The fundamental motor skill proficiency among Polish primary school-aged children: A nationally representative surveillance study.

OBJECTIVES: With the premise that physical education classes should promote physical activity by teaching and learning fundamental motor skills, this study aimed to evaluate the fundamental motor skill proficiency of primary school students and determine the level of achievement of established learning outcomes for fundamental motor skills, as specified in the Polish National Physical Education Curriculum. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used for this study. The sample consisted of 2605 children and adolescents enrolled in grades 1-3 (ages 7-9, n = 1165), 4-6 (ages 10-12, n = 837), and 7-8 (ages 13-14, n = 603), including 1353 boys and 1252 girls. The Fundamental Motor Skills in Sport test, a qualitative and process-oriented assessment tool, was used to evaluate fundamental motor skills. The Fundamental Motor Skills in Sport test evaluates the following movement skills: hurdles, jumping rope, forward roll, ball bouncing, ball throwing and catching, and kicking and stopping a ball. RESULTS: The desired level of overall fundamental motor skill proficiency was achieved by only 2 % of students. An elementary level of fundamental motor skill proficiency was demonstrated by an additional 3.5 % of students. Further, the results showed that only 10-30 % of students had achieved mastery or were close to achieving mastery in a given fundamental motor skill. The skill with the lowest level of proficiency was jumping rope, which only 11 % of students had mastered or were near to mastering. CONCLUSIONS: The present study of a large, nationally representative sample of primary school students in Poland indicates that the vast majority (approximately 94 %) of them demonstrated insufficient fundamental motor skill proficiency. This may greatly hinder effective, safe, and healthy participation in lifelong physical activity.

The fus test: a promising tool for evaluating fundamental motor skills in children and adolescents.

Fundamental motor skills (FMS) are essential for enjoyable, confident and skillful participation in physical activity across the lifespan. Due to the alarming low level of FMS proficiency in children and adolescents worldwide, the development of motor competency is an urgent issue for physical education. The promotion and implementation of a systematic process of teaching and learning FMS should be a physical education priority. Accordingly, effective assessment tools for evaluating FMS should be adopted or developed. Because FMS assessment for both children and adolescents need further effective solutions, the primary aim of this study was to develop the new age-related test of FMS (Fundamental Motor Skills in Sport test, in Polish: Test Fundamentalnych Umiejetnosci Ruchowych w Sporcie, FUS). The secondary aim of this study was to establish validity and inter-rater, intra-rater, test-retest reliabilities and internal consistency of the FUS test. The FUS test involves six sport skill-based tasks: hurdling, jumping rope, forward roll, ball bouncing, throwing and catching a ball, and kicking and stopping a ball. Two hundred sixty-four Polish students in grades 1-3 (7-9 yrs; n = 81), 4-6 (10-12 yrs; n = 89) and 7-8 (13-14 yrs; n = 94), including 139 girls and 125 boys completed the FUS test. The content validity index for all items was notably high. Both inter-rater and intra-rater reliability showed substantial to almost perfect agreement, with observed agreements for FUS skills between 78.5 and 93.1%. Ball bouncing had a moderate correlation with the forward roll and throwing and catching, while other correlations were low or insignificant. ICC values, ranging from 0.95 to 0.97, confirmed excellent test-retest reliability. The results of our study provide evidence that the FUS test is valid, reliable, and feasible to administer in school settings. Therefore, this tool test has the potential to support deliberate practice and improve motor competence by providing a standardized and structured approach to measuring FMS among school-aged children and adolescents.