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Children
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Fundamental Movement/Motor Skills—the Bridging Element Between Motor Development Milestones and...
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Fundamental Movement/Motor Skills—the Bridging Element Between Motor Development Milestones and Physical Activity

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Pediatric Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 January 2026 | Viewed by 339

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jakub Gąsior

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pediatric Cardiology and General Pediatrics, Medical University of Warsaw, 02-091 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: paediatric rehabilitation; paediatric physiotherapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS), essential building blocks for more complex movements that are typically categorised into locomotor, object control, and stability skills, remain crucial for active play, physical activity, and sports, and contribute to broader developmental health contexts.

The number of studies published in the biomedical literature on FMS in children and adolescents, both healthy and with various diseases, has dramatically increased over the last decade.

The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together a collection of papers on the following areas:

  1. Assessment tools for FMS;
  2. Association between FMS, motor competence, and physical literacy;
  3. Association between FMS and health-related parameters, and finally;
  4. The effectiveness of FMS interventions and the effectiveness of interventions that improve FMS.

There are still research gaps in the mentioned areas.

We aim to collect a broad range of all kinds of manuscripts in the field of FMS in healthy children and paediatric patients with various diseases.

Dr. Jakub Gąsior
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fundamental movement skills
  • motor competency
  • physical literacy
  • physical activity
  • physical fitness
  • movement disorders

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 510 KiB  
Article
The Role of Fundamental Movement Skills and Health-Related Fitness on Physical Activity During Guided Active Play for 8- to 10-Year-Old Children
by Glory Madu, Victoria Kwong, Dusan Calic, Taylor Cleworth and Angelo Belcastro
Children 2025, 12(6), 805; https://doi.org/10.3390/children12060805 - 19 Jun 2025
Viewed by 157
Abstract
Background: Active play has been proposed to complement school-based physical activity (PA) and promote increased movement-related activities relevant for the development of motor competence. Guided active play (GAP) paired with cooperative games provides sufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) to improve motor competence for [...] Read more.
Background: Active play has been proposed to complement school-based physical activity (PA) and promote increased movement-related activities relevant for the development of motor competence. Guided active play (GAP) paired with cooperative games provides sufficient moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) to improve motor competence for younger children. Whether guided active play exhibits physical activity outputs that are related to motor competence is uncertain. This study assessed the strength of relationships between play-based physical activity and movement skills by comparing linear regression and chi-square analyses. Methods: Forty-two children (Mage = 8.8 ± 0.8 years) participated in a community center program. PA was measured via accelerometry for GAP, alongside assessments of anthropometrics, fitness (leg power, strength, VO2max), and FMS (Test of Gross Motor Development-2). Multiple linear regression analysis examined reciprocal relationships. Chi-square and cross-tabulations analyzed categorical variables based on lab percentiles (low < 33%, high > 66%) for PA energy expenditure (PAEE), intensity (MVPA), FMS, and fitness. Results: GAP MVPA and object control skills (OC) showed positive reciprocal pathways (β = 0.308, β = 0.394; p ≤ 0.05). VO2max predicted MVPA (β = 0.408; p < 0.01), with leg power related to PAEE (β = 0.456; p ≤ 0.01). Chi-square analysis revealed significant associations between high OC skills and high PAEE (X2 = 15.12, p ≤ 0.05), and high individual average scores of OC with high MVPA (X2 = 11.90, p < 0.05. The high performance of AP and LP was associated with MVPA and PAEE, respectively. Conclusions: Findings support a positive feedback loop between MVPA and OC skills for GAP. GAP is an effective strategy for program interventions for children 8 to 10-year old. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamental Movement/Motor Skills—the Bridging Element Between Motor Development Milestones and Physical Activity)
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