Fundamental movement skills and habitual physical activity in young children.
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.
Fisher
Abigail
A
University of Glasgow Division of Developmental Medicine, Yorkhill Hospitals, Glasgow, SCOTLAND.
Reilly
John J
JJ
Kelly
Louise A
LA
Montgomery
Colette
C
Williamson
Avril
A
Paton
James Y
JY
Grant
Stan
S
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