The Predictive Role of Age, Gender, and Body Mass Index on Motor Proficiency of Preschool Children

El papel predictivo de la edad, el género y el índice de masa corporal en la competencia motora de los niños en edad preescolar

Abstract

It is expected that basic motor skills will be able to perform correctly at the end of the preschool period. The basic motor skills that children masterfully perform will lead them to an active life & will increase their likelihood of participating in physical activity in their lifetime. It is known that motor skills are influenced by many factors such as age, gender, and BMI. The purposes of this study were to determine the motor proficiency level of preschool children and to examine the role of age, gender, and BMI. Participants of this study were 103 preschool children (MAge=61.10±8.75month) from a public preschool of Denizli in Turkey. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) was used to assess children's motor proficiency (Bruininks and Bruininks, 2005). A multiple linear regression was conducted to test whether the participant's age, gender, and BMI predicted the participant's motor proficiency levels. The results of the study show that all the sub-tests and BOT-2 total scores have significant increases with age. In addition, the results indicated that girls have significantly higher scores than boys on the fine-motor precision, the fine-motor integration, manual dexterity, and BOT-total scores. When the sub-tests, that which girls had a higher score, were examined, it can be realized that all are related to fine motor skills. Future studies are needed to determine whether these explanations are to generalize.