The norm of fundamental movement skills for children aged three to seven

Abstract

Childhood was the key period for the development of fundamental movement skills, the acquisition of which had a definite bearing on a child’s overall development, including such areas as cognition, interpersonal relationships, social behavior, and environmental awareness. The main purpose of this study was on the development of the norm of fundamental movement skills for children aged three to seven. In the method, we measured the development of such skills amongst 1,029 children in Taiwan aged 3–7 using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2). The results indicated that the fundamental movement skills increase with age. With a percentile rank of 50 in the overall fundamental movement skills, the mean score of the eight age groups, boys performed better than girls in the seven age groups. In conclusion, compared to the United States, Taiwanese five through seven-year-olds lag far behind their American counterparts in locomotor and object control skills, and this situation needed to be addressed by education authorities in Taiwan. Based on the findings of this study, for preschool teachers, most are women with little or no training in FMS education. The curriculum of preschool teachers’ training at the universities should incorporate FMS into the PE course, and it is important to ensure that each pre-service preschool teacher has the ability to design a series of 30-60 minutes of dynamic, age-appropriate and fun vigorous exercise.