Balance and Motor Skills among Preschool Children Aged 3 to 4 Years Old

ABSTRACT

Balance and motor skills are essential prerequisites for physical development of a child. The aims of this study were to measure anthropometrics, postural balance and motor skills; and examine their correlation among healthy preschool children. Forty nine healthy preschool children aged between 3 to 4 years old participated from PERMATA preschool organization. Pediatric Balance Scale and Peabody Development Motor Scale-2nd Edition (PDMS-2) were administered to measure balance skills for both fine and gross motor skills respectively. Mann-Whitney U test demonstrated that there was no significant difference in balance (p=0.72) and motor skill (p=0.33) between boys and girls. Spearman correlation coefficient demonstrated that there was significant correlation between balance skills with height (r=0.45, p=0.001) and body mass index(r=0.47, p=0.001). No significant correlation was found between balance skills and motor skills (r=0.11, p=0.44). The present study suggests that balance skills in healthy preschool children aged 3-4 years old are correlated with their physical growth such as height and weight but not motor skills.