Changes in Motor Competence of 4–8-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study

Pim Koolwijk; Ester de Jonge; Remo Mombarg; Teun Remmers; Dave Van Kann; Ingrid van Aart; Geert Savelsbergh; Sanne de Vries

doi:10.3390/ijerph21020190

Changes in Motor Competence of 4–8-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study

Pim Koolwijk^*, Ester de Jonge, Remo Mombarg, Teun Remmers, Dave Van Kann, Ingrid van Aart, Geert Savelsbergh, Sanne de Vries

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Objectives: The development of children’s motor competence (MC) from early to middle childhood can follow different courses. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to describe and quantify the prevalence of patterns of MC development from early to middle childhood and to identify undesirable patterns. Design: The study used a longitudinal design. Data were collected in three consecutive years, between February 2020 (T0) and May 2022 (T2). Methods: A total of 1128 typically developing Dutch children (50.2% male) between 4 and 6 years old at baseline (M = 5.35 ± 0.69 years) participated in this study. MC was measured with the Athletic Skills Track and converted into Motor Quotient (MQ) scores. To convert all individual MQ scores into meaningful patterns of MC development, changes in MQ categories were analyzed between the different timepoints. Results: A total of 11 different developmental patterns were found. When grouping the different patterns, five undesirable patterns were found with 18.2% of the children, showing an undesirable pattern of MC development between T0 and T2. The patterns of motor development of the other children showed a normal or fluctuating course. Conclusions: There is a lot of variation in MC in early and middle childhood. A substantial percentage of young children showed undesirable MC developmental patterns emphasizing the need for early and targeted interventions.

Original language	English
Article number	190
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume	21
Issue number	2
Early online date	7 Feb 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21020190
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

This article belongs to the Special Issue: Physical Education, Exercise, and Children’s Health.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the National Agency of Applied Research (Regieorgaan SIA), part of The Dutch National Science Organization (NWO) under grant registration number: RAAK.PRO 03.123. SiA-RAAK had no role in the realization of this manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research for the Dutch National Science Agenda NeurolabNL
National Agency of Applied Research
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	RAAK.PRO 03.123

Keywords

early childhood
longitudinal
middle childhood
motor quotient trajectories
undesirable patterns

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10.3390/ijerph21020190

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Cite this

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title = "Changes in Motor Competence of 4–8-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study",

abstract = "Objectives: The development of children{\textquoteright}s motor competence (MC) from early to middle childhood can follow different courses. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to describe and quantify the prevalence of patterns of MC development from early to middle childhood and to identify undesirable patterns. Design: The study used a longitudinal design. Data were collected in three consecutive years, between February 2020 (T0) and May 2022 (T2). Methods: A total of 1128 typically developing Dutch children (50.2% male) between 4 and 6 years old at baseline (M = 5.35 ± 0.69 years) participated in this study. MC was measured with the Athletic Skills Track and converted into Motor Quotient (MQ) scores. To convert all individual MQ scores into meaningful patterns of MC development, changes in MQ categories were analyzed between the different timepoints. Results: A total of 11 different developmental patterns were found. When grouping the different patterns, five undesirable patterns were found with 18.2% of the children, showing an undesirable pattern of MC development between T0 and T2. The patterns of motor development of the other children showed a normal or fluctuating course. Conclusions: There is a lot of variation in MC in early and middle childhood. A substantial percentage of young children showed undesirable MC developmental patterns emphasizing the need for early and targeted interventions.",

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Changes in Motor Competence of 4–8-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

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