Characteristics of the Physical Literacy of Preschool Children

Abstract

Recent research in the area of physical literacy has revealed that the early years are a period that has not been well studied. Our research team designed a deductive review with the aim of investigating how preschool children’s physical literacy manifests across affective, physical, cognitive and social domains. The review includes scientific publications from the last four years, which investigate the elements of physical literacy in preschool children: motivation, confidence, motor competence, knowledge, understanding and use of physical activity. The characteristics of the elements were systematised into four domains, affective, physical, cognitive and social, as engagement in physical activities. Results. The majority of the articles explained physical literacy behaviours in 4- to 5-year-old children. The physical domain was most frequently described, mainly including the three basic motor skills of postural stability, object control, and locomotion, as well as physical qualities of movement. The second most frequently described domain was the social domain of the application of physical activities in preschool stages, including the types and amounts of physical activity used in both organised and leisure time. Conclusions. Physical literacy of preschool children is a purposefully organised and guided process, during which a child is given the opportunity to try and apply age-appropriate movement skills, without being limited by the child’s gender, parental attitudes, sporting choices, or the traditions of sport culture.

1. Introduction

In recent years, physical literacy has gained much attention as a concept that could potentially ensure the participation of all individuals in physical activity at different ages. The main idea of physical literacy was to shape people’s attitudes towards physical activity as an integral part of their lives (Whitehead, 2010; Durden-Myers, 2024). Recent research in the area of physical literacy has revealed unfilled areas or ‘blank spots’ in some age groups. Early childhood is one of these unexplored phases (Carl et al., 2023; Durden-Myers, 2024). When Margaret Whitehead published her work ‘Physical Literacy through Lifecours15 years ago, one of the reasons was to develop a concept in which physical education takes into account the importance of the early years in the development of an individual’s physical literacy (Whitehead, 2010). On the other hand, as regards the development of physical literacy, the preschool years are most often referred to as a critical stage in the development of lifelong physical activity patterns or behaviours (Caldwell et al., 2022). Children under five years of age undergo substantial growth and development, during which they begin to develop attitudes, knowledge, skills, and habits that can influence long-term participation in physical activity (Santos et al., 2022; Barratt et al., 2024). The early years are not sufficiently explored in the field of physical literacy, even though this was one of the key ideas of the original concept. Thus, a significant area of investigation is the age at which children begin to develop a path of physical literacy.

If it is assumed that physical literacy consists of the application of physical activity in a child’s daily life, then research is lacking in explaining how physical literacy manifests itself in a child’s behaviour. Research in physical literacy has focused little on the characteristics of a physically literate person. Originally, Professor Margaret Whitehead defined and described the behavioural manifestations of a physically literate person using six attributes or elements of physical literacy—motivation, confidence, movement competence, knowledge, understanding and practical use of physical activities in the individual’s life (Whitehead, 2010). The behaviour of a physically illiterate person can be described as avoiding the use of exercise in daily life, for example, by limiting walking over short distances (Durden-Myers et al., 2022). It can be described as a lack of confidence in one’s physical abilities, manifested as an unwillingness to engage in active movement as a normal part of life (Durden-Myers et al., 2022). Inadequate physical literacy behaviour in early childhood often translates into sedentary lifestyles and spending more leisure time in front of screens than the World Health Organisation’s recommendations (Tremblay et al., 2017; Rhodes et al., 2020). It is possible that a lack of movement is caused by a lack of movement competence, which may manifest itself as immature movement skills and poor physical health (Tremblay et al., 2017; Durden-Myers et al., 2022). The early years are considered the “golden period” of motor development, when basic motor skills are reinforced through a natural interest in exploring the world and applied movement experiences. It is, therefore, appropriate to explore how physical literacy is manifested in the preschool years.

In order to find out the manifestations of physical literacy in the behaviour of a preschool child, it is necessary to identify the elements that characterise physical literacy at this age. Traditionally, basic motor skills have been recognised as a key criterion for assessing the domain of physical literacy in preschool (Logan et al., 2018). Approaches to how basic movement skills are identified differ. For example, contemporary theories of movement development assume that basic movement skills include three subcategories: postural stability, locomotion and object control (Gallahue et al., 2012; Rudd et al., 2015). Nevertheless, the most used test of basic movement skills (TGMD-2) by Ulrich, which is often used to assess physical literacy (Kretaine & Vecenane, 2024) in the preschool age group, has only two groups of movement skills—locomotion and object control (Wainwright et al., 2020; Britton et al., 2023). In the preschool years, physical literacy is sometimes identified with motor skills—strength, coordination, and agility (Iivonen & Sääkslahti, 2014). These are qualities that can be considered as the child’s capabilities, but they are linked to the ability to acquire motor skills (Rudd et al., 2015). It follows from the above that a child’s motor competence could be influenced by basic motor skills, which include locomotion, object control skills and postural stability, as well as motor abilities. Thus, it should be clarified what constitutes the content of movement competence in physical literacy in recent research.

Movement and physical activity are of great importance in the preschool years and cannot be separated from interaction with other areas of child development. The purpose of physical literacy is to revitalise and elevate our embodied being (Whitehead, 2010). Through physical activity, people can not only develop their physical literacy, but also enhance their connections between other domains of literacy that help them navigate, connect and understand themselves, others and the world around them (Durden-Myers, 2024). Preschool is considered an important stage in the development of different literacies. Given the child’s particular interest in movement practices, the basic movement skills learned at this stage become the beginning of a variety of specific movement skills that are applied throughout life (Gallahue et al., 2012; Salehi et al., 2017). There are studies that have investigated different elements of physical literacy at school age and their validity for assessing physical literacy (Cairney et al., 2019). Within one domain, some elements were found to be more important than others. In this case, perceived competence, motivation and engagement were shown to be significant indicators of physical literacy, while the domain of movement was of moderate importance (Cairney et al., 2019). By understanding the importance of the preschool years in physical skill, psycho-emotional and cognitive development, it becomes clear that ongoing developmental and behavioural manifestations form the foundations of physical activity behaviours for later ages (Santos et al., 2022; Caldwell et al., 2022). Therefore, it would be beneficial to investigate how emotional and cognitive aspects of physical literacy are described in the preschool years.

Social participation is an essential part of physical literacy for preschool children. Physical activity is a key opportunity for children to practice essential social skills, including sharing, taking turns, cooperation, and negotiation (Hashemi et al., 2012). Sport fosters values such as fairness and respect for others, which are crucial for social development (Hashemi et al., 2012). Therefore, in order to fully characterize preschool children, it is important to understand how and to what extent children engage in physical activity in different social settings. A variety of factors can also affect the physical literacy of preschool children. It is evident that physical development, motor skills, and interest in physical activity in preschool children are influenced by both age and gender. Physical development indicators, height and weight (Timmons et al., 2007), are important indicators of a child’s health, physical skills, and mobility as well. They are also significant for assessing the factors that influence physical literacy.

Exogenous factors refer to the environment in which the child lives, learns, and spends leisure time. Parental involvement and an environment that encourages movement are clearly identified as key factors (Rhodes et al., 2020). Preschool children spend a large part of their time in the preschool setting, so both the opportunities for physical activity and the quality of physical activity in the preschool curriculum are important contributors to a child’s physical literacy (Porter et al., 2023; Mak et al., 2021). It is essential to consider the accessibility and safety of the child’s home environment. Parental beliefs about the safety of the play environment directly influence the child’s outdoor activity time (Rhodes et al., 2020). Therefore, it is essential to consider both intrinsic and extrinsic factors when characterizing a preschool child’s physical literacy, as these factors have the potential to impact children’s physical literacy in both positive and negative ways.

The age of pre-primary education tends to vary from country to country. In this case, the preschool age group will include children from 2 to 7 years of age. This category is formed on the basis of Gallahue and Clark’s motor development theories on the development of basic motor skills from the initiation phase to the maturation phase (Gallahue et al., 2012; Salehi et al., 2017). This categorization can be applied to preschool age groups.

Physical literacy is a multidimensional concept that encompasses multiple domains of human life (Whitehead, 2010; Durden-Myers et al., 2022). A structured approach is necessary to characterize the physical literacy of the preschool child. As mentioned above, the elements included in the definition of physical literacy describe a physically literate individual and their behaviour using the six attributes or elements of physical literacy—motivation, confidence, movement competence, knowledge, understanding and practical use of physical activities in the individual’s life (Whitehead, 2010). In later years, these elements were expanded and systematised into four domains—affective, physical, cognitive and a combined affective–cognitive domain, which essentially describes participation in physical activity (Whitehead, 2019). The elements explain the behaviour of a physically literate person, which is applicable to individuals of any age. To understand the integrative and multi-layered scope of physical literacy, studies are systematised within the developmental domains covered. Systematizations have been conducted within three (Edwards et al., 2017) and four (Cairney et al., 2019; Barnett et al., 2022; Carl et al., 2023; Houser & Kriellaars, 2023; Whitehead, 2019) domains. The domain framework is often used to facilitate assessment approaches in the area of physical literacy (Barnett et al., 2022). An analysis of physical literacy concepts in research suggests that a four-domain framework is most commonly used. The main divisions used are emotional or affective, physical competence, cognitive or knowledge and understanding and social engagement in different situations and levels. Each domain is made up of several elements or components. For example, the Australian Framework of Physical Literacy (AFPL) has identified 32 components that characterise physical literacy. These have been systematised into four domains—the affective or emotional domain, the physical domain, the cognitive domain and the social domain (Keegan et al., 2019). Domain systematization is an effective approach for comprehensively addressing the emotional, physical, cognitive, and social domains of a child. Our deductive review will apply the AFPL domain framework to integrate the elements of physical literacy according to domain. Whitehead’s elements can be applied to explain the framework of each domain. Thus, combining the domain and element approaches allows for the construction of a structured matrix of preschool children’s physical literacy characteristics.

This study aims to deductively review the manifestations of physical literacy in preschool children and the factors impacting it across different age stages, systematizing these into four domains based on their elements.

Three research questions were identified:

1. Which is the most frequently described preschool age stage in the framework of physical literacy? 2. What are the manifestations of physical literacy of the preschool child within the four domains and their elements? 3. What are the factors influencing the elements of physical literacy of the preschool child?

2. Materials and Methods

The structure of the deductive review was guided by the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. The PCC (Participant, concept, context) principle was used to identify key elements in the study. The keywords and Boolean operators AND, OR were used in the search: (physical AND literacy) OR (physical AND literate) AND preschool OR (early AND age) OR (early AND childhood).

The review included scientific literature in English—publications, reviews, both quantitative and qualitative, and mixed-methods studies from 2021 to 2025—that explores the concept of physical literacy, its domain content or relevant elements in children aged 2–7 years according to the basic motor development stage boundaries of Gallahue et al. (2012). Studies were excluded if the full text of the publication was not available in English.

To identify potentially relevant papers, bibliographic databases were searched from July 2024 to January 2025 in the databases Scopus and Sport Discus. The authors included articles that identified the characteristics of preschool children’s physical literacy and the factors impacting it, as well as the four domains based on their elements. Two researchers assessed the eligibility of the papers by evaluating the titles and abstracts to determine their relevance to the search criteria. The full texts of approved articles were then assessed by the authors to determine their relevance to the literature review. The final search results (Appendix A) were exported to the reference organisation tool Mendeley in order to remove duplicate publications.

A further stage of publication appraisal was carried out by reviewing the content of the abstracts, collecting data on study type, participants, age range and study methodology.

Studies that did not identify domains and/or elements related to physical literacy and their age description according to one of the age groups—2–3 years, 4–5 years, and 6–7 years—were excluded. The selected literature was tabulated, including information on the target, target group, country, objectives, design, methods, measures and outcomes, as well as the main findings.

The analysis, discussion and conclusions of the findings were systematised in tables that included information about each age stage of the participants—initial stage (2–3 years), elementary stage (4–5 years), and mature stage (6–7 years) (Gallahue et al., 2012)—and the expression according to the characteristics of physical literacy in domain categories.

The thematic analysis matrix was constructed according to Braun and Clarke (2019), within four domains: affective, physical, cognitive and social. Subcategories were created using Whitehead’s (2019) characteristics of a physically literate person: the affective domain as motivation and confidence, the physical domain as basic or fundamental movement skills—locomotion, object control skills, postural stability skills and physical qualities of movement—the cognitive domain as knowledge and understanding, and the social domain as the application of physical activities.

In the subsequent analysis process, data were coded according to the specific activity or behaviour they belong to, aggregated according to their types and influencing factors. Influencing factors were divided into internal and external factors. The subsequent process of summarising the results described the types of physical literacy manifestations and influencing factors for each age group in a specific order, starting from the affective domain, physical domain, cognitive domain and social domain.

Three research questions were formulated for the study. The first research question identified the preschool age group that was most frequently described in the literature. The second research question addressed the characteristics of physical literacy in each age group, interpreting them in terms of manifestation and/or modality within each domain and its elements. The four domains contained the relevant elements: affective (motivation and confidence); physical (basic movement skills, locomotor skills, object control skills, postural stability skills, physical qualities of movement); cognitive (knowledge and understanding of application); and social participation (application of physical activities). The third research question aimed to identify the internal and external factors present in each age group. The following steps were designed to provide complete answers to the research questions.

3. Results

After the selection stage, 75 articles were screened, 13 of which were duplicates. Following a thorough screening process, 62 reports were identified as being relevant to our review. Following a thorough review of the literature, 22 papers were excluded from the review due to their irrelevance to physical literacy (n = 12), the age of the participants (n = 6), or their lack of reference to physical literacy domains or elements (n = 4). The next step involved searching for retrieval (n = 40), but unfortunately, 13 reports were not retrieved. In the final step of the assessment process, which focused on determining eligibility, one report was excluded because the physical literacy elements were not explained in an age-appropriate manner. Following a thorough review of the literature, 26 studies were included in the review (Figure A1). In examining scientific literature, the search process yielded 26 literature sources that contained information that explained the elements of physical literacy at different ages in the preschool years.

3.1. Elements of Physical Literacy and Their Manifestations in the Initial Preschool Stage

Within the domains of physical literacy manifestation in children of the initial preschool stage, the elements were summarised in

Table 1. Elements of physical literacy and their manifestations during the initial preschool stage.

Domains	Elements of Physical Literacy (Whitehead, 2019)	Manifestations in Behaviour	Summary: Modalities and Influencing Factors
Affective	Motivation	Mentioned, but not explained (Caldwell et al., 2022)	-
	Confidence	Mentioned, but not explained (Caldwell et al., 2022)	-
Physical	Basic movement skills	Basic fine and gross motor skills may depend on the child’s height (Rico-González et al., 2024)	Influencing factors: Height
	Locomotor skills	Running (Caldwell et al., 2022; Lindsay et al., 2022), Jumping, walking, climbing, hopping (unspecified), galloping, climbing up and down, skipping, dancing, hopping on one foot, marching, gliding (Lindsay et al., 2022)	Locomotor types: Running, Jumps: jumps on spot, jumps in different directions horizontally, jumps in different ways (styles), walking, moving up and down stairs, Dancing
	Object control skills	Throwing, pushing, catching the ball. Use of outdoor gaming equipment (Lindsay et al., 2022), Object control skills—upper and lower body parts (Caldwell et al., 2022)	Modalities of object control: Ball control skills: Throwing, pushing, catching, dribbling. Object control skills—upper and lower body parts
	Postural stability skills	Balancing skills in general, balancing on one leg, swinging, towing, carrying an object, pushing, standing and walking on tiptoes, balancing on unstable surfaces, turning (Lindsay et al., 2022), balance (Caldwell et al., 2022), dynamic balance (Latorre-Román et al., 2021)	Modalities of postural stability: Standing on one leg Dynamic balance Postural control and posture change Postural control when interacting with objects and/or moving
	Physical qualities of movement	Strength and endurance, spatial awareness, proprioception, understanding movement directions, understanding time and speed (Lindsay et al., 2022)	Modalities of physical qualities of movement: Strength, motion coordination, Speed of movement, agility, Spatial awareness of space, body
Cognitive	Knowledge	Mentioned, but not explained (Caldwell et al., 2022)	-
	Understanding	Movement creativity shows no change after organized dance classes in short-term programs (Thomaidou et al., 2021) Low-height and underweight children have significantly lower developmental rates in communication and motor skills (Rico-González et al., 2024)	Modalities of understanding: Use of motion skills in an unusual way Influencing factors: Height and weight
Social	Application of physical activity	Structured activities (only), unstructured activities (only), both (Lindsay et al., 2022) Movement behaviour and intense physical activity of 3-year-olds throughout the day (Ezeugwu et al., 2021) Boys do intense physical activities more than girls at age 3, but not age 2 (Trost et al., 2024) In a preschool education facility, children spend 50–60 percent of their time in physical activity (Trost et al., 2024; Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021) Boys tend to engage in active games, girls are more likely to engage in imitation home life games, perhaps getting fewer referrals to participate in active games (Trost et al., 2024) Children communicate more frequently between peers of their gender during structured classes (Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021) Participation in organised sports (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) Swimming, exercise, long-term participation in sport (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023).	Modalities of physical activity: Structured organized physical activities, organised sports classes—swimming, exercise Unstructured physical activity Combinations of physical activity classes Influencing factors: Cultural impact Physical activity habits Amount of physical activity Intensity of physical activity Age Gender

that highlights the modalities for each group and the identified factors that may influence the manifestation of the elements.

No affective domain elements were identified for this stage. Within the physical domain, basic motor skills—locomotion, object control and postural control—were identified, as well as some physical qualities of movement. The most characteristic locomotor skills described for this age were running (Caldwell et al., 2022; Lindsay et al., 2022), jumping, walking, climbing, hopping (unspecified), galloping, climbing up and down, skipping, dancing, hopping on one foot, marching, gliding (Lindsay et al., 2022). Object control includes movement skills, such as throwing, pushing, catching the ball, use of outdoor gaming equipment (Lindsay et al., 2022), and object control skills with upper and lower body parts (Caldwell et al., 2022). Postural stability at this age is associated with general balancing skills, balancing on one leg, swinging, towing, carrying an object, pushing, standing and walking on tiptoes, balancing on unstable surfaces, turning (Lindsay et al., 2022), balance (Caldwell et al., 2022), and dynamic balance (Latorre-Román et al., 2021).

Height is mentioned as a factor that can affect fine and gross motor skills (Rico-González et al., 2024). Physical qualities of movement characterise strength and endurance, spatial awareness, proprioception, understanding movement directions, understanding time and speed (Lindsay et al., 2022).

Within the scope of this review, there are few studies on this age range that describe the cognitive and affective manifestations of physical literacy. Within the cognitive domain, the understanding of movement applications can be identified as movement creativity (Thomaidou et al., 2021). Being of low height and underweight can be identified as influencing factors (Rico-González et al., 2024).

At this age, the social domain is relatively more widely described. A two to three year old child participates in structured, unstructured and combined organised physical activities (Lindsay et al., 2022), active games, home life games (Trost et al., 2024), organised sports, swimming, and exercise (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). Influencing factors can be divided into external, including cultural impact (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023), physical activity habits (Ezeugwu et al., 2021; Trost et al., 2024; Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021), amount of physical activity (Trost et al., 2024; Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021), and intensity of physical activity (Ezeugwu et al., 2021; Trost et al., 2024), and internal factors, including the age and gender of children (Trost et al., 2024; Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021).

3.2. Elements of Physical Literacy and Their Manifestations in the Elementary Preschool Stage

At the elementary age of 4–5 years, 24 sources of literature were identified. As part of this review, the majority of physical literacy studies were found at this age stage (

Table 2. Elements of physical literacy and their manifestations during the elementary preschool stage.

Domains	Elements of Physical Literacy (Whitehead, 2019)	Manifestations in Behaviour	Summary: Modalities and Influencing Factors
Affective	Motivation	Fun (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Ltifi et al., 2024). Motivation and confidence before learning physical activity with the aim of encouraging engagement (Friskawati, 2024)	Modalities of motivation: Motivation and confidence to initiate and maintain physical activity Feeling of fun during physical activity
	Confidence	Confidence and self-efficacy (Lugossy et al., 2022)	Modalities of confidence: self-efficacy
Physical	Basic movement skills	The fine and gross motor skills depend on the children’s height (Rico-González et al., 2024) Low-height and underweight children have significantly lower developmental rates of communication and motor skills compared to normal children. (Rico-González et al., 2024) Impact of gender and cultural traditions—boys are engaged in active games, while girls are more involved in dancing or gymnastics, where postural stability is developed (Mnejja et al., 2022) Locomotor and object control skills are not developing in a coherent way (Starrett et al., 2021) Upper body object control skills can develop better under the influence of various sporting cultural traditions (Starrett et al., 2021)	Influencing factors: Internal: Height, weight, gender, External: Cultural influences The development of different categories of movement skills does not take place at the same time
	Locomotor skills	The length of steps depends on height (Sato et al., 2022) There are improvements to targeted organised classes (Thomaidou et al., 2021) Different types of jumps and running (forward/back) (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Bezerra et al., 2021) Running (Caldwell et al., 2022) Climbing the stairs (Lindsay et al., 2022) Tiptoeing, jumping on the mat (Navarro-Patón et al., 2024)	Locomotor modalities: Walking in different types and styles Running Running with direction change Jumps Jumps in different ways and directions Climbing stairs Influencing factors: Internal—height, External—environment, targeted development activities
	Object control skills	Hand agility—precision movements, pitching accuracy, catching (Navarro-Patón et al., 2024) 6 object control skills (Bezerra et al., 2021) In the skills of strike, pitching, throwing and pushing by hands boys have performed better on hits, kicks and throws (Rico-González et al., 2024) Ball throwing (by hand), ball pushing, ball catching (by hand), ball catching and bouncing (stationary dribbling), ball pushing (stationary), ball rolling (by hand), use of outdoor play equipment (Lindsay et al., 2022) Object control—upper and lower body (Caldwell et al., 2022) Sports specific skills in various ballgame sport programs include—throws, strikes, dribbling (hand and foot), punching, rolling and touchdowns (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) Dribble and strike (Starrett et al., 2021) Fine motor agility (Ltifi et al., 2024)	Modalities of object control skills: Upper and lower body object control skills Fine motor skills—accuracy, agility Ball skills: Upper body: throwing, pitching, pushing, rolling catching, rebounding, dribbling, touchdowns, batting Lower body: kicks, moving ball forward with legs, rolling, touchdowns Influencing factors: gender
	Postural stability skills	Postural balance (Stania et al., 2024; Mnejja et al., 2022) Dynamic balance (Latorre-Román et al., 2021) Posture stability, getting up and running quickly to a goal (Ltifi et al., 2024) Standing on one leg (Ltifi et al., 2024; Navarro-Patón et al., 2024) Sports specific skills: forward roll, backward roll, lying down jumps and star jumps; walking and jumping (on gymnastic beam), swinging and hanging (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) Balance, stability and body control (Caldwell et al., 2022) Balance in general, one leg stance, swinging, towing, carrying an item while moving, pushing, standing and walking on tiptoes, balancing on rough surfaces, turning (Lindsay et al., 2022)	Modalities of postural stability Stand on one leg, dynamic balance Stability of body posture Body control skills—rolls, jumps Body control while hanging, swinging Maintaining the balance while moving, maintaining the balance while carrying, pushing objects Skills on balance surfaces—on a balance beam, unstable surfaces
	Physical qualities of movement	Body mass index is normal in 80% of children (Bezerra et al., 2021) Spatial awareness, proprioception, awareness and understanding of direction, time awareness and speed characteristics (Lindsay et al., 2022) Lower body strength is associated with jumping on spot, upper body strength, power, agility (Ltifi et al., 2024).	Modalities of movement qualities: Spatial perception, proprioception, awareness of direction Agility, speed and strength for lower and upper body
Cognitive	Knowledge	Mentioned, but not explained (Caldwell et al., 2022)	-
	Understanding	Linking exercise to daily routine provides cognitive bonding (Raiola, 2025) During test procedures girls listen to instructions more carefully than boys (Mnejja et al., 2022) Perceived competence influences children’s self-confidence (Barratt et al., 2024) Movement creativity (Thomaidou et al., 2021) Understanding and linking different tasks (Ltifi et al., 2024)	Modalities: Ability to maintain attention (listening) Use of mobility skills combining different skills, variability Influencing factors: gender
Social	Application of physical activity	Outdoor physical activity and physical activity as a daily routine (Raiola, 2025) Boys spend more time in vigorous physical activity than girls, on average 20 min of preschool time, (Trost et al., 2024) Free play for exercise, “sense of community” (Barratt et al., 2024) Total amount of physical activity is achieved with low-intensity physical activity, with boys participating more in vigorous play (Užičanin et al., 2024) Swimming, gymnastics, soccer, football, hockey, long-term participation in sports (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) Friendship rates changed significantly among four-year-olds in organized gymnastics classes (Yürük et al., 2024) Game-based activities promote learning with peers in a fun and interactive way (Thomaidou et al., 2021) Structured and unstructured physical activity (Lindsay et al., 2022) Daily exercise pattern—on workdays 37%, on weekends 52% of the active part of the day (Bezerra et al., 2021) Children spend 59 percent of total time active, boys are more active than girls (Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021) Acquisition of basic movement skills often depends on the context of the environment. (Bezerra et al., 2021) An autonomy-supportive environment promotes engagement in physical activity, both child-initiated and teacher-directed, both indoors and outdoors (Barratt et al., 2024).	Modalities of physical activity: Child-initiated physical activity, teacher-led physical activity, physical activity as a daily routine, outdoor physical activity, free play, physical activity as part of the learning process, organized sports—swimming, gymnastics, football, hockey, multisport. Intensity of physical activity—factors influencing low-intensity and moderate-intensity physical activity habits: External factors: autonomous and accessible environments, internal motivation or choice, parental encouragement, neighborhood safety, outdoor temperature, proximity of roads, engagement in preschool education. Internal factors: gender, internal motivation.

).

3.2.1. Manifestations of the Affective Domain

The affective aspects of a child, including motivation and confidence, take the form of a factor of initiation and persistence of physical activity (Friskawati, 2024). A child feels it as self-efficacy and the result of their work (Lugossy et al., 2022), which brings joy to participating in fun (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Ltifi et al., 2024).

3.2.2. Manifestations of the Physical Domain

Basic Movement Skills

The expression of fundamental or basic movement skills is influenced by both internal and external factors (Table 2). Internal factors include height (Rico-González et al., 2024), weight (Rico-González et al., 2024), gender (Mnejja et al., 2022), and pace of development (Starrett et al., 2021). In addition to external factors, there are cultural differences in parenting between the genders (Mnejja et al., 2022; Starrett et al., 2021).

Postural Stability Skills

Body stability at the age of 4–5 is identified through a test—standing on one leg (Ltifi et al., 2024; Navarro-Patón et al., 2024), dynamic balance (Latorre-Román et al., 2021), body posture stability (Stania et al., 2024; Mnejja et al., 2022), body management skills (Caldwell et al., 2022), body control when hanging and swinging (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023), balance maintenance, and balance maintenance when moving objects (Lindsay et al., 2022). Postural control is manifested by moving and manipulating objects, such as carrying, dragging, and pushing (Lindsay et al., 2022), as well as maintaining balance on rugged ground, heights, and dynamic surfaces (Lindsay et al., 2022). Age (Latorre-Román et al., 2021), maturity and gender (Mnejja et al., 2022) all play a role in the control of posture. Some findings indicate that girls aged four and five have better body control than boys, while there is some evidence that gender does not matter (Latorre-Román et al., 2021). In general, it can be said that postural control manifests itself as a very wide spectrum of physical abilities, from maintaining static body posture, to managing body posture and balance, to being in balance during complex movement skills.

Locomotor Skills

Locomotion, between four and five years of age, takes the form of walking skills in a variety of ways (Navarro-Patón et al., 2024), running with a change of direction (Caldwell et al., 2022; Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Bezerra et al., 2021), and jumps of different types and directions (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Navarro-Patón et al., 2024). Among the factors influencing locomotor skills, one can mention the height of the child, the environment and the accessibility of physical education programmes for preschool children. The length of the steps depends on the height (Sato et al., 2022). Locomotor skills are essentially acquired and developed under the influence of the environment (Barratt et al., 2024). Insignificant improvements can be seen as a result of organized physical education (Vuković et al., 2023).

Object Control Skills

Object control skills can be systematized as upper and lower body object control skills (Caldwell et al., 2022) and fine motor skills (Navarro-Patón et al., 2024; Ltifi et al., 2024). Most commonly, ball handling skills (Lindsay et al., 2022) and stick handling skills are used to assess and improve object control skills, most often involving elements of specific sports (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). Upper body object control skills include throwing, pushing, rolling, catching, rebounding, dribbling, passing, and batting (Lindsay et al., 2022; Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Starrett et al., 2021). Lower body object control skills include kicking, footwork, rolling, and passing (Lindsay et al., 2022; Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). Boys are better at kicking and throwing (Rico-González et al., 2024). Participation in organized sports greatly improves the ability for ball handling skills (Vuković et al., 2023). The qualities of movement at a given age include spatial perception, proprioception, sense of direction, agility, and strength (Lindsay et al., 2022; Ltifi et al., 2024). Lower body strength is manifested in various jumps and upper body strength in the body’s movements, such as climbing (Lindsay et al., 2022).

3.2.3. Manifestations of the Cognitive Domain

Organised sports sessions can improve children’s cognitive skills (Vuković et al., 2023). Cognitive skills in the context of physical literacy can, at this stage of age, take the form of the ability to apply movement skills on a daily basis (Raiola, 2025), combining and refining diverse combinations of movement skills (Barratt et al., 2024; Ltifi et al., 2024; Thomaidou et al., 2021), as well as being able to listen and pay attention to the instructions of the educator to accomplish the task (Mnejja et al., 2022). Gender can be identified as one of the influencing factors. For example, girls listen to educators’ guidance more carefully than boys of the same age (Mnejja et al., 2022).

3.2.4. Manifestations of the Social Domain

At this stage, children participate and apply very different forms of physical activity, both child and educator driven, combining both approaches and indoors and outdoors (Barratt et al., 2024; Lindsay et al., 2022). Physical activity fits into a child’s daily life, both during free play (Barratt et al., 2024) and in the form of daily routine activities (Raiola, 2025). Physical activity in the form of active games can be integrated into the learning process by improving learning material (Thomaidou et al., 2021). Traditionally, physical activities are organised in sports classes or training, more often in swimming, gymnastics, football, hockey (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Yürük et al., 2024).

Factors influencing the use of physical activity can include, at this stage of age, an autonomous and accessible environment (Užičanin et al., 2024; Ezeugwu et al., 2021; Raiola, 2025; Bezerra et al., 2021), internal motivation or choice (Friskawati, 2024), parental choice (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Raiola, 2025), neighbourhood safety, outdoor temperature, proximity to roads (Ezeugwu et al., 2021), and inclusion in pre-primary education (Lugossy et al., 2022). Among the influences is the interest of parents in involving a child in one type of long-term sport as early as possible (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). In a preschool educational institution, a child spends approximately 50–60 per cent of the total time in physical activity (Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021; Trost et al., 2024; Užičanin et al., 2024). In moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity in an educational setting, children spend an average of 20 min (Trost et al., 2024). At this age stage, differences can be observed between the intensity of boys’ and girls’ activities. Objective measurements of physical activity records show that boys spend more time in active games during the day than girls (Užičanin et al., 2024; Trost et al., 2024).

3.3. Elements of Physical Literacy and Their Manifestations in the Mature Preschool Stage

At the mature age of 6–7 years, nine sources of literature were identified. (

Table 3. Elements of physical literacy and their manifestations during the mature preschool stage.

Domains	Elements of Physical Literacy (Whitehead, 2019)	Manifestations in Behaviour	Summary: Modalities and Influencing Factors
Affective	Motivation	Fun (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) Emotional domain under the influence of physical activity is considered to improve (Vuković et al., 2023). Motivation plays a role in the evaluation process, which is manifested by cooperation during the assessment (Vojtíková et al., 2023). The willingness to cooperate leads to the evaluation process (Vojtíková et al., 2023).	Modalities: fun, motivation as cooperation Influencing factors: improvement of the emotional domain under the influence of physical activity
	Confidence	Mentioned, but no explanation (Caldwell et al., 2022)	-
Physical	Basic movement skills	Family highly influences movement skills, sports activities and educational institution (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Fine and gross motor object control movement skills may depend on height (Rico-González et al., 2024).	Influencing factors: External: family, preschool educational institution and sports activities; Internal: Height
	Locomotor skills	Running (Lindsay et al., 2022) Locomotor skills improve, but not significantly (Vuković et al., 2023). Single-leg jumps are better for girls than for boys, (Pelemiš et al., 2024) Results showed that body composition was not associated with lateral jump and single-leg jump test results (Pelemiš et al., 2024)	Modalities of locomotion: Running, jumping, in various ways and directions Influencing factors: Gender
	Object control skills	Object control—upper and lower body (Lindsay et al., 2022) Participating in organized sports school classes improves ball skills—throwing, catching, passing, dribbling (Vuković et al., 2023). Girls dominate in fine motor skills tests (Vojtíková et al., 2023)	Modalities of object control: Upper and lower body, ball handling skills—throwing, catching, passing, dribbling Influencing factors: Experience in sports school class
	Postural stability skills	Balance, stability and body control (Lindsay et al., 2022) Dynamic balance (Latorre-Román et al., 2021) Postural balance (Stania et al., 2024) The maturation aspect is negatively related to motor performance, mainly in terms of balance skills on a balance beam in backward movement, in which children with slightly delayed biological maturation show better results (Pelemiš et al., 2024). Girls show better results in balance skills tests (Vojtíková et al., 2023)	Modalities of postural stability: Dynamic balance, Body stability Body control during movement Influencing factors: Physical developmental maturity, gender
	Physical qualities of movement	Agility and strength have small correlation with cognitive ability (Vojtíková et al., 2023) Boys dominate in hand-eye coordination skills tests (Vojtíková et al., 2023) Movement coordination depends on body mass index (Pelemiš et al., 2024) Body composition affects movement coordination more in boys (Pelemiš et al., 2024)	Modalities of movement qualities: Movement coordination, agility, strength Influencing factors: Body mass index, body composition, gender
Cognitive	Knowledge	Mentioned but no explanation (Caldwell et al., 2022)	-
	Understanding	Children with reduced height and weight have significantly lower rates of development of communication and motor skills compared to typically developing children (Rico-González et al., 2024). Physical activity improves cognitive skills (Vuković et al., 2023). Object control skills by hand have a stronger correlation with cognitive ability than motor qualities (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Correlation between cognitive abilities and motor skills has been confirmed, 25–40% of motor skills affect the level of cognitive abilities and vice versa. (Vojtíková et al., 2023)	Influencing factors: External: Relationship between communication and motor skills, movement skills Improvement of cognitive skills under the influence of physical activity Object control skills with hands Internal: Weight and height, gender
Social	Application of physical activity	The environment as an opportunity for physical activity (Caldwell et al., 2022) The total amount of physical activity from 3 to 6 years of age tends to decrease in about 90 percent of children, with a greater tendency for girls than boys (Caldwell et al., 2022) Participation in sports training can affect the results of specific tests—if girls in the test group play tennis, then the results of the object control skills test with a tennis ball will be affected (Vojtíková et al., 2023) Physical activity as a game (Vojtíková et al., 2023) The role of the family in the formation of physical habits (Vojtíková et al., 2023)	Modalities of physical activity: Amount of daily physical activity Organized sports training Physical activity as play Influencing factors: External: Environmental opportunities, Experience in certain types of physical activity Family’s role Internal: Age, gender

). A review of preschool development at the age of six to seven years shows that the child’s affective domain is associated with the joy of participating in physical activities (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) and the desire to cooperate in organized and teacher-led learning processes (Vojtíková et al., 2023). The influencing factor is the child’s physical activity that improves the child’s emotional domain element—motivation (Vuković et al., 2023).

Within the physical domain, basic movement skills were identified, including locomotion (Lindsay et al., 2022; Vuković et al., 2023; Pelemiš et al., 2024), object control skills (Lindsay et al., 2022; Vuković et al., 2023; Vojtíková et al., 2023), postural stability (Lindsay et al., 2022; Latorre-Román et al., 2021; Stania et al., 2024; Vojtíková et al., 2023; Pelemiš et al., 2024) and physical qualities, and movement coordination (Pelemiš et al., 2024; Vojtíková et al., 2023), such as agility and strength (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Both internal and external factors affecting children’s physical domain were identified. Internal factors included body height, gender, individual maturation pace, body composition and body mass index (Vojtíková et al., 2023). External factors included family, preschool educational institution and access to sports activities. Children with reduced height and insufficient weight have lower indicators of motor skills and coordination (Rico-González et al., 2024; Pelemiš et al., 2024). In terms of gender influence, boys dominate in tests of hand–eye coordination (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Girls more often show better results in postural stability tests, one-legged jumps (Pelemiš et al., 2024), and fine motor skills (Vojtíková et al., 2023). The maturation aspect is negatively related to motor performance, mainly in terms of balance skills on a balance beam in backward movement, in which children with slightly delayed biological maturation show better results (Pelemiš et al., 2024).

In terms of the impact of external factors, the acquisition of movement skills at this age is influenced by family support and experience of physical activities in an educational institution and sports training (Vojtíková et al., 2023).

Cognitive and communication skills are related to movement skills, abilities (Vojtíková et al., 2023; Vuković et al., 2023). The development of cognitive skills is important for object control skills of the upper extremities, which the child can demonstrate through ball control skills, including throwing, catching, passing, and running (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Height and body weight were identified as influencing factors. Children with reduced height and insufficient weight have lower indicators of communication (Rico-González et al., 2024; Pelemiš et al., 2024).

Within the social domain, physical activity modalities were identified for this age group, such as the amount of daily physical activity (Caldwell et al., 2022), organized sports training and physical activity as play (Vojtíková et al., 2023).

Children participate in both daily physical activity in the form of play and organized sports training (Vojtíková et al., 2023). External and internal factors influencing children’s social participation were identified. Participation in physical activity depends on the accessibility of the environment and the involvement of the family (Vojtíková et al., 2023; Caldwell et al., 2022). Previous sport experience can affect the results of specific tests; if girls in the test group play tennis, then the results of the object control skills test with a tennis ball will be affected (Vojtíková et al., 2023). The age and gender of the child were identified as internal factors (Vojtíková et al., 2023; Caldwell et al., 2022). The total amount of physical activity from 3 to 6 years of age tends to decrease in about 90 percent of children, with a greater tendency in girls than boys (Caldwell et al., 2022).

4. Discussion

Three research questions were posed to describe the physical literacy of preschool children. In our review, we identified the preschool age range of 4–5 years as the most frequently described. This is in line with Gallahue’s theory, which considers this to be the age at which basic motor skills become more coordinated as time and space synchronisation improves, regardless of any remaining limitations and limitations in movement patterns (Gallahue et al., 2012). It can therefore be assumed that at this age we can begin to draw conclusions about the development and application of children’s motor skills from the age of 2–3 years onwards (Gallahue et al., 2012). Relatively few sources describe the age of 6–7 years, although this is the age at which basic motor skills are characterised by mechanically efficient, coordinated and controlled performance (Gallahue et al., 2012). The number of literature reviewed could be influenced by the definition of the population in the search strategy—preschool or kindergarten—which could influence the search results. Children can be involved in preschool education from 2 to 7 years of age, but often it is children from 2 to 5 years of age (Porter et al., 2023). Therefore, in order to obtain a complete picture of the maturity stage at the age of 6–7 years, the definition of the population in the search strategy should be adjusted.

In response to the second question, we grouped the characteristics of physical literacy into four domains: affective, physical, cognitive and social. The physical domain and its elements—basic movement skills in general, locomotion, object tracking, postural stability and physical qualities of movement—are explained and described in broad terms. This is in line with the views of researchers on the embodied nature of physical literacy (Durden-Myers et al., 2022). The other that has been widely described is the social domain as an application of physical activities. This corresponds to the concept of physical literacy, which is the application of physical activity to everyday life (Whitehead, 2010, 2019).

At all three ages, the cognitive domain was described more in the context of the understanding element (Raiola, 2025; Mnejja et al., 2022; Barratt et al., 2024; Thomaidou et al., 2021; Ltifi et al., 2024), whereas no knowledge element was identified. Within the affective domain, little was identified in terms of motivational and transference elements (Caldwell et al., 2022; Vuković et al., 2023; Vojtíková et al., 2023; Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Friskawati, 2024; Ltifi et al., 2024; Lugossy et al., 2022). This is a counterintuitive finding as the concept of physical literacy emphasises the role of motivation in building physical competence (Whitehead, 2010, 2019). However, it is not explained how motivation manifests itself in child behaviour in the context of the concept of physical literacy.

In response to the third research question, the following discussion will interpret the characteristics of preschool children within the framework of each domain by explaining the meaning, interactions and main trends of the included elements and influencing factors. The discussion follows the logic of Whitehead’s (2010) definition of physical literacy, starting with the affective domain and ending with the social domain.

4.1. Characteristics of the Affective Domain of a Preschool Child

This review has not identified an explanation on the affective domain framework of physical literacy at the age of 2–3 years. It has been mentioned that motivation and confidence play a role (Caldwell et al., 2022), but the details of what characterizes these elements and how they can be identified have not been explained. It is possible that the boundaries of the study need to be expanded to fully reveal the effects of physical literacy at the age of 2–3 years. In later preschool age, motivation may manifest as fun (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Ltifi et al., 2024) and a desire to cooperate in the learning process (Vojtíková et al., 2023). A sense of joy in the context of a preschool child’s physical literacy can be seen as a source of the child’s inner motivation. Thus, within the affective domain, the actions of the surrounding adults in observing, suggesting, guiding, and supporting the child in the process of exploring his/her physical activities are of great importance.

In general, in the preschool years, the elements of motivation and confidence in the area of physical literacy are related to the child’s opportunities to participate in both child-directed free play and teacher-directed activities in different environments (Barratt et al., 2024). It is believed that the environment plays an important role in the development of a child’s intrinsic motivation, but the experience of preschool educators shows that children do not always choose to participate in free play activities, even when an appropriately equipped playground is available (Friskawati, 2024).

Factors Influencing Affective Domain

Therefore, it is recognized that motivation and confidence should be fostered prior to physical activity instruction to increase engagement (Friskawati, 2024). The affective aspects of physical literacy may be most closely related to physical literacy as a holistic construct measurement (Britton et al., 2023). Initially, this could be promoted through daily routine activities, such as choosing to walk for shorter distances (Raiola, 2025). The description of a physically competent person assumes that an individual independently wants to engage in physical activity with interest and enthusiasm by exploring the environment (Whitehead, 2019). This is consistent with the idea of a mastery motivational or task-involving climate role that facilitates child participation in physical activity (Mak et al., 2021). Previous research has shown that motivation and engagement in the preschool years are influenced by children’s ability to engage in self-directed free play, teacher-directed activities and opportunities to move and play outdoors (Wainwright et al., 2018). Therefore, it is possible that adults play a significant role in shaping a preschooler’s motivation by observing the child’s behaviour and encouraging active engagement when appropriate. The confidence component depends on self-efficacy (Lugossy et al., 2022). When a child derives satisfaction and enjoyment (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023) from the experience of physical activity, learning new tasks and movement challenges becomes possible (Whitehead, 2019). Cairney et al. (2019) showed that the elements of the affective domain, motivation, perceived competence and fun, were most strongly associated with physical literacy as the physical domain (Cairney et al., 2019). Thus, the environment plays a role in creating interest, which could lead to practical activity and movement skills.

4.2. Characteristics of the Physical Domain of a Preschool Child

The physical domain is the most commonly described and it is consistent with much of the research that identifies physical literacy as a combination of basic movement skills and physical abilities (Almond, 2013; Cairney et al., 2019). Barratt et al. (2024) argues that there is a paucity of research (Lugossy et al., 2022) demonstrating a relationship between movement skills and physical literacy in preschool children. However, there is a clear relationship between movement skills and cognitive skills (Vuković et al., 2023; Vojtíková et al., 2023), as well as the relationship between movement skills and the environment (Barratt et al., 2024). This could support the assumption that basic movement skills do not indicate the level of physical literacy but rather influence its development as the ability to participate in and explore the environment (Whitehead, 2010). Basic movement skills are thought to develop independently, but the more complex the skill, the greater the importance of its practical repetition. The physical competence of a physically literate person is characterized by fluid, efficient, and variable movements that adapt to the movement challenge at hand (Whitehead, 2019). Thus, a child’s physical literacy profile must include the child’s basic motor skills, but the physical literacy profile cannot be limited to identifying the level of motor skills.

4.2.1. Factors Influencing Movement Skills

It is important to remember that not all basic movement skills develop at the same time; for example, locomotor and object control skills develop at different rates (Starrett et al., 2021). Basic movement skills develop mainly influenced by natural biological maturation, but the acquisition of more complex basic movement skills is influenced by sports training (Vuković et al., 2023) or cultural traditions in sports (Starrett et al., 2021; Mnejja et al., 2022). The aspect of cultural traditions resonates with the description of a physically literate person, in which the individual creatively and intelligently explores what the environment has to offer (Whitehead, 2019). For example, if a child lives in a community with a strong tradition of playing hockey, he or she has a great opportunity to learn and apply the movement skills required for this sport at an early age. The category of object control skills may include skills that are rarely used in everyday life, such as hitting an object with a stick used in hockey (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023), but if they are available in a community setting, the child has the opportunity to experience them (Starrett et al., 2021). In the preschool years, the acquisition of motor skills most often takes place through play, both self-directed by the child and guided by the teacher or caregiver (Barratt et al., 2024). Already at the beginning of basic movements at the age of 2–3 years, purposefully organized sports activities will influence their pace of development (Thomaidou et al., 2021). Therefore, it can be said that within the physical domain, the gender aspect should be taken into account, which may affect the pace of skill acquisition. Therefore, by preschool age, children’s motor skill performance can differ by a few months of age (Thomaidou et al., 2021). The rate of acquisition may be influenced by indicators of height and weight; both increased and decreased body weight are important (Timmons et al., 2007). For example, children with reduced height and insufficient weight have lower indicators of communication, motor skills, and coordination (Rico-González et al., 2024; Pelemiš et al., 2024). However, by four to five years of age, 80 percent of children have a normal body mass index (Bezerra et al., 2021). At this age, movement characteristics are associated with awareness of one’s own body’s proprioception, understanding of space and direction (Lindsay et al., 2022), speed, agility of movement, and upper and lower body strength (Ltifi et al., 2024). Therefore, it can be assumed that the natural processes of development and movement learning encourage the child to use physical activities creatively and imaginatively (Whitehead, 2019). The child begins to experience movement activities through cooperation and competition among peers. At the age of three, more pronounced communication between same-sex peers can be observed in organized classes (Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021), and at the age of four, friendship indicators increase significantly (Yürük et al., 2024). The foundations of cooperation skills are formed, which is an important element of physical literacy. Acquisition of movement skills is influenced by age, height, weight, maturation process and gender (Mnejja et al., 2022; Stania et al., 2024; Latorre-Román et al., 2021; Pelemiš et al., 2024; Sato et al., 2022).

4.2.2. Characteristics of the Postural Stability Skills

Postural stability was identified as one of the basic movement skills with a wide variety of manifestations. Postural stability in the behaviour of a child’s movements, is often understood by standing on one leg (Ltifi et al., 2024; Navarro-Patón et al., 2024), but control of body posture is important when performing movement transitions, such as rolling, bending, standing up (Ltifi et al., 2024), bouncing (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). This is consistent with Gallahue’s motor theory, which explains body stability as the dynamic maintenance of balance and non-axial body movement (Gallahue et al., 2012). Body stability, as the ability to control body posture during exercise, has been studied by Rudd et al. (2015). They propose a set of three exercise elements for assessing postural stability in children from 4 years of age (Rudd et al., 2015).

4.2.3. Factors Influencing Postural Stability Skills

The analysis of the influencing factors shows that postural stability is influenced by factors internal to the body—sex, age and maturation. Postural stability tests on balance platforms show that girls at the age of 3–4 years have better results than boys of the same age (Mnejja et al., 2022; Stania et al., 2024). Girls are thought to use more efficient sensory strategies to compensate for changes in posture while maintaining postural control than boys (Stania et al., 2024). The observed body swaying and rocking probably reflect processes at the supraspinal and spinal cord nerve peripheral level. It can be assumed that at this age, boys are more likely to show immature neural adaptation responses characterized by swaying and body tension during postural stability control. Girls are able to adapt faster when visual control is excluded on both stable and unstable surfaces (Stania et al., 2024). Discrepancies regarding gender differences in preschool children may be explained by differences in balance test batteries, assessment instruments, and/or the populations studied in the studies (Mnejja et al., 2022). For example, in children aged 3–6 years, no significant gender differences are observed in balance beam movement (Latorre-Román et al., 2021). However, in one-legged jumps, girls show better results than boys at 6 years of age (Pelemiš et al., 2024). Postural stability depends on the maturation process, as, for example, children of the same gender at the age of 4 may show weaker results than 5-year-olds (Mnejja et al., 2022). Younger children have not yet developed integrative postural strategies that prevent the pelvis from falling to the side of the swinging leg during foot lift. Therefore, they have less adaptive capacity during dynamic balance exercises that involve forward movement (Latorre-Román et al., 2021). By the age of five, the postural control strategies become similar, and the results do not differ. Another possible explanation for these results is that at six years of age, there is a transition from general global postural control to selective independent control of body segments (Latorre-Román et al., 2021). Thus, the body’s postural stability skills have a variable rate of development, influenced by age, gender, and individual maturation process. Static balance parameters may reflect how posture is controlled by the central nervous system, which integrates afferent information from the sensory system and generates motor output signals to the postural muscles (Sato et al., 2022). The same neural function is significantly involved in the control of posture during standing and body balance during walking (Sato et al., 2022). This means that postural control skills can influence locomotor movements and provide an idea of their quality. Thus, the postural stability of motor skills should be taken into account in the characterisation of a child’s physical literacy. Postural stability in the context of physical literacy should be assessed as the ability to adapt the body and to use integrative strategies to perform different skills without taking into account the age, gender and developmental pace of the child.

4.2.4. Characteristics of the Locomotor Skills

Locomotor skills are natural human movement behaviours that develop under the impact of the environment (Barratt et al., 2024). Locomotor skills in preschool children are most commonly associated with running and various types of jumping (Caldwell et al., 2022; Bezerra et al., 2021; Starrett et al., 2021; Lindsay et al., 2022), and less commonly with stair climbing (Lindsay et al., 2022). This is supported by the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2), which is widely used to assess motor skills and physical literacy in preschool children (Britton et al., 2023; Wainwright et al., 2020; Kretaine & Vecenane, 2024). It includes different types of jumps and directions of movement, but does not stair climbing skills, which could be an important indicator of using motor skills for participation in everyday life (Lindsay et al., 2022). Although it is assumed that locomotor skills develop naturally in children, no external factors within the domain of locomotor skills were identified that could influence the positive or negative attribution of this element of locomotor competence. Locomotor skills are assumed to be one of the key indicators in the assessment of physical exercise, such as the broadly applied TGDM version 2 or 3 (Britton et al., 2023; Wainwright et al., 2020; Kretaine & Vecenane, 2024). A review of the results suggests that locomotion is often viewed as a skill that enables engagement (Bezerra et al., 2021).

4.2.5. Factors Influencing Locomotor Skills

Indicators that determine the amount and intensity of movements are assessed. Consequently, it remains an open question as to the performance criteria of locomotor skills that define smooth, fluid and biomechanically economical (Whitehead, 2010) movement performance. Internal factors include the child’s height, which influences the length of the steps. Thus, children of the same age and different heights may take different numbers of steps to cover the same distance.

4.2.6. Characteristics of the Object Control Skills

The age of four to five years is the most characteristic sensitive period for object control skills, when through purposeful presentation and learning, basic object control skills begin to develop, later becoming complex and specific movement skills (Bai et al., 2024). In the context of physical activities, they most often manifest as ball control skills—throwing, catching, pushing, hitting, kicking, rolling, throwing and rolling with the hands (Bezerra et al., 2021). Such an object control skills framework is included in the TGDM tests, a course often identified as an indicator of a child’s physical motor competence (Britton et al., 2023; Wainwright et al., 2020; Kretaine & Vecenane, 2024). The question of the skills included in the original version for hitting with a bat, which corresponds to the object control skills in baseball is debatable (Kretaine & Vecenane, 2024). Demonstrating such skills to a preschool child in a country without a baseball tradition could be challenging if one assumes that the traditions of sports in different countries have an impact on the child’s acquisition of motor skills. Form other approach of object control skills can also be divided into upper and lower body skills according to the body schema principle (Caldwell et al., 2022). It is possible that the principle of the involvement of body parts should be used to characterise the child’s object control skills. Although, the process of learning object control skills unfamiliar in the local culture might show the child’s understanding of the use of movement. In this case, therefore, it is not the child’s motor competence that is being assessed, but the understanding of the use of movement in the framework of cognitive domain.

4.2.7. Factors Influencing Object Control Skills

One of the important internal factors in the acquisition of object control skills is the gender of the child. It is believed that boys perform better in punching, kicking and throwing (Rico-González et al., 2024), while girls have better fine motor skills (Vojtíková et al., 2023). It is possible that boys are more likely to engage in active games that require manual dexterity (Trost et al., 2024). Girls engage in games that imitate home life and may not engage in games that require active and dynamic manual dexterity (Trost et al., 2024; Starrett et al., 2021) and fine motor skills (Ltifi et al., 2024).

As an important external factor, participation in organized school sports improves ball handling skills—throwing, catching, passing, dribbling (Vuković et al., 2023). This means that by the age of 4–5 years, the acquisition of these skills may require practice in well-organized classes that include not only gross manipulation skills, but also fine motor skills. This is in line with Wainwright et al. (2018), simply moving around does not ensure skill acquisition; purposeful, planned physical activity and feedback are needed, especially in the development of object control skills (Wainwright et al., 2018).

Daily sports experience is very important in the development of motor skills, especially in the maturation stage (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Therefore, it can be assumed that girls of preschool age should be offered active games to train object control skills. Attention should be paid not only to hand movements, but also to object control skills of the lower extremities. In general, it can be concluded that the physical literacy movement competence of a preschool child is characterized by fluid, effective and diverse application of basic motor skills in accordance with the challenges of the surrounding environment and personal abilities, physical development, maturation process and gender. The child is able to work both individually and in a group, cooperating and competing with others.

4.3. Characteristics of the Cognitive Domain of Preschool Children

The description of the cognitive domain, in contrast to the motor domain, has been explained to a lesser extent. Its importance in preschool and its relevance for the understanding of movement application are described and emphasised. Sports activities are believed to influence the development of cognitive skills (Vuković et al., 2023). At the age of six, movement characteristics may have a weak relationship with cognitive abilities, but basic movement skills in controlling objects are related to the child’s cognitive abilities (Vojtíková et al., 2023). Perceived competence at preschool age influences the child’s confidence level (Barratt et al., 2024). This means understanding and connecting different tasks (Ltifi et al., 2024). It could confirm the assumption that little-known and rarely used motor skills are used as a manifestation of the child’s cognitive domain (Britton et al., 2023). The understanding element within physical literacy at the age of 4–5 is associated with the application of physical activities and movement skills in everyday life (Raiola, 2025). It is consistent with the description of a physically literate person; this can be identified as the beginning of an understanding of a healthy lifestyle and an awareness of the importance of using movement (Whitehead, 2019).

Therefore, the involvement of parents and teachers at this age is of great importance, as these people can create opportunities or obstacles for the development of a child’s lifestyle. Informing adults who are responsible for the children’s development about the risks that a sedentary lifestyle can cause helps to create a favourable environment in which children have more opportunities to choose a healthy lifestyle model (Raiola, 2025). The quality of daily activities for 4–5-year-old children often depend on the habits and beliefs of their parents. For example, results from a parent survey showed that only one-fifth of children have been physically active in the last seven days, and within the same survey, parents do not recognize that their children have negative sedentary lifestyle habits (Raiola, 2025). Thus, within the cognitive domain, preschool physical literacy can be described as a child’s understanding of the application of motor skills both to improve movement and to create the foundations of a healthy lifestyle. In this domain, the deliberate action of an adult—a parent, caregiver, educator, or coach—plays an important role in supporting the development of the child’s understanding (Whitehead, 2010). Within the element of understanding, it is suggested that one of the important factors is the interaction between human influence and the child’s abilities, which results in the application of motor skills in different situations

4.4. Characteristics of the Social Domain of a Preschool Child

Application of physical activities and engagement in physical activities can be seen as the ultimate goal of every child’s physical literacy, as a result of which they will be able to apply the movement skills they have learned in a variety of contexts (Whitehead, 2019). The total amount of physical activity tends to decrease in about 90 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 6 (Caldwell et al., 2022). The identity of a physically literate individual is described as having confidence and responsibility for engaging in physical activities in their life (Whitehead, 2019). The amount of physical activity in preschool age is related to physical literacy (Caldwell et al., 2022). As described in the studies, physical literacy in preschool children aged 2–3 years is more commonly identified with the child’s engagement in different types and amounts of physical activities and their basic motor skills (Ezeugwu et al., 2021). Therefore, it is useful to examine this manifestation of physical literacy. At preschool age, a child’s daily life most often takes place in a preschool (Lugossy et al., 2022; Trost et al., 2024), in sports clubs (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023; Vojtíková et al., 2023), and at home. In a preschool education facility, children spend 50–60 percent of their time in physical activity (Trost et al., 2024; Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021). During their time in preschool, children spend 50–60 per cent of their time participating in physical activity, of which about 20 min is moderate- and high-intensity physical activity in the form of vigorous play (Trost et al., 2024). This means that this environment will play an important role in the child’s acquisition and expression of the elements of physical literacy.

Factors Influencing Social Domain

The use of physical activity in daily life was influenced by both age and gender. An interesting trend is the movement behaviour and intense physical activity of 3-year-olds throughout the day (Ezeugwu et al., 2021). Boys engage in intense physical activities more than girls at age 3, but not at age 2 (Trost et al., 2024). Boys tend to engage in active games, whereas girls are more likely to engage in games that imitate home life, perhaps because they receive less encouragement to participate in active games (Trost et al., 2024). It is possible that boys at the age of four and five are traditionally invited to engage in active games and girls in dancing or gymnastics (Mnejja et al., 2022). In this context, it should be noted that children communicate more frequently with peers of their gender during structured classes (Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021). Taking this aspect into account, and the above-mentioned insights into the targeted acquisition of motor skills, children should be involved in a targeted motor skills training process or preschool setting. This will give children the opportunity to explore, measure and discover movement skills that are not traditionally gender-specific.

Parents can influence both the child’s entry into early sport specialisation and the amount of movement and physical activity the child does in the outdoor environment. A child’s inclusion in a sports school depends on parental preference, most often a single sport rather than multisports (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). The sports identified at this age are gymnastics and swimming. Cultural influences manifest in the traditions of sports, such as ball management skills with the upper limbs, might be better in countries with basketball traditions (Starrett et al., 2021). In this respect, parents are likely to be guided by their own experiences and local traditions of sports culture. When involving a child in sports schools, the reasons why the child has come here and the parents’ goals for their preschool child’s participation in sport should be considered, whether it is the development of physical abilities and skills or high-performance sport. Involving parents in preschool sports programmes can give an idea of the diversity of physical activities (Wainwright et al., 2020). Thus, it could play a role in a child’s early involvement in sport specialisation, which is dependent on parental preference.

The review found that parental attitudes influence a child’s participation in outdoor activities. During free time, the amount of physical activity a child engages in depends on accessibility and safety factors. Accessibility includes parks and green spaces. Safety factors include general safety, proximity to major and minor roads (Ezeugwu et al., 2021). This confirms the findings of previous studies on parents’ attitudes towards the safety of the outdoor environment and children’s ability to participate in outdoor play activities (Rhodes et al., 2020). Children live in different places with different infrastructures—both in cities and in rural areas (Ltifi et al., 2024; Užičanin et al., 2024), under the influence of different cultures (Ltifi et al., 2024) and in different climatic zones (Ezeugwu et al., 2021). It can therefore be concluded that parental attitudes, experiences and cultural environment have an influence on the child’s involvement in leisure-time physical activity.

A child’s inclusion in preschool education can affect the type, amount and intensity of physical activity. When a child is in a preschool educational institution, he or she spends more than half of his or her time in physical activities. As mentioned before boys between the ages of 3 and 5 tend to be more active and more willing to engage in active and energetic play (Trost et al., 2024; Lahuerta-Contell et al., 2021). Girls imitate home life in play, and often, teachers in preschool settings do not invite girls to engage in active play in preschool settings (Trost et al., 2024). The nature of the games played by the girls could have an impact on the lack of physical activity. About half of girls engage in no more than 20 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (Trost et al., 2024). This means revisiting the gender factor of children discussed above and the role of preschool education in a child’s participation in physical activity. The provision of purposefully organised movement skills does not involve gender distinctions, with the intention that the child will use them during free play. An interesting idea could be that gender differences should be taken into account in the process of assessing the choice and use of physical activities in order to fully explain the nuances of physical literacy to the child.

Preschool children rarely meet the WHO physical activity guidelines of 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day (Užičanin et al., 2024). The amount of low-intensity physical activity often exceeds 200 min or even half of the time spent in an educational institution (Užičanin et al., 2024; Bezerra et al., 2021). The availability of toys influences the intensity of activity (Trost et al., 2024), which means that preschool educational institutions can focus on addressing this issue in physical education classes. The total amount of physical activity tends to decrease for about 90 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 6, and the trend is stronger for girls than for boys (Caldwell et al., 2022). Therefore, preschool education should encourage children of both sexes to participate in active and vigorous physical activity for 60 min per day (WHO, 2019). It is possible that this amount can be divided between the educational institution, sports training and time spent at home. Participation in organized sports training can increase the likelihood that children will be able and willing to apply the skills they learn in their lives (Vojtíková et al., 2023). However, it should be recognized that many parents involve their children in one sport, rarely choosing a multisport approach that would allow the child to acquire a variety of movement skills (Harlow & Fraser-Thomas, 2023). The physical literacy of a preschool child is a purposefully organised and guided process, during which the child is given the opportunity to try and apply age-appropriate movement skills, without being limited by the child’s gender, parental attitudes and sporting choices, and the traditions of sport culture. In view of the lack of physical activity intensity identified in the review, it is imperative that children be encouraged to take part in intensive physical activity as part of their preschool education.

It is clear that environmental factors influence exercise habits (Ezeugwu et al., 2021). Daily mobility habits of four- and five-year-old children on weekends reach 52% of the WHO recommended amount of physical activity and are often dependent on the environmental context (Bezerra et al., 2021; Ltifi et al., 2024). Environmental factors that influence the physical activity and mobility behaviors of a five-year-old child include neighborhood safety, temperature, green space, and proximity to major and local roads (Ezeugwu et al., 2021). There may also be differences in children’s physical activity patterns depending on whether they live in an urban or rural area. For example, in urban Italy, the availability of playgrounds is limited, which may lead children to adopt sedentary lifestyles (Raiola, 2025). There are studies confirming that the physical activity habits of preschool children do not depend on rural or urban environment (Užičanin et al., 2024). More impact on physical activity habits of preschool children depends on parental beliefs about the safety of the child’s outdoor play environment (Rhodes et al., 2020). There are also studies showing gender differences in physical activity habits in rural areas. For example, in Tunisia, girls from rural areas showed much lower scores in the amount and intensity of physical activity than boys. However, these differences did not exist for preschool children living in urban areas (Ltifi et al., 2024). Therefore, it is important to encourage the child to move in different ways and distances every day. Thus, there are very different factors that are not shared when assessing the impact of the environment. The opportunities for and quality of physical activity in the preschool curriculum are important contributors to a child’s physical literacy, given that preschool children spend a large part of their time in this setting (Porter et al., 2023; Mak et al., 2021). It means that a common feature of this age group is participation in preschool education programmes, which could significantly impact a child’s physical literacy journey throughout their life.

4.5. Future Research Directions

As mentioned in the report by Carl et al. (2023), there are notable gaps in our understanding of physical literacy in early childhood. One promising research direction is to develop a framework for assessing physical literacy in preschool children. This review identified three areas of potential research in the field of physical literacy in preschool. Notably, there is a lack of research on the affective and cognitive aspects of physical literacy. Further research is necessary to explore the connection between physical literacy and the affective and cognitive domains of preschool children. A second promising area of research could involve identifying the most significant elements of physical literacy. Given the broad nature of the concept, identifying indicators of its fundamental elements could be a crucial step in developing a model of physical literacy in preschool children. By identifying the fundamental components that contribute to the behavioural aspects of physical literacy, the assessment process becomes more straightforward to implement and utilize in educators’ daily practices. A third research avenue could involve exploring and comparing the developmental trajectories of physical literacy across different countries and cultures. Our review revealed insights into the influence of sport cultural traditions on the development of specific physical skills, such as dribbling skills, in countries with a strong basketball tradition. It would be worthwhile to investigate how quickly children can acquire traditional skills and how they learn skills related to a rarely used sport or a foreign physical skill in a country. For example, it would be interesting to examine the object control movement skills typical of baseball in European countries. Such an aspect could be included in a prospective assessment model for the preschool phase.

4.6. Limitations

One of the limitations has been recognizing the keywords used in the search strategy: “preschool” or “kindergarten.” For example, MeSH terms use “preschool” for ages 2–5 and “child” for ages 6–12.

Another limitation was the language of the publications. Only English publications were included in the review. The availability of publications can also be considered a limiting factor, with 13 publications not having full text available in the Scopus and Sport Dicus databases.

5. Conclusions

This study aims to identify the most significant variable factors that can influence the physical literacy of preschool children within the framework of four domains and the elements included in them. The physical literacy behaviour of 4–5 year old children is primarily characterised within the physical and social domains, thereby underscoring the significance of these domains at the preschool age.

While it is generally accepted that basic movement skills, such as walking, climbing stairs, running and various types of jumping, develop naturally, the development of motor skills in a child’s family and preschool education should not be left to chance. As postural control in children has been demonstrated to impact the performance of both locomotor and object control skills, it is imperative that an assessment and learning approach to postural stability in children be multifaceted, incorporating both static postural maintenance and dynamic postural change.

It is evident that the acquisition of locomotor skills is inextricably linked to the engagement in physical activities. Consequently, it may be advantageous to evaluate indicators within the context of preschool education that are indicative of the ability to utilise everyday movement, thereby ensuring a heightened level of daily physical activity. The acquisition of object control skills is a more effective indicator of the child’s ability to apply physical activities during daily routines, free play, organised sports, and the integrated learning process. Conversely, it is feasible to present infrequently utilised and scarcely recognised sports skills as intricate movement tasks, thereby exemplifying the child’s comprehension of how to apply movement to execute the task.

Given the prevalence of participation in high-quality sports programmes among this age group, which has the potential to exert a substantial influence on a child’s physical literacy development over the course of their lives, the role of parents must be given due consideration. The actions of adults in the child’s vicinity are of paramount importance in the observation, advisement, guidance and support of the child in their exploration of physical activity, thereby facilitating the development of physical literacy.

It is imperative that children be encouraged to participate in intensive physical activity as part of their preschool education, given that their inclusion in such education can affect the type, amount and intensity of their physical activity. The opportunities for physical activity, and the quality of this activity, within the preschool curriculum are significant contributors to a child’s physical literacy, given that preschool children spend a considerable amount of time in this setting.

Physical literacy of the preschool children may be characterized as a purposefully organised and guided process, during which the child is given the opportunity to try and apply movement skills appropriate to their age, without being limited by factors such as gender, parental attitudes and sporting choices, and the traditions of sport culture.