Assessing Movement Skills in Children and Adolescents: How and Why?
BACKGROUND
To master a wide range of skills seems to contribute to better self-esteem and represent a ground for sports and other physical activities. Motor development has often been studied in research and practise. Over the past 20-30 years there have been many tests developed in different contexts and addressing various questions.
OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of this study is to explore the purposes of common motor skills tests used in research and practice. Questions of interest are; what is the purpose of the test? What skills are in focus in the tests? In which context does the test occur?
METHOD
To over view common motor skills tests which often are referred to in International research journals. Examine the tests and the contexts in which they occur.
FINDINGS
Some preliminary findings are; there have been many different reasons to study children’s motor skills. One question of interest has been if the child is behind their peers in their motor development or if the child suffers from any disease or impairment. Other questions addressed are if a child or student has reached the objectives in the Physical Education in terms of mastering the (FMS) Fundamental Movement Skills. Most of the tests are assessed in a quantitative way but there are some that uses both quantitative and qualitative assessment. Rare are the tests that only use qualitative assessment. Some tests are developed to clinical research when other tests are towards “movement skills as a ground for physical activity and a healthy lifestyle”.
DISUSSION
It looks as if there is a change in the purposes in the motor skills testing the last ten-fifteen years. The tests has change in a way from mainly identifying deficiencies or motor impairments to screening children with the purpose to get “all on the right track”, to be physically active and to live a healthy lifestyle. The study is ongoing and there will be more interesting knowledge to discuss further on.