programs is better at improving students' motor skills. Schools can use FMS interventions to improve motor skills, provided that the teacher understands the implementation of the program, implements the program according to the guidelines, students follow the entire learning process.