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Effects of Physical Activity on Children's Motor Skill Development: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled
Daniel J McDonough1, Wenxi Liu1, Zan Gao1
1School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis 55455, USA.
Insights
Physical activity (PA) interventions, both traditional and exergaming-based, show causal evidence for improving motor skill development in children aged 6-12. Most studies reported significant gains, highlighting PA
Area of Science:
- Pediatric physical activity and motor development.
- Evidence synthesis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Background:
- Motor skill development is crucial for children's physical and cognitive well-being.
- Understanding the impact of physical activity (PA) interventions is essential for promoting healthy development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on traditional and exergaming-based PA interventions.
- To examine the causal evidence for PA's effects on motor skill development in typically developing children (6-12 years).
Main Methods:
- Systematic review adhering to PRISMA-P guidelines.
- Searched multiple electronic databases (Medline, PubMed, ERIC, etc.) from inception to July 2020.
- Included peer-reviewed RCTs published between 2000-2020 focusing on PA and motor skills in healthy children.
Main Results:
- 25 RCTs were included; 80% reported significant improvements in children's motor skills.
- Traditional PA interventions (18 studies) showed significant improvements in 83% of cases.
- Exergaming-based PA interventions (7 studies) showed significant improvements in 71% of cases.
Conclusions:
- Findings support a causal link between physical activity and enhanced motor skill development in children.
- Limitations include heterogeneity in measurement tools, intervention dosage, and lack of power analyses/long-term follow-up.
- Future RCTs should utilize power analyses, long-term follow-up, and standardized assessments for robust evidence.
Objective:
This systematic review synthesized current randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining casual evidence regarding the effects of traditional and exergaming-based physical activity (PA) interventions on motor skill development in typically developed children (i.e., those aged 6-12 years).
Methods:
We adhered to the PRISMA-P statement and searched electronic databases (Medline, PsycInfo, Web of Science, PubMed, ERIC, Scopus, and SportDiscus) from inception through July 2020. We screened for peer reviewed RCTs published in English between 2000 and 2020 examining the effect of PA on motor skill development in healthy children.
Results:
A total of 25 RCTs were included, 20 (80%) of which reported significant improvements in children's motor skill performance. Specifically, 18 studies examined traditional PA interventions and 7 studies examined exergaming-based PA interventions, 83% and 71% of which observed statistically significant improvements in children's motor skill development, respectively.
Conclusions:
Findings support the causal evidence regarding the effects of PA on motor skill development in children. Notable limitations of this review included heterogeneity of measurement protocols and assessment tools used to test children's motor skills across studies, a wide range of PA intervention dose across studies, and the lack of power analyses and long-term follow-up assessments in individual studies to discern appropriate sample sizes and long-term effectiveness, respectively. To further strengthen the evidence in this emerging field, we advocate for future RCTs to employ a priori power analyses, long-term follow-up measurements, and more exergaming-based interventions to allow for comparisons with traditional PA interventions, to explore the dose response and moderating relationships between PA and motor skill development in childhood, and to utilize homogenous assessment instruments to allow for more rigorous, quantitative syntheses.
