title: Fundamental movement skills and habitual physical activity in young children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test for relationships between objectively measured habitual physical activity and fundamental movement skills in a relatively large and representative sample of preschool children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Physical activity was measured over 6 d using the Computer Science and Applications (CSA) accelerometer in 394 boys and girls (mean age 4.2, SD 0.5 yr). Children were scored on 15 fundamental movement skills, based on the Movement Assessment Battery, by a single observer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total physical activity (r=0.10, P<0.05) and percent time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (r=0.18, P<0.001) were significantly correlated with total movement skills score. Time spent in light-intensity physical activity was not significantly correlated with motor skills score (r=0.02, P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this sample and setting, fundamental movement skills were significantly associated with habitual physical activity, but the association between the two variables was weak. The present study questions whether the widely assumed relationships between motor skills and habitual physical activity actually exist in young children.
authors.affiliation: University of Glasgow Division of Developmental Medicine, Yorkhill Hospitals, Glasgow, SCOTLAND.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Reilly
authors.forename: Louise A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Colette
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: Avril
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Williamson
authors.forename: James Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Paton
authors.forename: Stan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grant
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric