Testing motor skills and physical fitness among children two sides of the same coin? Bjørn Tore Johansen & Tommy Haugen University of Agder, Norway
INTRODUCTION It s hard to imagine what life would be like if you couldn t move. The importance of measuring human motor control in particular among children is therefore common accepted. It also seems to be an agreement that regular physical activity (PA) is important even for children. There is, however, less consentaneous about the interaction between PA, physical fitness (PF), and motor skills, and especially when it comes to measuring these variables. Furthermore, research has indicated that extended physical activity and extra motor training in children are of great importance to people with small and major deficits in motor skills, but also to people with small and major deficits in attention when it comes to their development in motor skills (Ericsson, 2003). AIM The purpose of this study was to examine the association between motor skill competence and health-related physical fitness. We examined the correlation between the KTK (Körperkoordinations Test für Kinder) test (Schilling, 1974) and Physical Fitness Test (PFT) (Fjørtoft et al., 2003) for children based on the European Test of Physical Fitness (EUROFIT) (Adam et al., 1998).
METHOD Participants and procedure The participants (N = 45, 30 girls and 15 boys) were recruited from Presteheia primary school. The age (in month) of the participants ranged from 77 ( + /- 3.63) for girls and 75.2 ( + /- 4.49) for boys when the study started. They were tested twice during the first and second grade on the KTK test and on the PFT test in between these to tests. The PFT test consisted of 9 different subtests of motor actions like running, jumping, throwing, and climbing. Statistics The total score for both KTK tests was converted into a basic standard Z score (KTK-index). The Z scale converts raw score to units of standard deviation in which the mean is zero and the standard deviation 1.0 (Thomas et al., 2005). Each subtests of the PFT test were also converted to Z scores. The total PFT Z score (PFT-index) was conducted by calculating the mean of the 9 different subtests. A bivariate correlation test (Spearmans rho) was conducted between KTK test 1 and the PFT test for girls and for boys, and between KTK test 2 and the PFT test.
RESULTS TABLE 1. Test results from the Presteheia-project cronologically. KTK tests presented as total MQ, PFT battery test presented as mean score for each subtest. N = number of participants, Min = lowest observered score, Max = highest observered score, M = mean score, SD = standard deviation. Girls Boys Tests N Min Max M SD N Min Max M SD KTK 1(Total MQ) 32 53 112 88,5 12,81 17 68 108 92,35 10,52 PFT subtests: 1. Standing-broad Jump (in meters) 2. Repeat. Long Jump (7m) 33 31 0,4 2,92 1,5 5,58 1,17 4,13 0,229 0,651 16 15 0,9 3,15 1,53 5,27 1,17 4,24 0,176 0,56 (in seconds) 3. Hopping (7m) 32 2,95 5,27 3,67 0,599 16 2,52 4,43 3,55 0,589 (in seconds) 4. Overhand Throw 33 2,7 10,96 6,56 1,733 16 5,9 19,2 11,28 3,707 Tennisball (in seconds) 5. Shoving medicine ball 33 1,6 3,37 2,47 0,43 16 2,2 4,1 3,15 0,595 (in meters) 6. Climbing in wall bars 33 8,85 21,7 13,73 2,838 16 8,08 21,3 12,11 3,615 (in seconds) 7. Speed Shuttle Run 33 23,16 32,2 27,6 2,259 16 21,29 33,2 26,72 3,06 10x5m (in seconds) 8. Speed Run 20m 33 4,25 6,83 5,19 0,567 16 4,26 5,33 4,89 0,316 (in seconds) 9. Endurance Circle Run 33 415 1110 792 150,9 16 513 1012 804,6 155,14 6 min (in meters) KTK 2 (Total MQ) 34 70 116 96,4 12,34 19 80 117 97,2 10,40
TABLE 2. Correlation between KTK tests and PFT test among girls and boys. The table shows the coefficient of correlation (Spearmans rho) (r) and the level of significance (p). In addition, the coefficient of determination is presented ( r 2 x 100). Girls Boys Variables N Correlation Spearman s Significance (two-tailed) N Correlation Spearman s rho Significance (two-tailed) rho KTK 1 vs PFT-index 29 0,473** 0,000 15 0,774** 0,001 Coefficient of 22 % 60 % determination KTK 2 vs PFT-index 30 0,597** 0,002 15 0,588* 0,021 Coefficient of determination 36 % 34,5 % *Significant correlation at p < 0,05 **Significant correlation at p < 0,01 A bivariate correlation test (Spearmans rho) identified significantly correlation between KTK test 1 versus the PFT test for girls (r=0.47, p <.01) and for boys (r=0.77, p<.01). A significant correlation was also identified between KTK test 2 versus the PFT test for girls (r=0.60, p<.01) and for boys (r=0.59, p<.05). Subsequently, there were no gender differences.
CONCLUSIONS As shown in table 2, we identified significant correlations between the measurements of motor skills (KTK-tests) and the Physical Fitness - index (PFT-test). However, the correlation of determination ranged from 22% (KTK1 vs PFT in girls) to 60% (KTK1 vs PFT in boys). We can conclude that motor skills and physical fitness among children are closely related, though hardly concurrent. It is hard to provide true measures of physical fitness and motor skills, especially in children, given the complexity of this specific area. One concern when testing physical fitness and motor skills in children is the reliability and validity of the test items for this group. These issues certainly warrant further investigation. At present, physical fitness must be considered to be a multi-faced dimension with separate components of strength, flexibility, balance, speed, coordination and endurance. Motor skills can be seen as action and coordination of one's limbs, as well as the development of strength, posture control, balance, and perceptual skills. Different physical fitness and motor skills are in general not sufficiently correlated in children, and we have to keep that in mind regardless methods and measurements used.
There are a number of problems in researching human motor skills and physical fitness. There are even more problems when researching these concepts in children. Nevertheless, we find it important for researchers to strive for a better understanding in these areas, both in an individual and a social perspective.
REFERENCES Adam, C., Klissouras, V., Ravazzolo, M., Renson, R., & Tuxworth, W. (1998) EUROFIT: European Test of Physical Fitness: Handbook. Rome: Council of Europe, Committee for the Development of Sport. Ericsson, I. (2003) Motor control, attention, and school performance an intervention from 1. 3. grade. [Motorik, koncentrationsförmåga och skolprestationer, en interventionsstudie i skolår 1-3.] (Doctoral Thesis). Malmö: Lärarutbildningen, Malmö högskola. Schilling, F. (1974) Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder KTK. Testmanual. Weinheim. Thomas, J. R., Nelson, J. K., & Silverman, S. J. (2005) Research methods in physical activity (5 th Ed.). Human Kinetics. Fjørtoft, I., Pedersen, A. V., Sigmundsson, H., & Vereijken, B. (2003) Test manual: Physical fitness test for children [Utvikling og utprøving av målemetoder for fysisk form hos barn 4-12 år]. Report IS 1256, The Norwegian Directorate of Health and Social Services.