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Your kindergartner and PE

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Whatever you thought of gym class, the current debate over childhood obesity has made PE more relevant than ever. As the website for First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign informs us, kids need "60 minutes of active and vigorous play every day to grow up to a healthy weight." Some schools are even using video games to lure kids to the gym. In an ideal setting, PE doesn't just improve fitness - it also reduces stress, strengthens friendships, and improves self-confidence and self-esteem.

Is your child getting the physical education he needs? Check out our grade-by-grade guidelines to see what kids should be learning in PE.

Valuing fitness

In kindergarten, children begin to learn the value of physical activity. They should practice fitness while learning new movements and working to develop key social skills, including good sportsmanship.

Kindergartners should also learn to try new types of activities. As physical education specialist Amy Kaiser explains, "There are skills to learn and games to play. Nothing can be accomplished unless the child feels safe enough to try something new."

Kaiser likens PE to a science lab. "Physical education is the 'laboratory of life,'" she says. "Children [should] challenge their bodies and brains to try new tasks, accept difficult challenges, and learn a different vocabulary. When students fall down, they have to stand up again. If they drop a ball, they pick it up again. And if they lose, they learn to say, 'That was a great game. I want to play again.'"

Movin' and groovin'

Kindergartners should be able to try new ways of moving, whether it's galloping, hopping, walking, running, jumping, leaping, skipping, or sliding. Kids should practice these movements while experimenting with changes in speed and direction. And teachers can play music in the background to encourage children's creative instincts.

Classic games like jump rope can also be a great way for children to improve their balance, coordination, and aerobic capabilities. "Jumping rope is a universal game that has skills rooted in many sports," says Kaiser. "It's also fun and inexpensive."

Creating balance

In PE kindergartners should focus on activities that incorporate the abilities to, stretch, bend, twist, turn, push, and pull. Balance is an especially valuable skill, requiring both strength and concentration, and children can improve their balance by trying creative new poses. "Children have such great imaginations," says Kaiser, "they can create their own balance positions - a lion pose, a cobra stretch, or a crab balance. Kindergartners [love] to form their bodies into the shapes of letters."

Balance is equally important as a building block for other exercises and relaxation techniques. "Balance [can be] a foundation for many sports and a good tool for stress-reduction activities like yoga," Kaiser explains. "Young children who practice balance are also practicing focus and concentration, two very important skills for academic success."

Eye on the ball

Kindergartners should learn how to throw Frisbees, small beanbags, and balls, learning the proper stance, steps, and follow-through moves. They should begin to develop their throwing, catching, and kicking skills, while practicing bouncing a ball using two hands and one hand. Kids should also practice their ball skills using their feet.

Children begin to learn to identify the parts of the body, learning how to move them during stretching and exercise. Playing games - like "Hokey Pokey" and "Simon Says" - is also great way to reinforce their new knowledge. They can use their body to show that they understand the concepts of "over," "under," "behind," and "through."

Learning social skills

Children should learn the importance of teamwork, as well. "Good sportsmanship in kindergarten is as simple and important as taking turns and recognizing others during a game," says Kaiser. "Children at this age learn to work in pairs and small groups and can learn to appreciate others," she adds. "It is very satisfying to hear children compliment each other when they're trying out difficult tasks."

Expect kids to learn how to follow the rules and procedures involved in various games and activities, including how to share and take turns. Finally, children should be taught safety. They should learn how to safely use and care for sports equipment and, more importantly, how to look out for themselves.

What to look for when you visit the classroom:
Updated July 2010

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Whatever you thought of gym class, the current debate over childhood obesity has made PE more relevant than ever. As the website for First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign informs us, kids need "60 minutes of active and vigorous play every day to grow up to a healthy weight."

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How to Effectively Teach an Overhand Throw to Elementary Students

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This article will explain in great detail how to teach an overhand throw to an elementary aged student. Following these exact directions will have your students throwing overhand in no time.

Before I begin with the steps below, the first thing you should do is explain the whole process below, but model it for them so they can actually see how it looks.

Step 1: The first thing to do is to determine which hand is their dominant hand, the hand of which they will be throwing the ball. This may seem like common sense, but you would be surprised how many 5 and 6 year old kids do not know which hand is their dominant. Not to worry, simply ask them which hand is their " pencil hand". Be careful not to say, "your writing hand" because they may confuse this with left from right and think they should use they're right hand, which in most cases they don't even know their right from their left.

Step 2: Now that you have determined which hand they will be throwing with, the next step is to have them stand up, in a circle, and turn "sideways" with their other hand pointing at their target, which is a target in the middle of your circle. This will make them have their "pencil hand" on the correct side of their body - the outside. At this point walk around the circle and make sure their pencil hand is in the air and their body is turned sideways.

Step 3: The next step is the toughest for young children to grasp. The step towards their target. Most of the time students will step with the wrong foot towards the target. With them standing in that circle, tell them to raise their pencil hand and tap the leg with the other hand so that they know that's the leg/foot they are going to step with. This will be called, "the opposite foot".

Step 4: As the students are standing sideways with their pencil hands in the air, walk around the circle, grab each kids pencil hand and tell them to step towards their target. If they begin to step with the wrong foot, tug at their pencil hand and say, "no, other foot" until they step with their correct foot. Don't worry too much about the foot actually turning and pointing at the target, most of the time it will with no thought process at all.

Step 5: The next step is to explain how the hand must go above the shoulder when they are throwing. This will get them to throw overhand, not sidearm or underhand.

Step 6: The next step is to have them practice their throwing without a ball. Still standing in your circle have them make some practice throws. They practice on their own as you walk around and check for correct form. Be sure to always keep saying, as they are practicing, the cues..."pencil hand, opposite foot, step, and towards the target".

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How to Effectively Teach an Overhand Throw to Elementary Students

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This article will explain in great detail how to teach an overhand throw to an elementary aged student. Following these exact directions will have your students throwing overhand in no time. Before I begin with the steps below, the first thing you...

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4-Step Approach to Teaching Proper Throwing Technique

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Learning the proper throwing technique is of paramount importance for youngsters who are just learning to play baseball. Not only does proper technique help players throw harder and with more accuracy, but it can also help prevent injuries.

"Even in college we stress the importance of throwing," said Vincent Losurdo, who played college ball for the University of Rhode Island and is now a Double A Minor coach in the Barrington Little League in Rhode Island.

When working with players who struggle with throwing, Losurdo focuses on developing proper fundamentals and confidence.

"The biggest thing at this age is (keeping) the elbow above the shoulder and the hand away from the ear," he said.

Losurdo has developed a four-step approach that he uses to help baseball players in his 8-9 age group learn the proper way to throw while also developing arm strength:

Step 1 - Kneeling and Flicking

In the first step, the player kneels down and flicks the ball to another person. This helps the player strengthen the wrist.

To begin, the player faces his partner. The non-throwing elbow is placed on the step leg. If the player is right-handed, the glove is to the right side of the body. Then the player rests his right elbow on the glove and flicks the ball to the other person.

"You must stress the wrist action after you've stressed the bunny ears," Losurdo said, referring to the two-finger grip on the ball. "That's to make sure they've warmed up and have good wrist action when they throw the ball."

Step 2 - Kneeling and Throwing

Once the player has that down, he can move to throwing the ball to the partner from the kneeling position. This second step focuses on keeping the arm above the shoulder with the fingers pointing back toward the thrower.

"I do this because I'm looking for arm positioning and nothing with the lower body," Losurdo said. "I look for wrist, arm and then hips. When the arm's away from the body, one mistake kids make is the arm isn't above the shoulder and the hand is too close to their ear and they short-arm it.

"To correct that at a young age, we have the bunny ears away from their body so when they throw it, they're unable to keep their hand close to their ear, which prevents short-arming. By not keeping the ball close to their ear, kids learn to get good extension on their arm."

Step 3 - The Power Position

Next up, the players stand and throw the ball from what Losurdo calls the power position.

"Start in the stretch with the feet shoulder-width apart," he said. "Keep the feet planted and emphasize the hip turn.

"Hip, turn and throw without moving your legs."

Step 4 - The Follow Through

The follow through constitutes the fourth step.

"They step and follow through so their back leg comes around," Losurdo said. "Push off from the power position, hip turn and follow through with the right leg. Step with your throwing leg. You're teaching them to step and throw.

"It's important to build these practices at a young age. We take 10 to 15 throws each. It properly warms up an arm. From there, for arm strength, you progress to long throws."

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4-Step Approach To Teaching Proper Throwing Technique

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Learning the proper throwing technique is of paramount importance for youngsters who are just learning to play baseball. Not only does proper technique help players throw harder and with more accuracy, but it can also help prevent injuries.

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Throwing: How to teach kids to throw correctly

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Throwing is fundamental to a multitude of sports and activities. If kids can throw reasonably well, they can participate in everything from frisbee and football to baseball and bocce. As this funny KidSport video shows, knowing how to throw could even save someone's life.

Like most skills, throwing is not something kids are simply "born good at." They have to learn, and play that provides plenty of repetitions is the best teacher. At the outset, a little instruction in basic technique helps, too.

Basic mechanics of overhand throwing

There are different ways of throwing depending on whether you are throwing a baseball, a discus, a frisbee, a javelin, a basketball, or even a ball of yarn. You can throw gently or hard, and you can throw underhand, overhand, or sidearm. However, when most people think of throwing, the image that comes to mind is probably a basic overhand throw.

With that in mind, here are the basic elements of correct overhand throwing technique:

1. Stand straight upright, ball in your throwing hand, facing your target.

2. If you are throwing with your right hand, turn sideways 90 degrees to your right (reposition your feet so you are standing sideways to your target).

3. If you are throwing with your left hand, turn sideways 90 degrees to your left (reposition your feet so you are standing sideways to your target).

4. Make sure your feet are shoulder-width apart.

5. Lift your non-throwing arm to "point" at your target and shift your weight to your back foot.

6. Lift your throwing hand so the ball is near your ear (right ear if you are throwing with your right hand, left ear if you are throwing with your left hand).

7. You are ready to throw.

8. In one motion, shift your weight to your front foot, drop your pointing arm, and twist your torso as you bring your throwing arm over your shoulder to release the ball at your target.

How to teach kids the basics

It may not appear complicated, but throwing requires a tremendous amount of muscle coordination, especially step (8) above. Until about age five or six years, most kids' bodies are simply not developmentally ready to sequence all the movements described above, so their throwing may look pretty awkward. If this is what you see with your child, don't worry about it.

If you are trying to teach a toddler or preschooler to throw, the best approach is simply to play a lot of throwing games with them and refrain from offering instruction. This will allow them to explore the basics of throwing as they slowly develop their muscle coordination over time.

Around age six or seven years, you can realistically start to offer some basic throwing instruction to your child. Still, beyond offering some basic guidance, refrain from providing too much additional "correction" of technique. Most kids will naturally improve their throwing technique as they accumulate repetitions. The most important thing is to keep it fun - find fun games that involve a lot of throwing, and then simply play, play, and play.

Two games for practicing overhand throwing

To get young kids started with overhand throwing, you can set up a cardboard box on its side against a wall as a target. Make a few balls out of socks and challenge your child to practice throwing with you into the box from various distances. The beauty of sock balls is that you aren't going to break any windows or hurt anyone with an errant throw.

If you think a little friendly competition will enhance your child's interest, keep score - one point for every throw that goes in the box.

Feeling confident? Try progressing to baseball throwing and catching together with baseball gloves. Depending on the age of your child, you might want to use a sock ball or soft foam ball instead of an actual baseball. You don't even need gloves if you are using a foam ball or a sock ball.

Congratulations! You have opened the door to a new world of physical activity for your child. From simply playing catch to pitching a fastball, the basic skill of throwing provides the starting point for countless fun games and activities.

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Throwing: How to teach kids to throw correctly - Active For Life

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Throwing is fundamental to a multitude of sports and activities. If kids can throw reasonably well, they can participate in everything from frisbee and football to baseball and bocce. As this funny KidSport video shows, knowing how to throw could even save someone's life.

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Assessing Motor Skill Competency in Elementary School Students: A Three-Year Study

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Abstract

This study was to examine how well fourth- and fifth-grade students demonstrated motor skill competency assessed with selected PE Metrics assessment rubrics (2009). Fourth- and fifth-grade students ( n = 1,346-1,926) were assessed on their performance of three manipulative skills using the PE Metrics Assessment Rubrics during the pre-intervention year, the post-intervention year 1, and the post-intervention year 3. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA, and follow-up comparisons were conducted for data analysis. The results indicated that the post-intervention year 2 cohort performed significantly more competent than the pre-intervention cohort and the post-intervention year 1 cohort on the three manipulative skill assessments. The post-intervention year 1 cohort significantly outperformed the pre-intervention cohort on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving and the striking skill assessments, but not on the throwing skill assessment. Although the boys in the three cohorts performed significantly better than the girls on all three skills, the girls showed substantial improvement on the overhand throwing and the soccer skills from baseline to the post-intervention year 1 and the post-intervention year 2. However, the girls, in particular, need to improve striking skill. The CTACH PE was conducive to improving fourth- and fifth-grade students' motor skill competency in the three manipulative skills. This study suggest that PE Metrics assessment rubrics are feasible tools for PE teachers to assess levels of students' demonstration of motor skill competency during a regular PE lesson.

CATCH PE is an empirically-evidenced quality PE curricular that is conducive to improving students' manipulative skill competency.

Boys significantly outperformed than girls in all three manipulative skills.

Girls need to improve motor skill competency in striking skill. PE Metrics are feasible assessment rubrics that can be easily used by trained physical education teachers to assess students' manipulative skill competency.

Key words: Subject matter competency, quality teaching practices, manipulative skills

Introduction

Participation in regular physical activity is essential for youth to improve physical, mental, and social health. Researchers reported a positive relationship between motor skill proficiency and physical activity participation and a negative relationship between motor skill proficiency and sedentary activity in children (Barnett et al., 2009; Fisher et al., 2005; Okely et al., 2001; Wrotniak et al., 2006). It was empirically found that children's total time spent in physical activity and time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were significantly associated with their total movement skills score. Furthermore, children in the top quartile of motor skill proficiency spent a significant more time in moderate to vigorous physical activity compared to children with lower levels of motor proficiency (Barnett et al., 2009; Fisher et al., 2005; Okely et al., 2001; Wrotniak et al., 2006). Children with greater motor skill proficiency were more likely to participate in physical activity than their counterparts with poor motor skill proficiency during their adolescent years (Barnett et al., 2009; Okely et al., 2001; Wrotniak et al., 2006).

Children's demonstration of competency in motor skills is considered as a cornerstone leading to their physical and motor development. Fundamental motor skills are building blocks to successful participation in many organized and non-organized sports and various physical activities for children, adolescents and adults (Barnett et al., 2009; Okely et al., 2001; Rovegno and Bandhauer, 2013). These fundamental motor skills, including locomotor skills, manipulative skills, and non-manipulative skills, are commonly used in many forms of sports and physical activities. Children's motor skills are not developed naturally as a result of physical growth. Development of motor skill competency is based on the dynamic interaction among the task, the learner, and the environment. Motor skill development must be learned and practiced within a sequentially structured learning environment based on children's sequence of motor development (Clark, 2005; Gallahue and Ozmun, 2006; National Association for Sports and Physical Education [NASPE], 2004; Rovegno and Bandhauer, 2013). Quality physical education offers a wide array of physical activities and fitness that are developmentally appropriate and enjoyable for students; uses meaningful and appropriate instructional practices to provide students with maximum learning experiences; and ensures students to spend 50% of class time in MVPA (NASPE, 2004; Rovegno and Bandhauer, 2013).

As an evidence-based quality physical education program, the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) was initiated in 1991 and designed as a comprehensive elementary school physical education and nutrition program which was funded by National Heart, Long, and Blood Institute of National Institute of Health (NIH) (McKenzie et al., 1996). The CTACH Physical Education (PE) component focused on developing students' motor skill competency, health-related fitness, and enjoyment of physical activities through providing developmentally appropriate physical education content and increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in physical education classes. The CATCH intervention was implemented in 96 elementary schools in four U.S. cities. The results showed that the intervention schools increased students' MVPA from 37% to 52% of class time, higher than the 50% MVPA in PE class guideline for quality physical education (McKenzie et al., 1996). After 5-7 years later of the CATCH PE intervention, the study reported that students' average time spent in MVPA during PE classes was either maintained (4 th-5 th grades) or increased (3 rd grade) (McKenzie et al., 2003). Over the past two decades, CATCH PE has evolved as a comprehensive standards-based curriculum (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC, 2008). For example, the CATCH PE provides developmentally appropriate and meaningful physical education content for elementary school students. The scope and sequence of CATCH PE maps most of the essential content addressed by the 3-5 grade expectations of the NASPE content standards (NASPE, 2004). However, no studies have been conducted to examine how the CATCH PE contributed to students' development of motor skill competency. Therefore, little is known about how the current CATCH PE contributes to children's motor skill competency in the intervention conditions.

The NASPE content standard 1 (NASPE, 2004) describes students in grades K-12 should demonstrate competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities, as a result of participating in quality physical education program. According to Grade Expectations for grades 3-5, students need to demonstrate the mature form of fundamental movements and basic specialized skills, to be able to combine one skill with another, and to apply the skills in dynamic situations. Since the first edition of the NASPE seven content standards was published in 1995 and was revised into five content standards in 2014, there were no valid and reliable standards-based assessments measuring students' achievement of the national physical education content standards in the United States.

To address the pragmatic need, NASPE formed an Assessment Task Force (ATF) in January 2000 (NASPE, 2008). The ATF consisted of researchers in physical education pedagogy and measurement/evaluation, teacher educators, K-12 physical education teachers, and administrators. With the intent to select most critical and representative of movement activities taught at the Kindergarten, Grade 2, and Grade 5 levels, they designed 30 assessment items corresponding to the NASPE content standard 1. After four years of extensive testing with 4,000 students at 90 schools across the nation (NASPE, 2008), the NASPE ( 2008) published PE Metrics: Assessing the National Standard 1: Elementary. PE Metrics (NASPE, 2008) is the only series of performance-based assessment rubrics specifically designed to assess levels of students' competency in motor skills and movement patterns with the criteria directly mapping the Grade-Range Expectations of the NASPE ( 2004) Content Standard 1 and Performance Outcomes. PE Metrics (NASPE, 2008) provide valid and reliable ready-to-use assessments for assessing grades 4-5 students basic specialized skills in selected game forms, use of offense and defense game strategies, dance and gymnastics sequences (NASPE, 2008; Dyson et al., 2011; Fox et al., 2011; Zhu et al., 2011a; 2011b).

Since the PE Metrics (NASPE, 2008) was published, no study has been conducted to examine the progress of fourth- and fifth-grade students demonstrated motor skill competency in relation to NASPE content standard 1 using the PE Metrics assessments (2008) in school settings. There has been an increasing recognition of the importance in developing motor skill competency among elementary school students and a call for a quality physical education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how well fourth- and fifth-grade students demonstrated motor skill competency that were assessed using selected PE Metrics assessment rubrics (NASPE, 2008) as a result of participating in a quality physical education program: the CATCH PE during physical education. This is the first study to describe the extent to which students in grades 4-5 demonstrated competency in motor skills that were assessed by using the standards-aligned PE metrics assessment rubrics. The significance of this study lies in providing empirical evidence for how a quality physical education can impact students' achieving desired learning outcomes in relation to the NASPE content standard 1.

Methods

Participants and research settings

Participants in this study were nine elementary physical education teachers and the fourth- and fifth-grade students at nine elementary schools in the same school district located in the suburban area of the Mid-West of the United States. Five physical education teachers were females and four were males. They all were Caucasian. Their ages ranged from 33 to 55 years old and their teaching experience varied from 6 years to 26 years. Students, ranging from 1,387 to 1,398, participated in the pre-intervention; Students between 1,346 and 1,926 participated in the post-intervention year 1; and students between 1,361 and 1,496 participated in the post-intervention year 2; Student population was dominantly White (91.2% Caucasian; 48% female and 52% male). The fourth and fifth grade students had a 60-minute physical education class per week. The class size ranged from 18-28 students.

The university institutional review board and the school district granted the permission for conducting this study. All nine physical education teachers signed the consent form to indicate their willingness to participate in this study. The parent/guardian of the fourth and fifth grade also signed the consent form to grant the permission of their child for participating in this study. The assent form was also distributed to the students to have them decide whether or not they wanted to participation in this study, even though their parent/guardian approved their participation in this study.

Background of this study

The reason for selecting the nine elementary physical education teachers and their fourth- and fifth-grade students as the participants for this study was that their school district housing nine elementary schools received a three-year Carol White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant which is funded by U.S Department of Education in 2009. Since the PEP program began in 2001, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded more than $ 620 million to local educational agencies and community-based organizations to help them initiate, expand, and/or enhance physical education programs for students in kindergarten through 12 th grade to meet their state standards for physical education (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). The nine physical education teachers and their students indicated their willingness to participate in the PEP grant project titled, "Smart Kids and Healthy Kids" which was designed to help elementary school students become physically active, mentally healthy, and social cooperative children through improving a quality of physical education program. As a part of the three-year PEP grant project, this study focused on examining and reporting the primary outcome of achieving the PEP project objective #1: Students in grades 4-5 will demonstrate competency in movement forms as a result of the physical education teachers learned and implemented CATCH PE curriculum lessons and objectives in their classes.

Given the goals and objectives of the PEP grant program, randomly controlled trial (experimental design consisting of control and intervention groups) was not suitable for this study. To help all fourth- and fifth-grade students achieve the content standard 1 (the objective #1 of the PEP project), all nine elementary schools were in the intervention condition in which the CATCH PE curriculum was implemented by the nine physical education teachers during their regular physical education classes. All fourth- and fifth-grade students who enrolled in the nine elementary school students were recruited to participate in this study. To examine the effect of the intervention on the students' achievement of motor skill competency, pre- and post- tests research design was used for this study.

During the PEP year 1 (the pre-intervention phase), all nine physical education teachers participated in a two-day CATCH PE curriculum workshop and staff development. During a full-day the CATCH School Implementation Training Workshop presented by a CATCH training specialist, All nine physical education teachers learned the best practices of the CATCH PE lessons, participated in hands-on CATCH PE training activities, and discussed strategic plans for implementing CATCH PE in their current PE programs. During another full-day staff development and workshop, all nine physical education teachers studied the CATCH PE grade-specific curriculum guidebooks and identified the plan for incorporating a few CATCH PE units into their current PE programs. Meanwhile, to help the teachers effectively conduct the PE Metrics assessments with their students, a full-day workshop on PE Metrics assessments was held. All nine physical education teachers learned grade-specific and skill-specific assessment rubrics, assessment criteria, assessment tasks, and testing protocols.

Prior to the intervention, baseline motor skill assessments were conducted with the fourth- and fifth-grade student by their trained physical education teachers using the PE Metrics Assessments, including soccer dribbling, passing, and catching skills, overhand throwing skills, and striking skill.

To facilitate the teachers to implement CATCH PE lessons, each teacher was provided with a CATCH PE curriculum package including over 500 activities focusing on skill themes and physical fitness activities, and adequate equipment by specified PEP grant money allocated to the curriculum implementation. During the post-intervention year 1(PEP project year 2), each physical education teacher had taught 72 PE lessons to students in grades 4-5 during the school year. Each teacher was required to teach CATCH PE lessons to their students per week, while using the Curriculum Log to record what specific CATCH PE content they taught per week throughout the school year. Analysis of the Curriculum Log indicated that the nine teachers, on average, taught 37 CATCH PE lessons to their students. In other words, 51% of the PE lessons taught with CATCH PE curriculum lessons, including a variety of locomotor skills and manipulative skills within the context of modified games, basic specialized skills used in team and individual sports, and physical fitness activities. At the end of each CATCH PE unit, the physical education teachers conducted the motor skill assessment with their fourth- and fifth-grade students.

During the post-intervention year 2 (PEP project year 3), analysis of the Curriculum Log indicated that the nine teachers, on average, taught 55 CATCH PE lessons to their students. In other words, 77% of the PE lessons taught with CATCH PE curriculum lessons. Similar to the PEP project year 2, the content of CATCH PE lessons consisted of fundamental manipulative skills such as dribbling, kicking, punting, catching, underhand throwing, overarm throwing, volleying, striking with rackets, striking with long handled implements, and basic specialized skills used in team and individual sports as well as a variety of locomotor skills and physical fitness activities. At the end of each CATCH PE unit, the physical education teachers conducted the motor skill assessments with their fourth- and fifth-grade students.

To examine how well the nine PE teachers' teaching practices were associated with quality teaching, the investigators video-recorded the nine PE teachers' teaching 45 CATCH PE lessons to their students throughout the PEP project year 2 and year 3 and assessed the 45 video-recorded lessons using the Assessing Quality of Teaching Rubrics (Chen et al., 2012). The results of quality teaching assessment indicated that among the 45 video-recorded lessons, the nine teachers on average fully demonstrated the quality of Task Design and Class Management, mostly implemented the quality of Task Presentation, and partially provided the quality of Instructional Responses to students' learning. Also, another promising results showed that the nine teachers mostly demonstrated overall quality teaching when teaching 45 CATCH PE lessons throughout the two PEP project year (Chen, Hypnar, Mason, & Zalmout, 2014).

Motor skill assessments

Each trained physical education teacher used the PE Metrics assessments rubrics to formally assess their own students' skill performance during their regular physical education lessons. Each teacher was required to strictly use the PE Metrics Assessment testing protocols, directions, assessment criteria, assessment rubrics, and assessment tasks to conduct the assessment with one student at a time. The PE Metrics Assessment rubric is designed as skill-specific assessment tool. Based on the unique nature of a skill, each assessment rubric has its own unique essential dimensions and performance indicators on each rating scale as well as the number of trial for testing. presents each of the three PE Metrics Assessments in terms of essential dimensions, the 0-4 rating scale with level 3 represents a competent level, a total score, and the number of trial for the test (NASPE, 2008).

Table 1.

For the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills assessment, the students' performance levels were assessed on the three essential dimensions: Dribbling, Passing, and Receiving with a 0-4 rating scale. One trial was allowed for the test. Criteria for Competence (level 3) for Dribbling is: "dribble with control while moving at a slow, consistent jog," for Passing is: "sends a receiving lead pass to a partner so it can be caught outside the passing lane without a break in the receiver's stride on at least 3 passes," and for Receiving is: "moves forward and outside the passing lane to meet the ball and receiving at least 3 receivable passes" (NASPE, 2008). A total score of 9 indicated an overall competent level.

In the overhand throwing skill assessment, students were assessed on their performance levels of Form and Accuracy to Target using a 0-4 rating scale. Criteria for Competence (Level 3) for Form are: "throws with selected essential elements: a) throwing elbow shoulder-high, hand back and side orientation in preparation for the throw. b) trunk rotation, with elbow lagging behind hip. c) weight transfer to non-throwing forward foot." For Accuracy to Target is: "hits target area on wall" (NASPE, 2008, p. 117). Each student was given 3 trials. A total score of 18 indicated an overall competent level.

For the striking skill assessment, the students' performance levels were assessed on the two essential dimensions: Form and Continuous Strikes using a 0-4 rating scale. Criteria for Competence (Level 3) for Form are: "usually uses a side orientation" and for Continuous Strikes are: "strikes the ball continuously against the wall 5 times from 10 feet with added strokes that may be in front of the 10-foot striking line" (NASPE, 2008, p. 126). One trial was allowed for the test. A total score of 6 indicated overall competent level. PE Metrics (NASPE, 2008) provide more detailed information about each assessment rubric criteria, performance indicator, and each assessment protocols.

Data analysis

Descriptive statistics and percentages were computed to determine levels and proportions of the students' demonstration of competency in each of the three skills. ANOVA was utilized to examine the mean score difference in each skill assessment between the pre-intervention cohort, the post-intervention year 1 cohort, and the post-intervention year 2 cohort, followed by a post-hoc Dunnett T3 method. An independent t-test was conducted to examine the mean score difference in each skill assessment between the boys and the girls. An alpha level of .05 was used for all tests.

Results

Mean score differences of motor skill competency between three cohorts

presents the descriptive statistics of overall motor skill score on each assessment during the pre-intervention (baseline data), post-intervention year 1, and post-intervention year 2. For the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skill assessment, a total score of 9 indicated the overall competent level. During the pre-intervention (baseline), 1,395 students who completed the test on average demonstrated slightly higher than the competent level ( M = 9.12, SD = 2.37). 993 (71%) students reached the competent level or above. In the post-intervention year 1, 1,346 students who completed the assessment on average demonstrated higher than the competent level ( M = 9.35, SD = 1.97). 999 (74%) students demonstrated the competent level or above. In post-intervention year 2, 1,377 who performed the skill assessment on average demonstrated moderately higher than the competent level ( M = 9.61, SD = 1.82). 1,032 (75%) students demonstrated the competent level or above. The results of ANOVA indicated a significant difference of the mean scores between the three groups ( F = 19.66, df = 2, p < .01). The post-hoc Dunnett T3 tests revealed that both the post-intervention year 1 cohort and the post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the pre-intervention cohort (mean-difference = .23, p < .05; mean-difference = .49, p < .01). Further, the post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the post-intervention year 1 cohort (mean-difference = .27, p < .01).

Table 2.

Regarding the overhand throwing skill assessment, a total score of 18 indicates an overall competent level. In the pre-intervention (baseline), 1,397 students who took the test on average demonstrated slightly higher than the competent level ( M = 18.65, SD = 4.48). 933 (67%) students demonstrated the competent level or above. In post-intervention year 1, 1,926 students who performed the assessment on average demonstrated higher than the competent level on average ( M =18.86, SD = 3.48). 1,244 (65%) students reached the competent level or above. In the post-intervention year 2, 1,496 students who completed the assessment on average demonstrated much higher than the competent level on average ( M = 20.27, SD = 3.30). 1,201 (80%) students in the post-intervention year 2 cohort demonstrated the competent level or above. The results of ANOVA yielded a significant difference of the mean scores between the three cohorts ( F = 83.74, df =2, p < .01). The post-hoc Dunnett T3 tests indicated no significant difference of the mean scores between the pre-intervention cohort and the post-intervention year 1 cohort (mean-difference = -.21, p >.05). However, the post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than both the pre-intervention group (mean-difference = 1.62, p < .01) and the post-intervention year 1 cohort (mean-difference = 1.41, p < .01).

For the forehand striking skill, a total score of 6 indicates an overall competent level. In the pre-intervention (baseline), 1,387 students who completed the test on average demonstrated lower than the competent level ( M = 5.56, SD = 1.96). 722 (52%) students in the pre-intervention cohort demonstrated the competent level or above. In post-intervention year 1, 1,348 students who participated in the forehand striking assessment demonstrated slightly lower than a competent level on average ( M = 5.81, SD = 1.63). 753 (56%) students in the post-intervention year 1 cohort demonstrated the competent level or above. In post-intervention year 2, 1,361 students who performed the assessment demonstrated a competent level ( M = 6.10, SD = 1.50). 870 (64%) students in the post-intervention year 2 cohort demonstrated the competent level or above. The results of ANOVA revealed a significant difference of the mean scores between the three cohorts ( F = 33.98, df =2, p < .01). The post-hoc Dunnett T3 tests indicated that both the post-intervention year 1 cohort and the post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the pre-intervention group (mean-difference = .24, p < .01; mean-difference = .54, p < .01). The post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the post-intervention year 1 cohort (mean-difference = .30, p < .01

Gender differences of motor skill competency in three cohorts

Gender differences in soccer skill competency: presents gender differences of motor skill competency in soccer skill assessment among three cohorts. 724 boys and 671 girls completed the baseline soccer skill assessment. The boys' mean score ( M = 9.56, SD = 2.22) was slightly higher than the competent level. In contrast, the girls' mean score ( M = 8.65, SD = 2.42) was lower than the competent level. The results of t-test revealed that the boys significantly outperformed the girls on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving ( t = 7.33, df = 1358, p < .01). In the post-intervention year 1, 705 boys and 641 girls completed the skill assessment. The boys' mean score ( M = 9.72, SD = 1.87) was higher than the competent level, while the girls' mean score ( M = 8.93, SD = 2.01) was slightly lower than the competent level. The results of t-test revealed that the boys performed significantly better than the girls on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving ( t = 7.50, df = 1344, p < .01). In the post-intervention year 2, 745 boys and 632 girls completed the assessment. The boys' mean score ( M = 9.83, SD = 1.82) was higher than the competent level. The girls' mean score ( M = 9.36, SD = 1.80) was also higher than the competent level. The results of the t-test indicated that the boys scored significantly higher than the girls on soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving ( t = 4.74, df = 1375, p < .01).

In contrast, examination of girls' mean score dif-ferences on the soccer skill assessment between three cohorts by means of ANOVA revealed significant differences between the three groups ( F = 19.09, df =2, p < .01). The post-hoc Dunnett T3 test indicated that both the post-intervention year 1 cohort and the post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the pre-intervention group (mean-difference = .29, p <.05; mean-difference = .72, p < .01, respectively). Also, the post-intervention year 2 cohort statistically outperformed the post-intervention year 1 cohort (mean-difference = 43, p < .01)

Gender differences in overhand throwing skill competency: presents gender differences of motor skill competency in overhand throwing assessment among three cohorts. For baseline assessment, 738 boys and 659 girls completed the overhand throwing skill test. The boys demonstrated higher than the competent level ( M = 19.52, SD = 4.29). In contrast, the girls performed slightly lower than the competent level ( M= 17.74, SD = 4.61). The results of t-test indicated that the boys scored significantly higher than the girls ( t = 7.46, df = 1341, p < .01).

In the post-intervention year 1, 974 boys and 812 girls participated in the skill assessment. The boys demonstrated higher than the competent level ( M=19.28, SD = 3.31). In contrast, the girls demonstrated slightly lower than the competent level ( M = 17.72, SD = 3.26). The results of t-test indicated that the boys scored significantly higher than the girls ( t = 9.98, df = 1784, p < .01).

In the post-intervention year 2, 795 boys and 701 girls completed the assessment. The boys scored much higher than the competent level ( M = 20.94, SD = 3.08). The girls scored quite higher than the component level ( M = 19.52, SD = 3.39). The results of t-test indicated a significant mean score difference between the boys and the girls ( t = 8.47, df = 1494, p < .01).

Gender differences in striking skill competency: presents gender differences of motor skill competency in forehand striking assessment among three cohorts. In baseline assessment, 727 boys and 659 girls completed the test. The boys performed slightly lower than the competent level ( M = 5.98, SD = 1.91), but the girls performed lower than the competent level ( M = 5.09, SD = 1.91). The results of t-test yielded a significant mean score difference between the boys and the girls ( t = 8.63, df = 1372, p < .01). In post-intervention year 1, 717 boys' and 631 girls' skill performance in striking were assessed. The boys performed slightly higher than the competent level ( M= 6.18, SD = 1.65). On the contrary, the girls performed lower than the competent level ( M = 5.39, SD = 1.52). The results of t-test yielded a significant mean score difference between the boys and the girls ( t = 9.127, df = 1346, p < .01). In the post-intervention year 2, 734 boys and 627 girls completed the skill assessment. The boys scored higher than the competent level ( M = 6.32, SD = 1.47), while the girls scored slightly lower than the competent level ( M = 5.84, SD = 1.49). The results of t-test indicated that the boys score significantly higher than the girls ( t = 5.96, df = 1359, p < .01).

Examination of girls' mean score differences on the forehand striking assessment between the three cohorts by means of ANOVA revealed significant differences between the three groups ( F = 19.09, df =2, p < .01). The post-hoc Dunnett T3 test indicated that both the post-intervention year 1 cohort and the post-intervention year 2 cohort scored significantly higher than the pre-intervention group (mean-difference = .29, p <.05; mean-difference = .72, p < .01, respectively). Also, the post-intervention year 2 cohort statistically outperformed the post-intervention year 1 cohort (mean-difference = .43, p < .01).

Discussion

This study was designed to examine the fourth- and fifth-grade students' demonstration of motor skill competency in relation to achieving the NASPE content standard 1 as a result of participating in CATCH PE curricular. The results of this study showed that the students in the post-intervention year 1 cohort demonstrated moderately higher than the competent level on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving, and overhand throwing skills, but slightly lower than the competent level on the forehand striking skill. More encouraging results were found in the post-intervention year 2 cohort. The students demonstrated much higher than the competent level on the overhand throwing skill, moderately higher than the competent level on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills, and slightly higher than the competent level on the forehand striking skill. Zhu et al. ( 2011a) examined levels of fifth-grade students' motor skill competency through conducting a validity study of the PE Metrics assessments. In Zhu et al.'s ( 2011a) study, 581 students who completed the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving assessment demonstrated almost one level lower than the competent level ( M = 6.17, SD = 2.7); 172 students who completed the overhand throwing assessment demonstrated slightly lower than the competent level ( M = 17.94, SD = 2.58); 629 students who completed the striking assessment demonstrated the incompetent level ( M = 2.94, SD = 1.77). On the contrary to the study by Zhu et al. ( 2011a), the results of this study showed much better results regarding demonstration of the competent level or above on the three skills.

Examining the mean score differences of motor skill competency between the three cohorts indicated that the post-intervention year 2 cohort significantly outperformed both the pre-intervention cohort and the post-intervention year 1 cohort on all three skill assessments. The post-intervention year 1 cohort significantly outperformed the pre-intervention cohort on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving and the forehand striking assessments, but not on the overhand throwing skill assessment. Similarly, the proportions of the post-intervention year 2 cohort demonstrating the competent level or above were higher than those of the pre-intervention cohort and the post-intervention year 1 cohort on all three skills assessments. The proportions of the post-intervention year 1 cohort reaching the competent level or above were higher than those of the pre-intervention cohort on soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving and the forehand striking assessments, but not higher than the overhand throwing skill assessment.

While heredity and growth influence skill development and learning, sequential learning tasks and productive learning environment contribute to motor skill development in children (Clark, 2005; Gallahue and Ozmun, 2006; NASPE, 2004; Rovegno and Bandhauer, 2013). The results of this study might be associated with the PE teachers' implementation of CTACH PE curricular during PE lessons. During the PEP project year 2 (the post-intervention year 1), the PE teachers on average taught 51% of PE lessons using the CATCH PE curricular. As the PE teachers taught more CATCH PE lessons (77%) during the PEP project year 3 (the post-intervention year 2), the students in the post-intervention year 2 cohort performed significantly better than the students in the post-intervention year 1 cohort on all three skills. The CATCH PE curricular provides students with developmentally appropriate physical education content which maps most of the essential content addressed by the NASPE content standards. The instructional practices of the CATCH PE are associated with maximizing time on task and learning opportunities, increasing MVPA in physical education class, and providing students with congruent and specific feedback about their motor performance. Corroborating with previous studies (Beurden et al., 2003; McKenzie et al., 1998), this study indicates that implementation of a quality physical education program contributes to students' demonstration of motor skill competency in the three manipulative skills. This study suggests that to better equip young children with motor skill competency in sport-related skills, PE teachers should intentionally use CATCH PE curricular or compatible curricular to teach children sport-related skills in sequentially progressive ways and various game-like and modified game contexts. This study evidences that a well-designed curriculum intervention can significantly enhance motor skill competency among young children (Beurden et al., 2003; McKenzie et al., 1996; 1998; 2003).

It is important to note that in this study the highest number of students (80%) who demonstrated the competent level or above is the overhand throwing skill, followed by the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills (75%) in the post-intervention year 2 cohort. However, the lowest number of students (64%) in the post-intervention year 2 and (56%) in the post-intervention year 1 demonstrated the competent level is forehand striking skill. Forehand striking skill is a basic specialized manipulative skill used in tennis, pickle ball, and badminton. Mastery of striking skill in childhood lays a foundation for adolescents to effectively learn and master related skills and to successfully play these sports. Barnett et al. ( 2009) found that manipulative skill proficiency developed in childhood rather than locomotor skill proficiency seemed to be a significant determinant for adolescents to engage in moderate-to-vigorous activity and organized activity. Okely et al. ( 2001) reported that highly skilled adolescents spent more time in organized physical activity than low skilled adolescents. This study suggests that physical education teachers should devote more time to help elementary school students learn striking-typed skills. Physical education teachers need to help students use the striking-typed skills in game-like and modified-game situations to reinforce their skill acquisition and improve their skill competency.

This study shows that the boys in the pre-intervention and the two post-intervention cohorts scored significantly higher than the girls on all three skill assessments. Likewise, McKenzie et al. ( 1998) reported that the girls' total skill scores on overhand throwing, catching, and kicking at baseline and at the end of intervention were 41% to 43% lower than the boys' scores. Similarly, Erwin and Castelli ( 2008) also noted that the boys performed significantly better than the girls on the overhand throwing skill. Barnett et al. ( 2009) found that boys were more proficient at manipulative skills than girls. The gender differences on the three manipulative skills might be related to environmental influences (Okely et al., 2001; Wrotniak et al., 2006). Team sports like baseball and soccer are more popular among boys than girls. Participation in these team sports may be considered more socially acceptable for boys, but more socially unacceptable for girls. Due to the social environment influences, boys may have more opportunities to participate in these games. Therefore, they may have more opportunities to practice and refine the manipulative skills widely used in playing these games.

Although gender differences in the three skills were found at baseline and the two post-interventions, it was promising to find that the girls in the post-intervention year 2 cohorts had substantial improvement in all three skills, compared to the girls in the post-intervention year 1 cohort. The most dramatic gain for the girls in the post-intervention year 2 cohort is the overhand throwing skill and followed by the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills. The girls in the post-intervention year 1 cohort had a modest improvement in all three skills, compared to the girls in the pre-intervention cohort. It is also noted that while the girls showed improvement in the forehand striking skill from the pre-intervention, the post-intervention year 1, to the post-intervention year 2, the girls in the two post-intervention cohorts demonstrated lower than the competent level on the tennis striking skill assessment. Okely et al. ( 2001) found that time spent in organized physical activity was more strongly associated with skills in girls than in boys. Further, they noted that only girls who are highly proficient at a sport will continually participate in that sport during adolescence, while other girls with poor skills may quit or decrease their participation in a sport. Given the important role of motor skill competency in participation in organized sports and physical activity, this study suggests that physical education teachers need to focus more efforts on improving girls' basic specialized manipulative skills used in playing team and individual sports. While teaching these sports to their students, physical education teachers should provide girls with more specific and performance related feedback and also use appropriate teaching strategies to involve girls in playing an important role during game plays. Providing supportive gender-specific learning environment is instrumental to reducing gender differences in motor skill competency (Beurden et al., 2003).

Implications

This study adds to literature on standards-based assessment in physical education settings. This study indicates that the PE Metrics assessment rubrics are feasible tools for physical education teachers to assess levels of students' demonstration of motor skill competency during a regular physical education lesson. This is the first study of using the PE Metrics assessment rubrics to assess students' motor skill competency in basic specialized skills for three consecutive years within the context of the physical education teachers' implementation of CATCH PE curricular. To date, no research has attempted to examine how standards-based quality physical education curricular help students' achieving the NASPE content standard 1. The results of this study show that the students significantly improved their manipulative skill competency over the course of three years as a result of participating in a well-designed curriculum intervention. This study suggests that CATCH PE are effective curricular used for future intervention programs aiming to improve students' motor skill competency in relation to physical activity promotion among school-aged children.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the results indicated that while heredity and growth are associated with motor skill development, CATCH PE was conducive to improving fourth- and fifth-grade students' motor skill competency in the three manipulative skills. The post-intervention year 2 cohort performed significantly better than both the pre-intervention cohort and the post-intervention year 1 cohort on all three skills assessments. The post-intervention year 1 cohort significantly outperformed the pre-intervention cohort on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving and the forehand striking assessments, but not on the overhand throwing skill assessment. Also, the post-intervention year 2 cohort showed higher proportions of the students reaching the competent level or above on all three skills assessments, compared to the post-intervention year 1cohort. Similarly, the post-intervention year 1 cohort had higher proportions of the students demonstrating the competent level or above than the pre-intervention cohort on the soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving and the forehand striking assessment, except for the overhand throwing skill assessment. While the boys in the three cohorts significantly outperformed the girls in the three cohorts on all three skills assessments, the girls showed substantial improvement on the overhand throwing and the score skills. However, the girls, in particular, need to improve motor skill competency in the forehand striking skill.

Biographies

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2008) Physical Activity and the Health of Young People. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Available from URL:[http://www.cde.gov/HealthyYouth/PhysicalActivity Google Scholar]

Chen W., Mason S., Hammond-Bennett A., Zalmout S. (2014) Development and Validation of Assessing Quality Teaching Rubrics. Journal of Education and Training Studies 2(3), 1-10. [Google Scholar]

Gallahue D.L., Ozmun J.C. (2006) Understanding motor development: Infants, children, adolescents, adults. 6th edition, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. [Google Scholar]

National Association for Sport and Physical Education [NASPE] (2004). Moving into the future:National standards for physical education, 2nd edition Reston, VA: Author. [Google Scholar]

National Association for Sport and Physical Education [NASPE]. (2008) PE Metrics: Assessing national standards 1-6 in elementary school. 1st edition Reston, VA: NASPE Publication. [Google Scholar]

Rovegno I., Bandhauer D. (2013) Elementary physical education curriculum and instruction. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. [Google Scholar]

U.S. Department of Education. (2013) Carol White physical education program (PEP) grant. Available form URL: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/whitephysed/index.html.

Wrotniak B.H., Epstein L.H., Dorn J.M., Jones K.E., Kondilis V.A. (2006) The relationship between motor proficiency and physical activity in children. Pediatrics 18(6), 1758-1765. [[PubMed] Google Scholar]

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Assessing Motor Skill Competency in Elementary School Students: A Three-Year Study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This study was to examine how well fourth- and fifth-grade students demonstrated motor skill competency assessed with selected PE Metrics assessment rubrics (2009). Fourth- and fifth-grade students ( n = 1,346-1,926) were assessed on their performance of three manipulative skills using the PE Metrics Assessment Rubrics during the pre-intervention year, the post-intervention year 1, and the post-intervention year 3.

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Effect of Guided Practice on Overhand-Throw Ball Velocities of Kindergarten Children

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Forty-five children from two intact kindergartens in one school were randomly assigned by sex to (a) an experimental group which received a movement program that included 120 min of guided practice in the overhand throw; or (b) a control group which received the same movement program but no exposure to the throw. A third group ( N = 24), randomly selected by sex from a comparable school, received no movement program. Before and after the eight-week instructional period, ten trials of each child's overhand throw for force were filmed. Horizontal ball velocities were simultaneously recorded. ANOVAs on pre- and posttest ball velocities for each sex within each treatment group revealed no significant practice effect over ten trials ( p > .05); thus, the trial mean was used as each subject's score. Two-way ANOVAs (treatment X sex) on the pre- and posttest data indicated no significant velocity differences ( p > .05) between groups either before or after instruction. Boys had significantly greater velocities than girls ( p < .05). Eight weeks of instruction that included 120 min of guided practice in the overarm throw did not significantly change the ball velocities of kindergarten children when compared to two groups with no formal throwing experience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Effect of Guided Practice on Overhand-Throw Ball Velocities of Kindergarten Children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Forty-five children from two intact kindergartens in one school were randomly assigned by sex to (a) an experimental group which received a movement program that included 120 min of guided practice in the overhand throw; or (b) a control group which received the same movement program but no exposure to the throw.

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The Effects of SPARK Physical Education Program on Fundamental Motor Skills in 4-6 Year-Old Children

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Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of SPARK Physical Education (PE) program on fundamental motor skills in 4-6 year children. SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) is an evidence based PE program designed in order to promote the lifelong wellbeing.

Methods

In total, 90 children aged 4 to 6 years were selected randomly. The children were allocated into 3 groups with separate PE programs: 1-SPARK, 2-Gymnastics and 3-Routine activity. Using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2), a pretest was done in all groups. Afterwards, SPARK and Gym PE programs were performed for 8 weeks and 3 sessions each week. The third group used to do the routine physical education program in their daycare. After 8 weeks (24 sessions), the post tests were done for all groups with the same scoring system as the pretest.

Findings

The results showed that the SPARK program had a higher efficacy on the promotion of the fundamental motor skills comparing to the routine physical education programs or gymnastics PE group.

Conclusion

SPARK can be used as an appropriate alternative in order to promote the children's motor skills.

Keywords: Gross Motor, Routine Activity, Gymnastics, Wellness

Introduction

Childhood is the most beautiful age span of the life. Under normal circumstances, childhood is the trouble free period of life and a normal child has no worries except playing. A child's physical performance is dependent on age, sex, socioeconomic class and the level of sports activities in kindergarten and elementary school. There is a widely assumed relationship between habitual physical activities and motor skills in young children. Fisher et al and Cooley et al showed that the time allocated sedentary into light intensity physical activities has a statistically meaningful relation with the fundamental motor skills. In another hand, employing specialists and the need for extensive professional development for classroom teachers responsible for physical education seems quite rational.

SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) is a research based physical education discipline designed in order to promote the lifelong wellbeing without sacrificing the enjoyment of physical activities or academic achievements. The program is aligned to the NASPE (National Association of Sport and Physical Education) guidelines. The self management curriculum of the program makes it flexible enough and increases the adherence of the participants.

There are 2 types of SPARK PE programs: Elementary PE (1.K-2 PE 2. 3-6 PE) and Secondary PE (1. Middle School PE 2. High School PE).

Gross motor skills (like walking, balancing, crawling) are developed during early childhood and are considered as an essential item of motor development. The large muscle groups are mainly responsible for gross motor movements. Fine motor skills are those attributed to the coordination of smaller groups of muscles for example involved in playing piano. Test of Gross Motor Development-edition 2 (TGMD-2) is a norm-reference measurement of gross motor development. The test is scored according to defined performance criteria.

In this study we tried to evaluate the effectiveness of SPARK physical education on fundamental motor skills in comparison with gymnastic and routine physical activities in kindergartens. We tried to understand if SPARK PE has any added value compared to gymnastics and current PE in preschools using TGMD-2 test.

Subjects and Methods

Ninety cases were chosen randomly among the children aged 4-6 years from 6 kindergartens in Tehran district 6. Those attending a sport coarse or their parents had Master of Science or higher degrees or used to earn more than 1000$/month were excluded from the study. The participants' age (months) was asked from their parents and documented. Their height and weight were measured by standard metric bands and scales. Afterwards, TGMD-2 was taken as a pretest. TGMD-2 is divided into 2 loco motor (including running, galloping, hopping, leaping, jumping and sliding) and object control (including striking a stationary ball, stationary dribble, cash, kick and overhand throw) subtests. The norm-referenced test used for assessment of preschool children was used. The validity and reliability of this test has been already studied. Persian version of this test has been validated by authors in a previous study. After the pretest, the children were randomly allocated into three arms and each arm of the study sustained one of the following programs: SPARK, Gymnastics and routine physical education program.

The routine PE group continued their current PE as routine during the study while the SPARK and gymnastic program were held for 8 weeks and three times per week in groups. The SPARK program was held according to early childhood curriculum. Appropriate equipments, classrooms and training techniques were provided according to SPARK PE standards.

Analysis of covariance (Ancova) was exploited to analyze the data with baseline variables included as covariates in the model. Provided that the P-value of Ancova test became significant with adopted criterion for meaningfulness of .05, each pair of study arms were analyzed separately. In order to correct alpha errors, "Bonferroni" method was used. The P-value derived from comparing the study arm pairs were multiplied by the number of study arms.

Findings

There is no difference in age, weight and height of participants in different program (). As demonstrated in , t-test was exploited to compare three arms of the study. The P-value of t-test became statistically significant just in SPARK by TGMD-2 and other programs didn't show significant changes in TGMD-2 results. The next step was to analyze the study arms 2 by 2 (pair comparison). shows the results of the pair comparison between the TGMD-2 results. SPARK PE was more effective than Current or Gymnastic PE in TGMD-2. The P-value of the comparison between the SPARK PE group and Current or Gym PE groups were statistically significant while it was not significant between Gym and Current PE group. As discussed earlier, the P-values were multiplied by 3 (the number of study arms). Like the results of TGMD-tests, the results of the subtests (Locomotor and Objective Control skills) were statistically significant between SPARK and Gym or Current PE groups while the P-value was not significant between Gym and Current PE groups.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Discussion

The aim of this study was comparing SPARK PE to gymnastics and current PE that was focused on gross motor skills development in Iranian children. The results of TDMD-2 test and subtypes are significantly better in SPARK group compared with gymnastic and current PE groups. Physical activity program conducted by trained nursery physical activity instructors or traditional game program have been shown effective and practical way of increasing levels of fundamental movement skills of preschool and elementary school children in a previous study in Iran. In this study, we found gymnastic program had significant effect on locomotor and object control skills but SPARK was more effective on these skills in comparison to gymnastic and/or current programs. SPARK PE program provide the preschool and school children with an appropriate evidence based discipline without interfering with the enjoyment of the activities or academic achievements. The time spent with this program is comparable with the time allocated to routine PE activities. As stated earlier, the academic achievement is not disturbed by this program.

Various aspects of SPARK physical education program have been studied. In one study, the adiposity of the children sustaining this program was compared with the control group. It is documented that SPARK physical education program has favorable effects on students' academic achievement. The effect of SPARK program on physical activity and fitness level including abdominal strength and endurance and cardio respiratory endurance has been studied in some studies. SPARK has been useful for improvement of physical activity program in elementary schools specially if teachers has not have a specific PE program or has not have recent training.

One of the limitations of our study was that the economic aspect of the SPARK PE program is not considered. Cost versus benefit studies of this PE program would evaluate the feasibility and sustainability of this program. Further economical researches are recommended.

Conclusion

Both, gymnastic program and SPARK are effective on increasing levels of locomotor and object control skills in preschool children, but the effect of SPARK was better than gymnastic program. So, SPARK can be taken into consideration not only as an alternative to our routine PE programs, but also as a substitute for the current or gymnastic PE activities and it seems quite rational to revise our Physical Education curricula. We recommend SPARK to increase motor skills as well as physical activity in Iranian nursery schools.

Acknowledgment

The financial support of this work was provided by Sport Medicine Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Grant No: 3966). We are very grateful to the teachers, parents and children who participated in this study.

References

8. Ulrich DA. Austin, TX: Pro-ed; 2000. Test of gross motor development.

11. Akbari H, Abdoli B, Shafizadeh M, et al. The effect of traditional games in fundamental motor skill development in 7-9 year-old boys. Iran J Pediatr. 2009;19(2):123-9.

12. Kordi R, Nourian R, Ghayour M, et al. Development and evaluation of a basic physical and sports activity program for preschool children in nursery schools in Iran: an interventional study. Iran J Pediatr. 2012;22(3):357-63. [ PMC free article]

13. Bakhtiari S, Shafinia P, Ziaee V. Effect of selected exercises on elementary school third grade girl students' motor development. Asian J Sports Med. 2011;2(1):51-6. [ PMC free article]

15. Sallis JF, McKenzie TL, Alcaraz JE, et al. The effects of a 2-year physical education program (SPARK) on physical activity and fitness in elementary school students. Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids. Am J Public Health. 1997;87(8):1328-34. [ PMC free article]

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The Effects of SPARK Physical Education Program on Fundamental Motor Skills in 4-6 Year-Old Children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of SPARK Physical Education (PE) program on fundamental motor skills in 4-6 year children. SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) is an evidence based PE program designed in order to ...

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Manipulative skill competency and health-related fitness in elementary school students

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Abstract

Background

Improving motor skill competency and enhancing health-related physical fitness are desired learning outcomes for school-aged children. Achieving motor skill competency and a healthy level of physical fitness lay a foundation for being a physically active person across a lifetime. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between levels of manipulative skill competency and physical fitness for elementary school boys and girls.

Methods

In this study, 565 fourth-grade students and their 9 physical education teachers were voluntary participants. The students were assessed in 4 basic specialized manipulative skills and 4 fitness components during regular physical education lessons. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, univariate analyses, and multiple R ² liner regression methods.

Results

Boys were more proficient at the manipulative skills than girls, while girls had significant higher percentages for meeting the healthy fitness zone for the fitness tests than boys. Four manipulative skills significantly predicted progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER), push-up, and trunk lifts tests at p < 0.05 level, but not curl-up test for both boys and girls. Boys and girls in the skill-competent group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the skill-incompetent group on PACER, push-up, and trunk lifts tests at p < 0.05 level, with an exception of curl-up test.

Conclusion

The more competent in manipulative skills, the higher healthy level in cardiovascular endurance, upper-body muscular strength and endurance, and flexibility the students demonstrated. Demonstrating manipulative skill competence and maintaining a healthy level of physical fitness are 2 major desired learning outcomes for elementary school students to be able to achieve.

Keywords: Fitness assessment, Healthy fitness zone, Manipulative skill competency, Physical fitness, Skill assessment

1. Introduction

Improving motor skill competency and enhancing health-related physical fitness are desired learning outcomes for school-aged children to achieve. 1 Children who are skillfully competent and physically fit are more likely to be active persons compared to their counterparts who are less skillful and unfit. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Demonstrating motor skill competency and achieving a health-enhancing level of physical fitness are cornerstones for developing a physically active lifestyle throughout childhood and adolescence, and into adulthood. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

National Standard 1 for K-12 Physical Education (PE) defines that students should "demonstrate competency in motor skills and movement patterns". 1 According to the outcome expectation for grades 3-5, students' achieving the Standard 1 implies to demonstrate mature forms of fundamental motor skills, to combine one skill with another, and to apply the skills in dynamic situations. 1 The fundamental motor skills, consisting of locomotor skills, manipulative skills, and non-manipulative skills, are building blocks for successful participation in many sports and various physical activities (PAs). 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Empirical studies showed that children with adequate motor skill competency spent significantly more time in moderate-to-vigorous PA than children with insufficient motor skill competency. 15, 16, 17, 18 Especially, childhood manipulative skill proficiency was associated with adolescents' participation in a variety of PA and organized sports and also significantly predicted their cardiovascular fitness in adolescence. 7, 8 However, given a lack of performance-based motor skill assessment tools in previous studies, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 16, 17, 18 motor skill competency was evaluated either using product-oriented criteria with a combined product score or merely process-oriented criteria with "yes" or "no" rating scale. To fill the gaps in motor skill assessments, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) published PE Metrics: Assessing the National Standard 1: Elementary, 19 as a result of conducting 4 years of extensive testing with 4000 students at 90 schools in the US. The PE metrics assessment rubrics are specifically designed to assess levels of students' competency in fundamental motor skills using both process- and product-oriented criteria. 19

Likewise, maintaining and enhancing health-related physical fitness, including cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition, lays a foundation for participating in a variety of sports and PA. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 A healthy level of physical fitness is a key indicator of health status. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Students who demonstrated healthy cardiovascular endurance level had a lower level of overall adiposity and abdominal adiposity 9 and low metabolic risk. 11 It is shown that muscular strength/endurance was associated with established and emerging cardiovascular disease risk factors. 9, 10, 11 Improvements in muscular fitness seem to have a positive effect on skeletal health. 9 Healthy physical fitness in children and adolescents tend to track healthy fitness in adulthood. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Given the essential role of physical fitness in maintaining health, schools should conduct physical fitness testing to determine how well students meet the National Standard 4: Achieves and Maintains a Health-enhancing Level of Physical Fitness. 1 Recently, the FITNESSGRAM ® test has been used to assess students' levels of physical fitness. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 It is a nationally recognized, valid, and reliable fitness assessment toolkit specifically designed for assessing cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition through a variety of test items. 20 The FITNESSGRAM ®7 test compares the testing scores to the healthy fitness zone (HFZ) standards based on specific age and gender guidelines to evaluate boys' and girls' physical fitness levels on each test and suggest areas for improvement. 20

Despite that manipulative skills are central to a variety of sports and PA and manipulative skill competency contributed significantly more to children' participation in sports and PA than locomotor skill competency, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 few studies had ever assessed elementary school students' both process and product of performance in manipulative skills using the PE metrics assessments rubrics. 19 Therefore, the impact of manipulative skill competency assessed with both process- and product-oriented criteria on healthy levels of physical fitness in elementary school students remains largely unknown. Thus, this study aimed at examining relationships between levels of manipulative skill competency and levels of health-related physical fitness in elementary school boys and girls. This study will provide empirical insight about what specific manipulative skills contribute to what specific health-related fitness components for boys and girls.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

Five hundred and sixty-five fourth-grade students and their 9 PE teachers from 9 elementary schools located in a suburban area in the US were recruited as subjects from the third year of the Healthy Kids and Smart Kids project. The project was designed to help elementary school students become physically active, mentally healthy, and socially cooperative children through implementing the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) PE curriculum and Mileage Club (MC) Recess Program as well as family/community events. 21, 22, 23 The project was awarded Carol White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant by U.S. Department of Education.

In this study, the fourth-grade students consisted of 318 of boys and 247 of girls aged 9-10 years old who completed all tests. The social-economic status of the students' family ranged from lower-middle, middle, to upper-middle classes. The fourth-grade students had one 60-min co-ed PE class each week, a total of 72 weeks during an academic year. The regular PE class size ranged from 18 to 28 students. Students with learning disabilities participated in a special education class which was not included in this study. Four male and 5 female PE teachers' ages ranged from 33 to 55 years old and their teaching experience varied from 6 to 26 years. The University of Michigan Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB-HSBS) and the school district granted the permission for conducting this study. The student's parent/guardian signed the consent form to grant the permission for their child to participate in this study. All 9 PE teachers signed the consent form to indicate their willingness to participate in this study.

2.2. Data collection

2.2.1. Motor skill measurements

Students' performance in 4 manipulative skills was assessed with validated PE metrics assessment rubrics 19 by their PE teachers who underwent 3 days of training in PE Metrics. Each assessment rubric has its specific essential dimensions, performance indicators (assessment criteria for each level of the rating scale) on 0-4 rating scales, and the number of trial for testing. 19 presents the criteria for competence (Level 3) on each essential dimension and the total competent score on each skill assessment described in the PE metrics. To learn more detailed information about each skill assessment, please refer to the PE metrics. 19

Four manipulative skills selected from the PE metrics 19 and assessed in this study were soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills, overhand throwing skill, striking skill with a paddle, and basketball dribbling, passing, and receiving skills. The rationales for assessing the 4 manipulative skills are that they are the core PE content taught to upper-elementary school students and they are basic manipulative skills used playing a variety of team- and individual-sports by upper-elementary school students. 1

Throughout the academic year of 2011-2012, the soccer skills were assessed in the first week of October, the throwingskill was assessed in the second week of November, the striking skill with a paddle was assessed in the second week of January, and the basketball skills were assessed in the second week of March. Each PE teacher was required to strictly use the PE metrics assessment testing protocols, directions, assessment criteria, assessment rubrics, and assessment tasks 19 to conduct each skill assessment with 1 student at a time in the school gymnasium during a regular PE class at his/her school.

In this study, the Cronbach α reliability coefficients of soccer skills, throwing skill, striking skill with a paddle, and basketball skills assessments were 0.90, 0.89, 0.88, and 0.92. The results showed that 4 manipulative skill assessments had satisfactory internal consistency reliability. 24

2.2.2. FITNESSGRAM® tests

Students' physical fitness was assessed using 4 FITNESSGRAM ® test items 20 by their PE teachers who attended 1-day training. The physical fitness tests included: (a) 15 m version of progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER) for cardiovascular endurance, (b) curl-up test for abdominal muscular strength and endurance, (c) push-up test for upper body strength and endurance, and (d) trunk lift for trunk extensor strength and flexibility. During the first 2 weeks of May, each PE teacher administered 1 physical fitness test at a time to their students in the school gymnasium during a regular PE lesson in accordance with the testing protocols such as test objective, equipment and facilities, test instructions, when to stop the test, and scoring described in FITNESSGRAM ® Test Administration Manual. 20 For PACER test, a group of students were tested at a time while the other group of students counted and recorded their partner's number of successful running laps on the PACER testing sheet. After the completion of the test, each group switched its role. For the other 3 fitness tests, the PE teacher tested 1 student at a time and recorded the student's score on each testing scoring sheet. Then, each PE teacher used the FITNESSGRAM ® software (Version 8.4; the Cooper Institute, Dallas, TX, USA) to record the testing results.

The FITNESSGRAM ® test uses criterion-referenced standards to classify fitness levels into the HFZ and the Needs Improvement (NI) Zone. 20 If a child's score on a fitness test is in the HFZ he/she is considered to have a healthy level of that specific fitness. In contrast, the NI indicates that if the student continues to track at this level there is the potential for future health risks. The HFZ is defined specifically for each test type, age, and gender. 20 The "FITNESSGRAM ® standards for HFZ for boys" and the "FITNESSGRAM ® standards for HFZ for girls" were used to determine whether a student's score on each test was placed into the HFZ or not. 20

2.3. Data analysis

SPSS statistics software (Version 21.0; IBM Cooperation, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to conduct all statistical analysis of the data assessed in this study. A significant level of p < 0.05 was set for all statistical analysis. To determine levels and proportions of boys' and girls' demonstration of competency in each manipulative skill assessment and meeting the HFZ in each physical fitness test, descriptive statistics and percentageswere computed. To examine the mean score difference in each manipulative skill assessment between boys and girls, the independent sample t test was utilized. To examine if there was a significant difference of observed frequency for meeting HFZ between boys and girls on each physical fitness test, the Fisher exact χ ² method was conducted. Regardless of the gender-specific guidelines for HFZ, to determine the mean score difference in each physical fitness test between boys and girls, the independent sample t test was utilized.

Given gender differences in the manipulative skill assessments and physical fitness tests by means of the univariate analysis, the rest of statistical analysis were conducted for boys and girls separately. A composite score of the skill competent level in the 4 skill tests were computed to classify an overall skill competence into 2 groups (skill-competent level = 42-56 scores, skill-incompetent level = 14-41 scores) based on the PE metrics criteria for defining the competent level. To examine whether the manipulative skills predicted the HFZ in each physical fitness test for boys and girls, the multiple R ² linear regression analyses were then performed using the total score of each manipulative skill assessment as predictors. Subsequently, to assess the relative importance of each manipulative skill in predicting each physical fitness test for boys and girls, the standardized multiple regression coefficients were analyzed. Furthermore, to examine mean score difference of each physical fitness test between the 2 levels of overall skill competency, the independent sample t test was conducted by gender.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis in manipulative skill assessments

presents the descriptive statistics of manipulative skill assessments by gender and the total sample. The mean score of the total sample was slightly higher than the competent level on soccer skills, throwing skill, and basketball skills, while the mean score of the total sample was at the competent level on striking skill assessment. Boys' mean scores of 4 manipulative skill assessments and girls' mean scores of 3 skill assessments were slightly higher than the competent level, but girls' mean score of striking skill assessment was lower than the competent level. Independent sample t tests indicated that boys scored significantly higher than girls on soccer skills ( t = 3.55, df = 563), overhand throwing skill ( t = 4.59, df = 563), basketball skills ( t = 5.23, df = 563), and striking skill ( t = 4.01, df = 563) at p < 0.01 significant level.

Table 2

Among 318 boys, 92% of them demonstrated the competent level or above in basketball skills, 84% in throwing skill, 81% in soccer skills, and 70% in striking skill. Of 247 girls, 83% of the girls demonstrated the competent level or above in basketball skills, 76% in throwing skill, 68% in soccer skills, and 56% in striking skill. Results of χ ² tests revealed a significant difference of percentages between boys and girls on soccer skills ( χ ² = 26.29, df = 9), throwing skill ( χ ² = 45.47, df = 16), basketball skills ( χ ² = 35.67, df = 8), and striking skills ( χ ² = 24.30, df = 6) at the significant level of p < 0.01.

3.2. Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis in physical fitness tests

presents descriptive statistics of physical fitness tests by gender and the total sample. To meet the HFZ standards for 15 m PACER test, a 10-year-old boy should run between 30 and 80 laps, while a 10-year-old girl run between 9 and 54 laps. 20 For PACER test, boys' mean score was on the low end of HFZ and 47% of the boys ran 30 laps or more, meeting the HFZ. In contrast, the girls' mean score was in the middle of HFZ and 98% of the girls ran 9 laps or more, reaching HFZ. χ ² test indicated that the percentage of girls who met the HFZ was significantly higher than that of boys based on the gender-specific guidelines ( χ ² = 113.89, df = 63, p < 0.01). However, regardless of the age- and gender-specific guidelines for the healthy zone, an independent t test was used to examine the mean lap differences between the boys and the girls. The results of the t test indicated that boys statistically outperformed girls on the PACER test (mean boys = 30 vs. mean girls = 25, t = 3.578, df = 563, p < 0.01).

Table 3

To reach the HFZ for the curl-up test, 10-year-old boys and girls need to complete 12-24 and 12-26 curl-ups. 20 For curl-up test, both boys' and girls' mean scores were higher than the high end of HFZ. Seventy-seven percent of boys and 83% of girls met HFZ and above. A χ ² test revealed that the percentage of girls' meeting the HFZ was statistically and significantly higher than that of boys' ( χ ² = 84.6, df = 60, p < 0.05). However, t test revealed no statistically significant difference in the mean score of curl-up test between boys and girls (mean boys = 27 vs. mean girls = 27, t = 0.138, df = 563, p > 0.05).

To meet the HFZ for push-up test, 10-year-old boys and girls need to perform 7-20 and 7-15 completed push-ups. 20 Regarding push-up test, boys' and girls' mean scores were moderately higher than the low end of HFZ. Seventy-five percent of boys and 73% of girls reached HFZ. A χ ² test yielded no significant difference of percentages for meeting the HFZ between boys and girls. In contrast, the results of the t test indicated that boys' mean score in push-up test was significantly higher than girls' (mean boys = 13 vs. mean girls = 12, t = 2.285, df = 563, p < 0.05).

To meet the HFZ for the trunk lift test, both boys and girls need to lift the upper body 9-12 inches off the floor from the prone position. 20 For trunk lift test, boys' and girls' mean scores were close to the high end of HFZ. Eighty-seven percent of boys and 92% of girls met HFZ. A χ ² test indicated that the percentage of girls reaching HFZ was statistically and significantly higher than that of boys ( χ ² = 22.59, df = 12, p < 0.05). Similarly, the t test yielded a significant mean score difference in the trunk lift test between boys and girls (mean boys = 10.98 vs. mean girls = 11.43, t = − 3.349, df = 563, p < 0.01).

3.3. Predictors of manipulative skills to physical fitness tests

presents the results of the multiple R ² linear regression analysis with manipulative skills predicting each physical fitness test for boys and girls. The regression model with the 4 manipulative skills as independent variables and PACER test as a dependent variable indicated that these skills significantly predicted PACER test for boys ( F(4, 313) = 10.98, p < 0.01) and girls ( F(4, 242) = 2.93, p < 0.05). These manipulative skills explained 12% of the variance in PACER test for boys and 5% for girls. The results of standardized regression coefficients ( β) for boys indicated that basketball and throwing skills were significant contributors to predicting the number of laps run for PACER test, while soccer and striking skills did not display significant β weights. In contrast, none of the skills for girls displayed significant β weights at p < 0.05 level.

Table 4

The regression model containing 4 manipulative skills predictors of push-up test revealed that the 4 skills significantly predicted the number of push-up performed by boys ( F(4, 313) = 6.54, p < 0.01) and girls ( F(4, 242) = 6.49, p < 0.01). The 4 skills accounted for 8% of the variance in the number of push-up completed by boys and 10% for girls. For boys, basketball skills demonstrated significant β weight. In contrast, throwing and striking skills displayed significant β weights for girls.

The regression model with the 4 manipulative skills as predictors of trunk lift test indicated that the 4 skills significantly predicted trunk lift for boys ( F(4, 313) = 9.21, p < 0.01) and girls ( F(4, 242) = 10.69, p < 0.01). The 4 skills explained 11% of the variance in trunk lift for boys and 15% for girls. Striking and soccer skills for boys and throwing, basketball and striking skills for girls displayed significant β weights. The regression model with the 4 manipulative skills as predictors of curl-up test revealed no significant associations for boys and girls.

3.4. Differences in physical fitness tests between skill competent and skill incompetent groups

The composite skill competent score of 42 in the 4 manipulative skill assessments was used to classify 261 boys into the skill-competent group and 57 boys into the skill-incompetent group. shows boys' mean scores of physical fitness tests between the skill-competent and the skill-incompetent groups. The results of t tests indicated that boys in the skill-competent group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the skill-incompetent group on PACER ( t = 4.54, df = 85.39, p < 0.01), push-up ( t = 2.96, df = 81.76, p < 0.01), and trunk lift test ( t = 2.30, df = 74.04, p < 0.05), but not on curl-up test.

Table 5

Similarly, the composite skill competent score of 42 in the 4 manipulative skill assessments was used to classify 173 girls into the skill-competent group and 74 girls into the skill-incompetent group. shows girls' mean scores of fitness tests between the skill-competent and skill-incompetent groups. Results of t tests revealed a significance difference of mean scores between the 2 groups for PACER ( t = 4.45, df = 206.25), push-up ( t = 4.39, df = 169.17), and trunk lift test ( t = 2.86, df = 96.93) at p < 0.01 significant level, not for curl-up test.

4. Discussion

This study was central to examining the relationship between levels of manipulative skill competency and levels of health-related physical fitness. The discussion of the results was organized into 4 parts: (a) gender differences in manipulative skills, (b) gender differences in physical fitness tests, (c) relationship between manipulative skills and physical fitness by gender, and (d) physical fitness differences between skill-competent and skill-incompetent groups.

4.1. Gender differences in manipulative skills

Consistent with the previous studies, 5, 6, 7, 8, 25, 26, 27 this study found gender differences in manipulative skill competence. Previous studies 5, 6, 7, 8, 25, 26, 27 showed that boys were more proficient than girls in manipulative skill performance. Similarly, this study confirmed that boys were more skillfully competent in performing all 4 manipulative skills than girls. The gender differences in the 4 manipulative skills might be related to environmental influences. 15, 16, 17 Due to the fact that 3 of the 4 skills including soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills, overhand throwing skill, and basketball dribbling, passing, and receiving skills are all basic specialized skills used for playing team sports. These team sports are more popular among boys than girls. Boys are more likely to play these team sports during recesses in school and outside of school, compared to girls. Therefore, participation in these team sports may be considered more socially acceptable for boys, compared to girls. Given the social environment influences, boys may have more opportunities to participate in these sports. Therefore, they may have more opportunities to practice and refine the manipulative skills widely used in playing these sports. 15, 16, 17, 18

However, it is important to note that despite the gender differences in the manipulative skill competence, the promising results of this study indicated that both boys and girls, on average, demonstrated slightly higher than the competent level on the manipulative skills, except for girls' performance on striking skill assessment, which was slightly lower than the competent level. The results of this study were much better than the findings reported by Zhu et al. 28 who examined levels of fifth-grade students' manipulative skill competency while testing the validity of the PE metrics assessment rubrics. They reported that fifth-grade students, on average, scored 1 level lower than the competent level in soccer dribbling, passing, and receiving skills, scored slightly lower than the competent level in overhand throwing skill, and demonstrated 2 levels lower than the competent level in striking skill with a paddle.

4.2. Gender differences in physical fitness tests

Largely in line with the previous studies, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 this study found gender differences in physical fitness tests. According to the gender-specific standards for the HFZ, almost all girls (98%) in this study met HFZ in PACER test, while less than half of the boys (47%) reaching the HFZ for cardiovascular endurance. However, comparing the mean laps, boys ran significant more laps than girls. Likewise, Erwin and Castelli 6 reported that boys statistically outperformed girls on PACER tests. Similarly, Barnett et al. 7 found that boys ran more laps than girls on cardiovascular endurance test.

Despite the higher percentage of girls' meeting the curl-up HFZ than that of boys, both girls and boys had same mean score of the curl-up test. Erwin and Castelli 6 also reported no statistically significant difference on the curl-ups by gender. Regarding the push-up test, the boys had slightly higher percentages for meeting the HFZ than the girls. Also, boys performed significantly higher number of push-ups than girls. Inconsistent with this finding, the studies 5, 6 found no significant difference in the mean score of the push-up test between boys and girls. For the trunk lift test, consistent with previous studies 5, 6, 7, 8 that the girls had better flexibility than the boys, this study found that more girls met the HFZ compared to boys and girls were more flexible than boys.

It is worthy to note that the proportions of the students' meeting the HFZ for the 4 fitness tests were higher, compare to previous studies. 5, 6 Both boys and girls of this study, on average, met the HFZ for cardiovascular endurance, upper-body strength and endurance, back extension strength and flexibility, and reached a higher level than the HFZ for abdominal muscular strength and endurance. The promising results of the manipulative skills assessments and physical fitness tests might be attributed to the third year of implementation of the project including teaching CATCH PE curriculum and conducting mileage club recess program. The CATCH PE curriculum provides students with developmentally appropriate PE content which maps most of the essential content addressed by the national standards. 29 The instructional practices of the CATCH PE are associated with maximizing time on task and learning opportunities, increasing levels of physical activity in PE class, and providing students with congruent and specific feedback about their motor performance. 29

4.3. Relationship between manipulative skills and physical fitness

In accordance with previous studies that manipulative skill proficiency was significantly associated with health-related physical fitness, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 this study found that all 4 manipulative skills were significant predictors of cardiovascular endurance, upper-body muscular strength and endurance, and back extensor flexibility in upper-elementary school students.

Supporting the previous studies 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 that strength of the associations between the manipulative skills and physical fitness tests was gender-specific, one unique finding of this study was that the manipulative skill competency contributed to cardiovascular endurance more for boys than for girls. Furthermore, basketball skills and throwing skill were more significant predictors of the total variance in PACER test for boys. Partially inconsistent with this study, Okely et al. 8 found that a model containing fundamental locomotor and manipulative skills explained more variances in cardiovascular endurance test for adolescent girls than for boys. Given the significant role of manipulative skills in contributing to the healthy level of cardiovascular endurance for boys, this study suggests that to better enhance boys' cardiovascular endurance, school PE should provide quality instructions and developmentally appropriate learning opportunities for students to improve manipulative skills.

Another unique findings were that the manipulative skills competency were significant contributor to push-up and trunk lift tests more for girls, compared to boys. For boys, basketball skills were significant predictors of the variance in push-up test; soccer and striking skills were significant predictors of the variance in trunk lift test. In contrast, for girls, throwing and striking skills were significant predictors to the variance in push-up test; throwing skill, basketball skills, and striking skill were significant contributors to the variance in trunk lift test. The results indicated that manipulative skills, especially throwing and striking skills are instrumental to improving girls' upper body strength and back extensor flexibility. To effectively enhance girls' upper body strength and endurance and flexibility, PE teachers may engage students in practicing throwing and striking skills with different types of balls and rackets and performing the skills with different ways within the context of a variety of learning tasks and game situations.

4.4. Physical fitness differences between skill-competent and skill-incompetent groups

In line with the findings of previous studies, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 this study confirmed that elementary school students' manipulative skill competency played a critical role in contributing to their healthy levels of health-related fitness. This study confirmed that both boys and girls who were skillfully competent in performing all 4 manipulative skills were more physically fit, compared to their counterparts who were less competent in the manipulative skills.

Regarding the differences in cardiovascular endurance between the skill-competent and the skill-incompetent groups, this study showed that boys who demonstrated the competent level in all 4 manipulative skills exhibited a very healthy level of cardiovascular endurance. In contrast, boys who were in skill-incompetent group did not reach the HFZ in cardiovascular endurance. Consistent with the present findings, previous study 4 found that children with motor skill competence showed good cardiovascular fitness performance, while children with motor skill incompetence performed poorly on a cardiovascular fitness test. Although the girls in the skill-competent and skill-incompetent groups all reached the HFZ for cardiovascular endurance, the girls who were manipulative skill competent ran significant more laps than the girls who were manipulative skill incompetent. In other words, the girls who demonstrated manipulative skill competent level reached more toward high end of the HFZ in PACER test with the mean lap of 27.27 (HFZ of 9-54 laps), while the girls who showed manipulative skill incompetent level reached more toward low end of the HFZ in PACER test with the mean score of 20.57.

With respect to the differences in muscular strength and endurance between the skill-competent and the skill-incompetent group, this study showed that both boys and girls who were manipulative skill competent demonstrated more healthier level of upper-body muscular strength and endurance and flexibility, compared to their counterparts who were manipulative skill incompetent, although boys and girls in the 2 groups met the HFZ for upper-body muscular strength and endurance, and back extensor strength and flexibility. Both boys and girls who demonstrated manipulative skill competence reached high end of HFZ for push-up with mean score of 14.13 and 12.95 (HFZ: 7-20 for boys, 7-15 for girls), compared to their counterparts who showed manipulative skill in-competence with the mean score of 10.12 and 8.80 in push-up test. Similarly, both boys and girls who demonstrated manipulative skill competence reached toward high end of HFZ in trunk lift test with mean score of 11.10 and 11.62 (HFZ: 9-12 for boys and girls), compared to their counterparts who were manipulative skill incompetent. Interestingly, both boys and girls in skill-competent group performed lower number of curl-ups than their counterparts in the skill-incompetent group, though no statistically significant difference was found.

Due to the more competent in the manipulative skills, the more physically fit in the health-related physical fitness in upper elementary schools students, this study suggests that school PE should continually focus on teaching the essential content like manipulative skills which are used in playing a variety of sports. This is because that mastery of manipulative skills while playing the sports is a major vehicle for elementary school students to maintain and enhance health-enhancing level of physical fitness.

5. Conclusion

It was concluded that boys outperformed girls on all 4 manipulative skills, but girls outperformed boys on 3 fitness tests, except for push-up test. All 4 manipulative skills were significantly contributed to PACER, push-up, and trunk lift tests for boys and girls, but not curl-up test. However, the magnitudes of the manipulative skills predicting and contributing to healthy levels of physical fitness were gender-specific. Demonstration of competency in manipulative skills was instrumental to promoting healthy levels of physical fitness for boys and girls. This study suggests that manipulative skills used for playing a variety of team and individual sports should be essential PE content for elementary schools students to learn and improve through engaging in developmentally appropriate learning activities. Demonstrating manipulative skill competency is one of the major desired learning outcomes for elementary school students to be able to achieve. Given the purpose of this study and age-specific HFZ standards used for each physical fitness test in FITNESSGRAM ®, this study was limited to use cross-sectional research design to examine the relationship between manipulative skills and physical fitness in fourth-grade students.

Authors' contributions

WC designed the project, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. SM, AHB, and SZ searched the literature on motor skills and fitness, input the data, and edited the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript, and agree with the order of the presentation of the authors.

Competing interests

There is no financial assistance with this project. There is no conflict of interests regarding financial and/or non-financial aspects. We do not have any financial interest of the subject matter discussed in the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the students and their physical education teachers of Huron Valley Public Schools for participating in this project. This study was funded by U.S. Department of Education, Carol White Physical Education Program grant (CFDA 84.215F).

Footnotes

Peer review under responsibility of Shanghai University of Sport.

References

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20. Meredith M.D., Welk G.J. 4th ed. Human Kinetics; Champain, IL: 2007. FITNESSGRAM and activitygram test administration manual. [ Google Scholar]

21. Chen W., Mason S., Hypnar A., Hammond-Bennett A. Assessing manipulative skill competency in elementary school students: a three-year study. J Sports Sci Med. 2016;15:102-110. [[ PMC free article] [ PubMed] Google Scholar]

22. Chen W., Mason S., Hypnar A., Hammond-Bennett A. Association of quality physical education teaching with students' physical fitness. J Sport Sci Med. 2016;15:335-343. [[ PMC free article] [ PubMed] Google Scholar]

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Manipulative skill competency and health-related physical fitness in elementary school students

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Improving motor skill competency and enhancing health-related physical fitness are desired learning outcomes for school-aged children. Achieving motor skill competency and a healthy level of physical fitness lay a foundation for being a physically active person across a lifetime.

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Gross Motor Development of 5-year-old kindergarten children in Myamar

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Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the gross motor skill development of 5-year-old Kindergarten children in Myanmar. [Subjects and Methods] Total 472 healthy Kindergarten children (237 males, 235 females) of 2016-2017 academic year from four schools in urban area and four schools in rural area of Myanmar were recruited. The gross motor skill development of all subjects was assessed with the test of gross motor development second edition (TGMD-2). All subjects performed two trials for each gross motor skill and the performance was video recorded and scored. The assessment procedures were done according to the standardized guidelines of TGMD-2. [Results] The majority of subjects had average level of gross motor skill rank. The significant differences were found on the run and gallop of locomotor skills and the most of object control skills except the catch between males and females. The significant differences were also found between subjects from urban and rural areas. [Conclusion] Gross motor skill development of 5-year-old Kindergarten children in Myanmar had gender-based and region-based differences on both locomotor and object control skills. This study added a valuable information to the establishment of a normative reference of Kindergarten aged children for future studies.

Key words: Gross motor skill development, TGMD-2, Kindergarten children

INTRODUCTION

The development of a child refers to the sequence of physical, language, thought and emotional changes that occur in a child from birth to the beginning of adulthood and it includes development of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, speech and language, cognition, social interaction, and emotional regulation⁾. The development of gross motor skills in young children is important for further developmental functions such as perceptual and cognitive abilities, ⁾. The government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has implemented a new National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) during the period 2016-2021 including a key reform focus on the provision of quality, healthy, play-centered pre-school, and primary education for all children aged 3 to 6 years⁾.

The quality kindergarten (KG) program is one of the strategies of NESP and which has been implemented in all public schools, private schools, monastic schools and other types of schools across Myanmar by the Ministry of Education (MOE) since June 2016⁾. The national education law of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2014) states that KG is education that promotes holistic development using appropriate methods for five year-olds to ease their transition to first grade and will be regarded as the base level of primary education⁾. The new KG curriculum, aligned with new primary curriculum supported by the government of Japan, supports the development of children in all developmental skills, ⁾.

Early assessment for the development of gross motor skills during preschool and elementary schools years is particularly important to monitor changes of motor development, identify delays or deficits of development, and assist Physical Therapists (PT) and other health care practitioners to properly design exercise programs, ⁾.

There is currently limited information on assessment of gross motor skill development of KG children in Myanmar and the development of gross motor skills in KG children is not known to be documented. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the gross motor skill development of 5-year-old KG children in Myanmar.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

This study was a cross-sectional study and conducted with 472 healthy KG children (237 males, 235 females) who were attending for 2016-2017 academic year at four schools in urban area (three public and one private schools in Yangon city area) and four public schools in rural area (one township in Bago Region West, about 300 km to the North from Yangon) of Myanmar. The selection of the schools was decided by the township education officers from the MOE. The characteristics of the subjects were shown in Table 1 and 3 . All the subjects from the private school were from high income families because they could afford to charge expensive school fees. The subjects from the public schools in this study were varied from high to low income families. Two public schools in urban area and two public schools in rural area were located in the wards and villages respectively of low income families.

Table 1.

The exclusion criteria were children with known developmental disability (e.g. Cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), obvious deformity (e.g. scoliosis, bow leg), and orthopedic injury in both upper and lower extremities within six months. Information on this study was provided to the principals, the teachers, the parents or guardians, and the children themselves before their voluntary participation. They were provided with written information letter and verbal explanation. The signed consent and oral assent were obtained from every parent or guardian and child for participation. This study was approved by the Ethics Review Committees (ERC) of International University of Health and Welfare, Japan (approval number: 15-Io-115) and the University of Medical Technology, Yangon, Myanmar (approval number: 3/2016) and endorsed by the ERC of the department of Medical Research, Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS), Myanmar. The official approval letter for the schools was obtained from the MOE, Myanmar.

The main equipment used was TGMD-2, which reliability was tested before and other materials used were a stadiometer and weighing scale (KENXIN, Health scale, BWS-302), two 8- to 10-inch playground balls, one basketball, one soccer ball, one 4-inch light weight ball, one tennis ball, one softball, one 4- to 5 inch square beanbag, color tapes, two traffic cones, one plastic bat, one batting tee, and a video camera (Sony HD, HDR-PJ410). TGMD-2 consists of 12 gross motor skills divided into locomotor and object control subtests. Locomotor subtest includes run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, and slide. There are four performance criteria for each skill of run, gallop, horizontal jump, and slide, while hop has five and leap has three criteria, and total 24 criteria for locomotor subtest. Object Control subtest includes striking a stationary ball, stationary dribble, catch, kick, overhand throw, and underhand roll. There are five performance criteria for striking a stationary ball, three for catch, while all the rest four items have four for each, and also total 24 for object control subtest. Each skill is performed two trials for assessment and each criterion is given a score of 1 or 0 for the pass and fail attempt respectively. The scores of two trials are added up to get total criterion score, the total criterion scores for the performance criteria are added up to get skill score, the six-skill scores are added up to get subtest raw scores (0-48). The subtest raw scores are converted into standard scores (1-20) and percentiles (<1->99) depending on age and gender according to the normed tables in TGMD-2 manual. The standard scores of locomotor and object control subtests are added up and converted into gross motor quotient (GMQ) (46-160). Finally, seven descriptive ratings: very poor, poor, below average, average, above average, superior, and very superior are given for the subtest standard scores and the GMQ for evaluation⁾.

The height and weight of every child was measured with the stadiometer and weighing scale and the BMI was calculated before assessing the development of gross motor skills. The test venue and equipment were set up according to TGMD-2 requirements in the indoor assembly halls or the outdoor playground of the public schools and the indoor gymnasium of the private school. The researchers thoroughly explained and demonstrated correct performance of all 12 gross motor skills of TGMD-2 before the assessment. After that, each child started to perform each gross motor skill under supervision of the researchers and the KG class teachers. The child was allowed at least one test trial for each gross motor skill. The child had to perform two trials for each of all 12 gross motor skills (rest period was provided between two consecutive gross motor skill tests). The performance of every child was video-recorded. The video camera was fixed in the proper position and angle to record the whole performance of each motor skill, except recording of run, gallop and slide when the angle of the video camera was changed to record the whole performance. Total duration of assessment of all 12 gross motor skills for each child lasted about 10-15 minutes (including rest periods). The subjects were assessed with their barefooted performance of all skills because the majority of the subjects were not accustomed to wear rubber-soled shoes. The assessment procedures were done according to the standardized guidelines of TGMD-2 and finished within three consecutive months for all 472 children. The video recordings were assessed and rated with TGMD-2 examiner's record forms by three raters (inter-rater reliability determined by the intra-class correlation coefficients from 0.88-0.95).

The descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The significant level was set as p<0.05. The software used for data analysis was IBM SPSS statistic version 22.0 for Windows.

RESULTS

shows the results of one-way ANOVA between male and female subjects. The significant differences were found on the run and gallop but there were no significant differences on the rest of locomotor skills between males and females. The significant differences were also found on the most of object control skills except the catch, object control standard and percentile scores between two genders.

Seven levels of descriptive rating according to the GMQ for all the subjects are shown in . The majority of subjects (46.2%, n=218) had average level of gross motor skill rank. The minority (0.6%, n=3) had very poor level of gross motor skill rank.

Table 2.

shows the comparison of the subjects between urban and rural areas. The significant differences were found between the two groups.

Table 3.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study showed that the gross motor skill development of KG children in Myanmar had a different tendency across gender and geographical region. The majority of the subjects demonstrated average level of overall skill rank.

The mean standard score for locomotor subtest was better than the US normative samples while the mean standard score for object control subtest was matched with the US normative samples. The standard scores for both locomotor and object control subtests had a mean of 10 and standard deviation of 3 for the US normative samples⁾. This finding was in line with the study of Pang and Fong in which Hong Kong Chinese children performed better than the US normative samples⁾.

The number of subjects from urban and rural area were significantly different because of demography of the population in those two study areas. The population who live in urban area is the highest (70.1%) in Yangon⁾. In this study, 75.6% of the subjects were from urban area. This result was similar to the original TGMD-2 manual where 77% of the US normative samples were from urban area⁾.

The significant differences on most of the gross motor skills except the catch, the kick and the raw object control scores were found between urban and rural areas. All locomotor skills of the subjects from rural area were significantly better than those from urban area. This differences may be due to plenty of open spaces for play around schools and home environments in rural area. Another possible reason may be due to the circumstance in rural area where most of children used to walk to schools because of lack of accessible public transportation to schools.

Conversely, the subjects from urban area had better performances on most of object control skills. This may be due to the subjects from one private schools in this study where well facilitated indoor gymnasium and outdoor playground are situated.

The findings from this study have implications for PTs, physical education teachers, and other professionals who are working for early childhood care and development programs.

The strength of this study was that it was conducted with a large sample of KG children attending at the public and private schools in Myanmar. The first limitation of this study was the subjects were only from two regions out of total 15 regions (seven regions, seven states and one union territory) of Myanmar. The second limitation was the schools were selected based on the different geographical regions and this study could not differentiate the two areas based on socioeconomic status (SES). The objective assessment of SES of the families of all the subjects should have been done for accurate differentiation between two study areas. The third limitation was the subjects were not assessed their nutrition, culture, and ethnicity, although the majority of residents in the two study areas were Bamar which was one out of eight major national ethnic races of Myanmar. Further studies are still needed to examine KG children from all the 15 regions of Myanmar and whether the differences of the gross motor skill development depending on the families' SES and the nutrition, culture, and ethnicity of children.

In conclusion, the development of gross motor skills in KG children in Myanmar had gender-based and region-based differences on both the locomotor and object control skills. The findings of this study gave a valuable information to the establishment of a normative reference of KG aged children for future studies.

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest was declared.

REFERENCES

4. Aung San Suu Kyi: Foreword. In: National education strategic plan 2016-21. The government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Ministry of Education, 2016, p 5. [ http://www.moe.gov.mm (Accessed Apr. 10, 2017) Google Scholar]

5. National education strategic plan 2016-21. The government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Ministry of Education, 2016, pp 70-83. http://www.moe.gov.mm (Accessed Apr. 10, 2017)

9. Ulrich DA: Test of gross motor development: examiner's manual, 2nd ed. Austin: Pro-Ed publisher, 2000, pp 1-60. [ Google Scholar]

12. Connolly BH: Examination and evaluation: Tests and administration. In: Therapeutic exercises in developmental disabilities, 3rd ed. SLACK Incorporated, 2005, pp 21-79. [ Google Scholar]

20. Nonis KP, Jernice TS: The gross motor skills of children with mild learning disabilities. Int J Spec Educ, 2014, 29: 92-97. [ Google Scholar]

36. Tsapakidou A, Stefanidou S, Tsompanaki E: Locomotor development of children aged 3.5 to 5 years in nursery schools in Greece. Rev Eur Stud, 2014, 6: 1-6. [ Google Scholar]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gross motor skill development of 5-year-old Kindergarten children in Myanmar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the gross motor skill development of 5-year-old Kindergarten children in Myanmar. [Subjects and Methods] Total 472 healthy Kindergarten children (237 males, 235 females) of 2016-2017 academic year from four schools in urban area and four schools in rural area of Myanmar were recruited.

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Padlet Review and Potential References for Literature Review

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What is the Robertson's developmental steps?

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Development of Overarm Throwing Technique Reflects Throwing Ability during Childhood

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Development of Overarm Throwing Technique Reflects Throwing Ability during Childhood

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Abstract

Background: It is important to acquire fundamental movement skills during childhood. Throwing is a representative manipulative skill required for various intrinsic factors. However, the relationship between intrinsic factors and throwing ability in childhood is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate intrinsic factors related to the ball throwing distance of Japanese elementary school children. Methods: Japanese elementary school children from grades 1-6 (aged 6-12 years; n=112) participated in this study. The main outcome was throwing ability, which was measured as the ball throwing distance. We measured five general anthropometric parameters, seven physical fitness parameters, and the Roberton's developmental sequence for all subjects. The relationships between the throwing ability and the 13 parameters were analysed. Results: The Roberton's developmental sequence was the best predictor of ball throwing distance (r=0.80, p≤0.01). The best multiple regression model, which included sex, handgrip strength, shuttle run test, and the Roberton's developmental sequence, accounted for 81% of the total variance. Conclusions: The development of correct throwing technique reflects throwing abilities in childhood. In addition to the throwing sequence, enhancement of grip strength and aerobic capacity are also required for children's throwing ability.

Keywords: Fundamental movement skill, Developmental kinesiology, Physical fitness

F undamental movement skills help children control their bodies, manipulate their environment, and form complex skills and movement patterns for sports and other recreational activities . Fundamental movement skills are classified into three motor skill groups, namely locomotors, stability, and manipulative skills . These skills typically emerge between ages 2 to 8 or 9 years, which is a landmarked period of motor development . Characteristics of early overarm throwing, especially those of children under 3 years, tend to be restricted to arm action alone . The children do not step into the throw or use much trunk action. Advanced thrower carried out the movement of the body segments sequentially, progressively adding the contribution of each part to the force of the throw. Researchers have revealed that many children demonstrate mature patterns of motor skill development by the age of 10 years .

An important part of a comprehensive physical education program is instruction about fundamental movement skills. Evaluating individual factors that constitute movement is necessary for proper teaching. Physical therapists and physical education teachers attempt to develop optimal training programs for throwing children to enjoy the play, improve performance, and facilitate motor skill through instruction and rehabilitation . Throwing is considered as one of the most important manipulative skills. For example, advanced forms of the overhand throw include a baseball pitch, cricket pitch, javelin throw, tennis serve, and volleyball spike. The presence of a full or partial overhand throw can be detected in sport-specific movement skill patterns.

Throwing attributes required for high-level activities include muscular strength, power, endurance, flexibility, balance, agility and proper developmental movement patterns. Depending on the type of throw, the achievement of adequate ball throwing distance is necessary to properly execute a throw, while accuracy is always a demand. Anthropometric and demographic characteristics should be considered for predicting ball throwing ability. Significant positive correlations have been shown between ball throwing ability and demographic characteristics parameters in previous studies ⁻. Although demographic characteristics parameters seem to be related to ball throwing ability in previous studies, these studies had a low predictability level due to the inclusion of matured adult subjects. Muscle strength is considered an important parameter for successful objective movements performed with maximum effort . Therefore, strength and power tests are related to ball throwing ability. Total body movement during throwing requires various physical fitness parameters. It has been determined that total body conditions, such as flexibility and endurance, may also be associated with ball throwing ,. Appropriate technique also affects ball throwing in childhood. Children with immature musculoskeletal systems compensate for muscle strength by learning a combination of various movements. Briefly, children improve movement quality by increasing coordination of body parts and neuromuscular function rather than muscle strength. In a previous research study, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the changing relationship between qualitative movement descriptions of the overarm throw and throwing outcome . It is necessary to investigate correct developmental movement when determining the factors affecting ball throwing ability.

According to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been conducted using combined predictive models of anthropometric and demographic characteristics, physical fitness, and developmental parameters. A few previous researchers have investigated the influence of anthropometric characteristics and physical fitness parameters on ball throwing ability ⁻. These authors confirmed that physical fitness had a greater influence on ball throwing ability than anthropometric characteristics parameters, especially when considering muscle strength and power. These previous studies of adults with mature throwing motion have been done, but research about throwing abilities in children during the growth period is currently limited. We hypothesize that the significant contribution of developmental factors than physical fitness parameter in the childhood, it is expected that musculoskeletal effect is greater when it comes to adolescence.The purpose of this study was to examine intrinsic factors related to the ball throwing distance in Japanese elementary school children.

Methods

Participants and methods

Japanese elementary school children in grades 1-6 (n=112; 57 boys and 55 girls; aged 6-12 years) participated in this study. Children who did not have a history of a musculoskeletal disorder in the upper and lower extremities during the last 3 months prior to starting the study. Descriptive statistics of subject characteristics were shown in Table . Children and their parents were informed about this study and written consent from each child's parents was obtained. The study conformed to the declaration of Helsinki, and was approved by the Health Science University Ethics Committee.

Table 1.

The main outcome of this study was throwing ability, which was measured as the ball throwing distance. The ball throwing distance was defined as the distance a softball was thrown. Participants were asked to throw the softball using their dominant hand without moving their feet outside of a circle with a diameter of 2 m. The softball weighted 0.14 kg and had a perimeter of 0.27 m. The throwing distance was measured from the point where the ball lands to circular, and the distance was recorded from the edge of the circle to the landing point of the ball. The test was repeated twice and the measurement for the best throw was recorded.

We also measured anthropometric and demographic characteristics parameters, physical fitness parameters, and the Roberton's developmental sequence in participants. Anthropometric and demographic characteristics parameters included body height and weight measurements, which were measured with a stadiometer and a digital scale, respectively. Participants were dressed in lightweight clothing and were not wearing shoes at the time of body weight and height measurements. The body mass index was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.

The principal goal of the physical fitness test was to evaluate overall body function, including muscle strength, power, speed, balance, flexibility, aerobic capacity, and body coordination. Handgrip strength was measured with an adjustable handgrip dynamometer (TK005; Takei Scientific Instruments, Tokyo, Japan). Handgrip strength was measured twice in the dominant hand. Participants were instructed to squeeze the handgrip as hard as possible with an outstretched arm. The best result for the dominant hand was used in the analysis.

The side-step test is an accepted measurement of agility, which is an aspect of coordination. The participants were asked to stand on a centre line facing the same direction (line interval=1 m). When the command "start" was given, they side-stepped (not a jump) to touch or crossover the line on the right, returned to the centre line, and then side-stepped to touch or cross the line on the left. This motion was repeated for 20 seconds and 1 point was provided for touching or crossing each line. This side-step test was conducted twice, and the best score was recorded.

The sit-up test was conducted to evaluate the strength of the trunk. The participants were asked to lie on their backs, with their hips and knees flexed and their arms crossed over their chests, and do as many sit-ups as possible during a period of 30 seconds. Only complete sit-ups (i.e., sit-ups where the forearms touched the thighs of the participants) were counted.

Flexibility of the back and lower extremity was determined with a sit-and-reach test. Participants were asked to sit on the floor with straightened legs and their feet against a Wells-type sit-and-reach box, and then reach forward with their arms as far as possible along a measuring tape placed across the box. The better of the two attempts (farthest distance reached) was included in the analysis.

The shuttle run test was used to measure aerobic capacity. During the test, participants continuously ran between two lines (20 m apart) to recorded beeps on a compact disc, and turned when signalled by the recorded beeps. During each minute, a beep sound indicated an increase in speed during which the beeps occurred closer together. If a participant did not reach the line in time for each beep, they had to run to the line, turn, and try to accelerate the pace within the next two beeps. The test was stopped when the child failed to reach the line (within 2 meters) for two consecutive ends. The number of the last line passed by the child when the test ended was recorded.

The 50 m sprint was used to measure speed. Participants were instructed to run in a straight line with the highest speed possible. The test was performed once and recorded to the nearest 0.1 s (HS-3C-8AJH stopwatch; CASIO, Tokyo, Japan).

The standing long jump was used to measure muscular power. A non-slip gymnasium floor with a clearly marked line for take-off was used. The distance of the participant's jump, from the take-off line to the nearest point of contact (back of the heels) during landing was measured using a tape measure. The standing long jump was performed twice, and the best recorded distance was used for analysis.

Throwing technique development was evaluated for the overarm throw using the Roberton's developmental sequence ⁻. The model component analysis, presented by Roberton and Halverson, involves the following five components for overarm throw: arm preparation backswing (four developmental steps), humerus action (three developmental steps), forearm action (three developmental steps), trunk action (three developmental steps), and foot action (four developmental steps). The steps for different body actions, which have been divided into segmental movement components, are shown in Table . The Roberton's developmental sequence score was obtained by summing the steps of each component and an accumulative score was used for data analysis. Two obserever were physical therapist and physical educator. The evaluation of developmental sequence score was carried out by two observers that showed a satisfactory inter-obserever agreement. They have 90% of agreement in scoring. The minimum and maximum total developmental sequence scores were 5 and 17 points, respectively. A sagittal view of the throwing sequence was obtained from a digital video recorder located 3 m away from the participant using a hi-speed digital camera (Gopro Hero3 black edition, Gopro Inc., California, USA). The digital video recorder equipped with the camera (resolution of 720 p) was used to record movement in a large, open field at 120 fps.

Table 2.

Statistical analyses

Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship among the 13 independent variables. The 13 independent variables were: 1) five anthropometric and demographic characteristics parameters (i.e., grade, sex, body weight, body height, and body mass index); 2) seven physical fitness parameters (i.e., maximal isometric handgrip strength, side-step test, sit-up test, sit-and-reach test, shuttle run test, 50 m sprint, and standing long jump); and 3) the Roberton's developmental sequence. The dependent variable was the ball throwing distance. A multiple-regression analysis was carried out using a forward stepwise procedure with significance accepted at the p<0.05 level. These analyses determine the effect of anthropometric and demographic characteristics parameter, physical fitness parameter, and developmental parameters on the ball throwing distance. All analyses were performed with SPSS Advanced Models 16.0 for Windows (SPSS Japan, Inc., Tokyo, Japan).

Results

The mean values of all parameters and the correlations between the ball throwing distance and parameters are summarized in Table , , respectively. The mean ball throwing distance was 14.1±8.2 m. Three of anthropometric and demographic characteristics parameters (grade, body height, and body weight) were correlated with the ball throwing distance (p<0.01). The r-values ranged from 0.57 (body weight) to 0.73 (grade). The physical fitness parameters, except for the sit-and-reach test, were also correlated with the ball throwing distance. Among all parameters, the Roberton's developmental sequence was the most highly correlated with the ball throwing distance (r=0.80, p<0.01).

Table 3.

Table 4.

We tested all the models that included parameters. The results from the best models are showed in Table and classified into four categories: (1) anthropometric and demographic characteristics model, (2) physical fitness model, (3) developmental sequence model, and (4) all combined models. All models were significantly correlated with the ball throwing distance. Firstly, the anthropometric and demographic characteristics model, which included two demographic characteristics variables (grade and sex), accounted for 65% of the total variance. Secondly, the physical fitness model, which included handgrip strength and the shuttle run test, accounted for 74% of the total variance. Thirdly, the Roberton's developmental sequence model accounted for 64% of the total variance. Lastly, the anthropometric and demographic characteristics, physical fitness, and the Roberton's developmental sequence models were combined, and the most predictive parameters with correlation coefficients were retained (p<0.01). The combined best model included sex, handgrip strength, shuttle run test, and the Roberton's developmental sequence, accounted for 81% of the total variance.

Table 5.

Discussion

In this study, we investigated the effect of anthropometric and demographic characteristics, physical fitness, and developmental parameters on the ball throwing distance. Anthropometric and demographic characteristics parameters (i.e., grade, body height, and body weight) were correlated with the ball throwing distance. This positive correlation between body height and ball velocity was in accordance with previous studies involving male and female athletes . Reasonably, an overall longer limb has a positive effect on ball release velocity. Mechanically, increased rotation of the forearm should cause a proportional increase in the force applied to the ball, and consequently increase the ball throwing distance. Other investigators have revealed that weight and especially height have a strong association with muscle strength in children . Therefore, the ball throwing distance is increased with progressions in muscle strength and joint movement during growth. Anthropometrical development (i.e., measurements in age, height, weight, and fat-free body mass) markedly influences motor performance, including throwing ability, and accounts for 46-65% of the variation among motor performance measures . In the present study, 65% of the variation can be described by the anthropometric parameter, and anthropometric development strongly affects the throwing distance.

The physical fitness model showed a higher rate of the variation than the anthropometric and demographic characteristics model. In particular, the handgrip strength and shuttle run test were strongly associated with the ball throwing distance. The association between grip strength and throwing can be explained by evolution. According to a report about the relationship between human evolution and throwing motion, progressive thumb opposition and grip movement have led to throwing improvements . A significant correlation between grip strength and throwing ability was also observed for other throwing activities, such as handball and water polo . To increase the throwing distance, it is also necessary to release the ball at an appropriate timing. Some insights into the central signals that control the fingers involved in throwing can be found in a previous study about handgrip strength during throwing. Handgrip strength provides two essential functions during throwing . Firstly, the handgrip strength prevents the ball from flying out of the hand. Secondly, as the ball is released and rolls along the fingers, handgrip strength prevents back forces from the ball from producing excessive finger extension. Therefore, a fast throw has to be controlled by grip strength.

In this study, we revealed that the throwing distance was correlated with aerobic capacity.

Additionally it showed a high contribution in the best model for prediction of throwing ability. Okely, et al. reported a relationship between aerobic capacity and fundamental movement skills (locomotors and manipulative) among adolescents. In another study, it was reported that fundamental movement skills were related to aerobic capacity, which was indirectly measured using the Multi-Stage Fitness Test . Manipulative skills in childhood were associated with adolescent cardiorespiratory fitness, accounting for 26% of fitness variation. Children with good manipulative skills (i.e., throwing, kicking, and catching) are more likely to become physically fit adolescents. Manipulative skills are often associated with moderate and/or vigorous intensity physical activities. Children who are proficient at performing these manipulative skills may participate in more activities that will likely increase their fitness levels.

The Roberton's developmental sequence is an obvious factor for predicting the throwing ability in childhood. Using a multiple regression analysis, the predictability level increased from 64% with one factor (i.e., the Roberton's developmental sequence) to 81% with a four-variable combined model (i.e., sex, handgrip strength, shuttle run test, and the Roberton's developmental sequence). Roberton and Konczak used multiple regression analysis to investigate the changing relationship between qualitative movement descriptions of the overarm throw and horizontal ball velocity. The qualitative movement was assessed using the Roberton's developmental sequence, which accounted for 69-85% (adjusted) of the total velocity variance. The components of the development sequences that best predicted ball velocity changed with time. In this study, we also determined that the Roberton's developmental sequence accounted for 64% of the total variance in the ball throwing distance. The development of appropriate overarm throwing technique becomes a factor for increasing the ball throwing distance. The developmental sequence was positively correlated with kinematic variables. Some children, mostly boys, completed the full developmental sequence at an early age (9-10 years). Children should be encouraged to complete their throwing form development by 10 years of age. Childhood is an immature skeleton and muscle strength, it is necessary to increase the throwing ability by the coordination of variety movement components.

Sex differences was also one of the factors involved in the ball throwing distance. Sakurai, et al compared sex differences in the throwing ability of children in three countries (Australia, Japan, and Thailand). They reported that the throwing ability in girls was lower than boys at all ages and in all countries. The recorded ball throwing distances in girls were 51-67% of that in boys. The throwing skills were also lower in girls compared to boys in all three countries. Butterfield et al , indicated that boys demonstrated a higher competence in mature throwing patterns compared to girls, and significant sex differences favouring the boys were found. The pre-existing male advantage is accentuated during puberty when numerous body changes occur. The importance in societal factors in creating sex differences has often been proposed. Sex differences might be due to how the society treats boys and girls, which can be influenced by parents, teachers and coaches, rearing factors, cultural expectations, experiential differences, motivations, encouragements, and opportunities for skill development.

Throwing ability of children continue to grow phylogenetically, 64% of the throwing ability can be explained by grade and sex. However, the best model was revealed that developmental sequence, the aerobic capacity, and the grip strength were also important.The role of physical therapist is to help children develop the competencies and beliefs necessary for incorporating regular physical activity into their lives. Children can achieve physical and personal benefits by participating in a well-taught rehabilitation program. Children need increase of the physical activity that improve the grip strength and the stamina as well as the development of their throwing technique.

Conclusion

Researchers have previously determined that throwing ability is influenced by anthropometrical, physical, and developmental factors. In this study, we clarified the intrinsic factors that affect the throwing ability in children.

Our findings provide new insights into the importance of correct developmental parameters in throwing ability. In addition, we determined that improving the throwing sequence and enhancing the grip strength and aerobic capacity are important for improving the overall throwing ability in Japanese children. Future directions of this study include research to identify ways in which children can develop correct throwing sequences through rehabilitation and physical education. Furthermore, the effects of extrinsic factors (e.g., environmental, social, and economic conditions) on the development of throwing ability should also be examined in future studies. Educating throwing techniques is difficult because of complex individual variation. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the most suitable time and effective instruction for the development of throwing ability. Finally, a relationship between developmental change and throwing ability should be evaluated by conducting a longitudinal study.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP16K16569 and Research Grant of Health Science University.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Development of Overarm Throwing Technique Reflects Throwing Ability during Childhood

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Background: It is important to acquire fundamental movement skills during childhood. Throwing is a representative manipulative skill required for various intrinsic factors. However, the relationship between intrinsic factors and throwing ability in childhood is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate intrinsic factors related to the ball throwing distance of Japanese elementary school children.