Physical activity during school-time and fundamental movement skills: a study among preschoolers with and without physical education classes

ABSTRACT

Purpose:

To analyze associations between physical activity (PA) during school hours and fundamental movement skills (FMS) of young children with and without PE classes.

Methods:

This cross-sectional study examined 201 children of both sexes (102 girls, 50.7%), aged 3–5 years old (4.51 ± 0.79), who were engaged (n = 129) or not (n = 72) in physical education (PE) classes weekly. Light (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were assessed by accelerometer during school hours over five consecutive days, and FMS was assessed using the TGMD-2. To verify the association between PA (LPA and MVPA) and FMS (locomotor and object control scores) in both PE and NPE groups, multiple linear regression analysis was used.

Results:

MVPA during school hours was significantly associated with object control performance in the PE group (β = 0.14 p = .025). A model with LPA and MVPA explained 4% of the object control performance variability.

Conclusion:

The positive association observed between MVPA and object control skills on those preschoolers involved in PE classes highlight that opportunities in structured PE classes should be used as a central strategy to promote motor development in preschool settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical activity
• motor skills
• motor development
• preschool setting
• physical education
• preschoolers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).