Tracking Phenomenon in Physical Development During Elementary School

Abstract

Ten-step assessments are generally used as means of assessing motor ability in school-age children. However, no method for assessing physical fitness and motor ability has been established that considers changes with age in young schoolchildren in the growth stage. In particular, no method has been constructed to evaluate physical longitudinal data for individuals. The purpose of this study was to establish a suitable method for evaluating this kind of physical longitudinal data, and examine motor ability tracking. Cohorts were established for physique and motor ability data published by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, and the wavelet interpolation model was applied to the mean values ± 0.5 SD and ± 1.5 SD from the first to the sixth grade of elementary school. A physical evaluation chart that included consideration of aging was then established. The longitudinal data for physique and motor ability from the first to sixth grade of elementary school were applied to this chart, and the physique and motor ability tracking status was analyzed. Physique was shown to track at high rates of greater than 95% for height and more than 70% of children for motor ability. This demonstrates that motor ability at the time of first grade in elementary school generally continues on the same course until the sixth grade. Given this tendency for evaluations of motor ability to follow the same trend line during the elementary school years, early educational attention may be necessary for children with poor motor ability.