Locomotor Skills Research Articles

Bidirectional Relationship Over Time Between Body Mass Index and Fundamental Movement Skill Domains Measured by a Process-Oriented Method in Childhood: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

The worldwide increase in childhood overweight and obesity underscores the need to study variables like fundamental movement skill (FMS) levels from early childhood. This study investigated the bidirectional longitudinal relationship between body mass index (BMI) and process-oriented FMSs, including locomotor skills and object control skills in 675 Finnish children, aged 3–8 years at baseline (50.5% female, mean age 5.5 years) over 3 years. Standardized BMI-for-age SD scores (BMI SDS z-scores) followed Finnish national standards. The FMS assessment comprised four subtests from the Test of Gross Motor Development, third edition. Age-adjusted standardized residuals of FMS or skill domains and BMI SDS z-scores were used in a two-level, cross-classified, cross-lagged regression analysis, accounting for gender, and baseline value of the dependent variables. The results showed no statistically significant longitudinal relationship between BMI and FMS or its skill domains for either gender in either direction. This suggests that BMI and process-oriented FMS, encompassing locomotor skill and object control skill, develop independently, possibly influenced by unexplored variables. These findings contradict earlier results based on product-oriented measurements, which may include a physical capacity component. The outcomes further underscore the importance of monitoring weight status from early childhood, given its significant association with later-life weight conditions.

Essential Motor Skills and Evidence-Based Activities for Enhancing Child Motor Skill Development During Out-of-School Time Programming: An Expert Consensus Study

Background: Locomotor and object control skills are considered essential skills for children to learn due to their potential impact in aiding in future health-enhancing physical activity. Evidence indicates that out-of-school time programs (OST) can provide meaningful movement opportunities for children. It has been found that leaders of OST programs are not equipped with the proper training to improve children’s motor skills. The purpose of this study was to gather expert consensus on the essential motor skills that should be practiced and evidence-based activities that should be integrated during OST programming. Methods: A three-round Delphi method was used to establish expert consensus on essential motor skills that children (5–10 years of age) should practice and evidence-based activities that should be integrated during OST programming to enhance child motor skill development. Results: Seven experts completed three rounds, and consensus was established (>70% agreement). Five essential motor skills were identified: overhand throwing, kicking, catching, jumping, and striking. Six evidence-based activities were agreed upon: team sport play, racket sports, swimming, resistance training, jogging/walking, and game-based approaches. Conclusion: Results from this study provide specific motor skills and evidence-based activities that program leaders could integrate during OST programming to enhance child motor skill development.

Evaluation and Quantifying the Difference between Male and Female Agility in Football Players: A Cross-sectional Pilot Study

Introduction: Football is an intermittent sport which requires agility as essential trait for player conditioning, selection and prevention of injury. Agility is a conditional motoric attribute classified as a locomotor skill combining both a muscular and cognitive component. Previous study, revealed that Illinois and T-test were most significant tests to evaluate agility. Aim: To evaluate and quantify the difference in agility between male and female footballers. Materials and Methods: Purposive sampling was used in this crosssectional study. 30 professional football players, aged between 18- 25 years with normal BMI and had atleast 3 years of systematic football training with 3-4 training sessions weekly and 8 hours of football training per week were included. Those players who had visual/hearing impairments, history of lower limb fractures, Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction and meniscectomy were excluded from the study. Illinois and T-test was used to access agility of football players. Normality of data was checked using ShapiroWilk test. Descriptive statistics in form of Mean±SD were used to find normative value and Independent T-test was utilised to quantify the difference. Results: Reference value of male and female player’s agility in T-test was 10.35±0.58 and 14.52±0.50 whereas for Illinois test it is 16.34±0.79 and 18.12±1.02 respectively. Independent T-test showed significant difference in male and female agility for both Illinois and T-test (p<0.001). Conclusion: Normative values are established for both genders. It is concluded that female players are clinically and statistically less agile when compared to male players (p-value <0.001).

Using 2 Versions of the Test of Gross Motor Development to Classify and Screen Young Children's Motor Skills: A Comparison Study.

The purpose of this study was to examine comparability between 2 editions of the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-second and TGMD-third edition) on (1) how children's motor skills were categorized as average or below average, and (2) how children are screened for being at-risk for motor delay or with delayed motor skills. Participants were 226 children (Mage = 53.4mo, 125 boys). All children completed full TGMD-2 and TGMD-3. Children were classified as average or above (>25th percentile) or below average (≤25th percentile) and, when applicable, as developmental delay (≤5th percentile) or at-risk for developmental delay (6-25th percentile). We compared children's classifications across TGMD editions using percent agreement and chi-squared tests. The TGMD-2 and TGMD-3 had moderate agreement when categorizing children as below average (72.2% for total skills, 76.0% for locomotor skills, and 73% for ball skills). The TGMD-3 was significantly more likely to categorize children's motor skill performance as average or above (all P < .01). TGMD-2 and TGMD-3 similarly screen children who demonstrate below average skills (≤25th percentile), but not for specific skill level classifications, including above average, at-risk for delays, and delayed.

Transfer and Retention Effects of a Motor Program in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The current study examined the acquisition, retention, and transfer effects of a motor program. Children with autism spectrum disorder participated in a 9-week program that targeted 13 fundamental motor skills based upon the Test of Gross Motor Development-3. Assessments were conducted before and after the program, as well as at 2-month follow-up. Significant improvements were found on not only the trained fundamental motor skills (acquisition) but also the untrained tasks on balance (transfer). The follow-up tests revealed continuous improvement on the trained locomotor skills (retention), as well as the untrained skills on balance (retention + transfer). These findings highlight the importance of continuous support and long-term participation on motor practices.

Locomotor skills of visually impaired students compared to non-disabled students: cross-sectional study

Locomotor skills of visually impaired students compared to non-disabled students: cross-sectional study

Robotic Locomotion Skill Learning Using Unsupervised Reinforcement Learning With Controllable Latent Space Partition

Robotic Locomotion Skill Learning Using Unsupervised Reinforcement Learning With Controllable Latent Space Partition

Development of an EOD Robot for the Arequipa Explosive Disposal Unit

The JVC 0.2 is an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robot with tracks, a 5 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) arm, and a two-finger gripper developed by the National University of San Agustin (UNSA) and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit of the Police of Arequipa (UDEX) in response to the technical needs of adequate weight for manual transport in compliance with the law 29,088 in force in Peru, urban multi-terrain locomotion skills, robotic arm control and handling of explosive objects with sizes and weights registered in the UDEX database. The objective of this document is to develop and test the robot for maneuverability, locomotion, and arm strength based on National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards adapted to the needs of UDEX to safeguard the lives of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialists (TEDAX). The test procedures were carried out to evaluate the robot’s capabilities in terms of maneuverability and were designed to time the transport of objects simulating explosives at different inclinations to a container. The tests showed us that the actuation time of the robotic arm was improved, that it can climb stairs with a maximum inclination of 20°, that the locomotion speed measured on flat ground was 10.94 cm/s and that the load capacity at the extended arm is 9 kg. Finally, we conclude that it is necessary to update the design of the robot to reduce the weight to meet the safety standards at work, increase the load capacity up to 10 Kg, and improve mobility; so that, it becomes of daily use by the TEDAX.

Improving children’s motor skills during the Covid-19 endemic (Systematic Review)

This study aims to provide information about efforts to improve children’s motor skills during the COVID-19 Endemic. The method used in this study is a systematic review through searching articles in research journal databases such as the Web of Science, Pubmed, Scopus, and Embase. The keywords in this search were motor skills, children, COVID-19, lifestyle and exercise. A total of 3348 articles from the Web of Science, Pubmed, Scopus, and Embase databases were identified. A further 7 articles that met all inclusion requirements or at least some of them were selected for this systematic review. For standard operationalization, this study follows the PRISMA. The results of this study confirmed several efforts could be made to improve children’s motor skills during the COVID-19 endemic period, for example, physical exercise, play-based activities, and other basic skills such as running, jumping, and throwing. This systematic review study reports that several efforts can be made to improve children’s motor skills during the COVID-19 endemic period, such as increasing physical exercise, playing activities, and performing basic skills such as running, jumping, and throwing. These types of exercises will help improve motor skills, especially locomotor skills. In addition, the role of parents is very necessary in controlling the activities carried out by children during the COVID-19 endemic.

Lateral flexion of a compliant spine improves motor performance in a bioinspired mouse robot.

A flexible spine is critical to the motion capability of most animals and plays a pivotal role in their agility. Although state-of-the-art legged robots have already achieved very dynamic and agile movement solely relying on their legs, they still exhibit the type of stiff movement that compromises movement efficiency. The integration of a flexible spine thus appears to be a promising approach to improve their agility, especially for small and underactuated quadruped robots that are underpowered because of size limitations. Here, we show that the lateral flexion of a compliant spine can promote both walking speed and maneuver agility for a neurorobotic mouse (NeRmo). We present NeRmo as a biomimetic robotic mouse that mimics the morphology of biological mice and their muscle-tendon actuation system. First, by leveraging the lateral flexion of the compliant spine, NeRmo can greatly increase its static stability in an initially unstable configuration by adjusting its posture. Second, the lateral flexion of the spine can also effectively extend the stride length of a gait and therefore improve the walking speeds of NeRmo. Finally, NeRmo shows agile maneuvers that require both a small turning radius and fast walking speed with the help of the spine. These results advance our understanding of spine-based quadruped locomotion skills and highlight promising design concepts to develop more agile legged robots.

The role of playgrounds in the development of children’s fundamental movement skills: A scoping review

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are the basic skills children should develop but are low in children from high-income countries. Literature indicates that playgrounds can play an important role challenging children’s balance, agility, and coordination. However, knowledge on the influence of playgrounds on children’s FMS development is fragmented. The aim of the present scoping review was to create an overview of all research that is relevant when studying the influence of unstructured playground play on children’s FMS. Four electronic databases (Scopus, Web of Science, SportDiscus, and PsycInfo) were searched systematically in May 2022 and October 2023 following the PRISMA guidelines, leading to a final set of 14 publications meeting the inclusion criteria. The results of these publications indicate that it is important to design playgrounds with various features targeting balance, climbing, throwing, and catching to provide opportunities for children to enhance each FMS (i.e., stability, locomotor skills, and object control skills). Also, spreading features over a large area of the playground seems to ensure ample space per child, stimulate children to use locomotor skills by moving to and from features, and to play active games without equipment. Possibly, also natural play settings develop children’s FMS. These findings, however, should be read with caution. More experimental studies using objective and standardized FMS tests are needed in this research field for a more robust conclusion.

Does body mass index distinguish motor proficiency, social and emotional maturity among adolescent girls?

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to investigate whether different body mass index (BMI) groups could serve as a distinguishing factor for assessing motor proficiency and social and emotional maturity in adolescent girls.Methods140 girls ranging from 12 to 14.5 years old were selected from the schools of Tabriz city, Iran. After their height and weight were measured to calculate body mass index, they completed the following questionnaires: Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of motor proficiency, Second Edition,Vineland Social Maturity Scale, and Emotional Maturity scale.Resultsnormal-weight girls had a meaningful advantage against overweight and underweight participants in the gross motor factor of motor proficiency (p = 0.004), but there wasn’t a meaningful difference in the fine motor p = 0.196) and coordination factors (p = 0.417). Also, social maturity showed an advantage of normal and underweight adolescent girls in the self-help dressing factor (p = 0.018), while the locomotion skills (p = 0.010) factor revealed a better performance of normal weight and overweight groups over underweight adolescents. No significant differences were observed in the emotional maturity subscales (p = 0.63) between the groups.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrates that BMI has a direct influence on adolescents’ gross motor proficiency and social maturity.

Do Fundamental Movement Skill Domains in Early Childhood Predict Engagement in Physical Activity of Varied Intensities Later at School Age? A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

This study was conducted to determine how total fundamental movement skill (FMS) score and, separately, locomotor skill (LMS), and object control skill scores in children 3–8 years old predicted their specific-intensity physical activity 3 years later. Overall, 441 Finnish children (51.7% female, baseline mean age of 5.6 years) participated in the study. Total FMS, LMS, and object control skill scores were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development, third edition. The time spent engaged in physical activity of different intensities (light, moderate, vigorous, moderate-to-vigorous, light-to-vigorous, and sedentary behavior) was determined using accelerometers. A two-level regression model was used in the analysis, considering potential covariates and interactions. The results showed that moderate physical activity, vigorous physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were predicted by the total FMS score (β = 0.177 to 0.203, p = .001–.003) and the LMS score (β = 0.140 to 0.164, p = .004–.014), but not the object control skill score. Moreover, the LMS score inversely predicted sedentary behavior (β = −0.116, p = .042). In conclusion, higher FMS and, specifically, LMS scores seem to predict more engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and less sedentary behavior over time. However, most of the variance in physical activity remains unexplained.

Safe and Adaptive 3-D Locomotion via Constrained Task-Space Imitation Learning

Bipedal locomotion has been widely studied in recent years, where passive safety (i.e., a biped rapidly brakes without falling) is deemed to be a pivotal problem. To realize safe 3-D walking, existing works resort to nonlinear optimization techniques based on simplified dynamics models, requiring hand-tuned reference trajectories. In this article, we propose to integrate safety constraints into constrained task-space imitation learning, endowing a humanoid robot with adaptive walking capability. Specifically, unlike previous work using nonlinear and coupled capturability dynamics, we first linearize the 3-D capture conditions using appropriate extreme values and then seamlessly incorporate them into constrained imitation learning. Furthermore, we propose novel heuristic rules to define control points, enabling adaptive locomotion learning. The resulting framework allows robots to learn locomotion skills from a few demonstrations efficiently and apply the learned skills to unseen 3-D scenarios while satisfying the constraints for passive safety. Unlike deep enforcement learning, our framework avoids the need of a large number of iterations or sim-to-real transfer. By virtue of the task-space adaptability, the proposed imitation learning framework can reuse collected demonstrations in a new robot platform. We validate our method by hardware experiments on Walker2 robot and simulations on COMAN robot.

Validity Test of the Locomotor Learning Model in Children Aged 6-8 Years

The locomotor learning model for early childhood developed in Indonesia is still not innovative. Therefore, researchers intend to develop an innovative locomotion learning model. This research aims to obtain the validity of the locomotor movement learning model to improve locomotor movement in children aged 6-8 years. The validation data collection method used Focus Group Discussion (FGD) by 5 experts. The validity of the learning model is assessed based on content and construct validity. The content and construct validation results through expert FGDs show that the locomotor learning model for children aged 6-8 years is included in the very valid category. These findings suggest that, theoretically, it is sound and may be used to help kids between the ages of six and eight develop their locomotor skills. Researchers' locomotor movement learning model offers tremendous potential for academics and practitioners to conduct more studies based on its construct validity and content results. One area that warrants further investigation is the applicability and efficacy of the locomotor movement learning model for 6–8-year-old children.&#x0D; Keywords: locomotor learning model, Children 6-8 years&#x0D;

The Effect of Amyloid Beta on Symptoms Caused by Traumatic Brain Injury in Drosophila melanogaster

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the cause of one third of all injury-related deaths in the United States alone, and approximately 1.7 million people sustain a TBI each year. Depending on the severity of the, a TBI could lead to sustained damage to cognitive and locomotive abilities. Treatments for TBI have been previously investigated; however, prior research does not include the investigation of amyloid beta protein (Aβ), a protein found to accumulate rapidly after TBI, as having a role in recovery from TBI. This experiment focused on studying the effect of the presence of Aβ on cognitive and locomotor ability in Drosophila melanogaster after TBI. The cognitive and locomotor skills of D. melanogaster were tested through the means of a food-based choice assay and a climbing assay respectively. After data collection, Mann Whitney statistical tests were done between D. melanogaster groups to determine the significance of the results. From the statistical analysis of the results, the following was derived: the presence of Aβ is related to improved locomotion in D. melanogaster after TBI according to a significant difference in assay success rates between D. melanogaster with and without Aβ (p-value &lt; 0.0001), however there was no demonstrated relation between Aβ and improved cognition (p-value = 0.0663). Therefore, the hypothesis regarding the possible neural repair properties of Aβ is partially supported. It can be concluded that while Aβ had no effect on cognition in D. melanogaster after TBI, its presence is directly related to the improvement of locomotion.

PKM Sosialisasi Pembelajaran Keterampilan Gerak Dasar untuk Sekolah Dasar di Kota Makassar

Fundamental movement skills provide an important foundation for elementary school students in their future participation in a variety of physical activities. This community service activity in the form of soialization aims to provide comprehensive knowledge about the importance of learning of fundamental movement skills for students' future and practical implementation in physical education learning. The partner's problem in this activity is that there is still a lack of understanding and not optimal learning of fundamental movement skills in physical education learning at school. The partner in this activity is SD Hang Tuah Makassar, Makassar City, South Sulawesi Province. This socialization activity was divided into several series of activities, namely: (1) Discussion of material with the teacher regarding learning fundamental movement skills, (2) discussion with the teacher regarding learning basic locomotor, non-locomotor and manipulative movement skills based on the theory of fundamental movement skills, and (4) Practice examples of learning fundamental movement skills for students. This activity provided results, namely a comprehensive understanding for teachers and students of the importance of mastering and learning of fundamental movement skills.

Influence of different caregiving styles on fundamental movement skills among children.

This study investigated the influence of parenting and grandparenting caregiving styles on fundamental motor skills (FMS) of preschool children. A total of 1,326 preschool children (698 boys, 628 girls) aged 4-6 years were recruited from the kindergartens of Jinhua City, China. Locomotor skills (LM), ball skills (BS), and total fundamental movement skills (TS) of children were assessed by the Test of Gross Motor Development-3rd edition (TGMD-3). There were 978 children in parenting and 348 children in grandparenting caregiving styles. The LM, BS and TS scores of children were considerably (p < 0.001) increased with age (irrespective of sex or caregiving style). For the sex comparisons, BS scores of boys were significantly higher than girls (p < 0.001), while LM and TS scores were not different between boys and girls. For the caregiving style comparison, parenting is superior to grandparenting in developing of children's FMS. Parenting boys of 4-, 5-, and 6-years old showed better BS compared to age-matched parenting girls, whereas boys of 5-years old in grandparenting only showed better BS compared to same-age grandparenting girls (p < 0.05). Furthermore, parenting boys of 6-years reported higher LM (p < 0.01), BS (p < 0.001), and TS (p < 0.001) scores compared to grandparenting boys, but girls' FMS at all ages were not significantly different between the caregiving styles. Parenting caregiving style is positively associated with proper development of FMS among children. Girl children with poor FMS in grandparenting may need a special care or intervention programs to promote their FMS.

Exploring the motor skill proficiency barrier among children with intellectual disabilities: Analysis at a behavioural component level.

Models of childhood motor development began to emerge in the 1960's. Since then, numerous models have proposed the importance of obtaining a proficient level of fundamental movement skill (FMS) competence during childhood and deemed it to be critical for participation in lifelong sports and physical activity. This study examined FMS at the behavioural component level in children with intellectual disabilities (CwID) (n = 100, 60% boys, aged 5-12 years). Participants were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development 3rd edition (TGMD-3) and the balance subtest from Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2 (BOT-2). For the whole sample, 0% participants mastered all 10 FMS, 1% (n = 1) participants mastered all 4 locomotor skills while 0% (n = 100) participants mastered all ball skills. A multiple regression was carried out to investigate whether the interaction of gender and age was a predictor of FMS proficiency. Linear regressions were also carried out to investigate whether gender or age was a predictor of FMS proficiency. The results presented will help to identify weaknesses in skills at the behavioural component level and will enable researchers and practitioners to address low levels of motor skill proficiency among CwID.

The effect of active brain-breaks on fundamental movement skills and executive functioning of Grade one children in Cape Town, South Africa

ABSTRACT Developing children’s FMS and executive function is a critical aspect of early childhood. The aim was to evaluate the fundamental movement skills (FMS) and executive function. The objectives were to investigate the locomotor and object control skills as well as inhibitory control and working memory of the selected children. Grade 1 (6–8-years-old) learners (N = 157) in Cape Town, South Africa were assessed with the Test for Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2) and Head Toes Knees and Shoulder task, before and after a 6-week active brain-break intervention. Participants were divided into a control (n = 53) and an experimental (n = 104) group. The results indicated an overall statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) for pre- and post-testing in both groups for FMS executive functioning (p < 0.01).The results highlight the importance of exposing Grade 1 learners to FMS and physical activity bouts during academic lessons to create opportunities for movement, development of FMS and enhancement of executive functioning.