The fundamental motor skills and motor coordination performance of children in West Sumatera Province, Indonesia

Background and Study Aims. Good motor coordination is needed to achieve good fundamental motor skills. This study aimed to analyze and describe the relationship between fundamental motor skills and motor coordination performance of elementary school students aged 7 to 9 years old. Material and Methods. The subjects were elementary school students in grades 1, 2, and 3 with a total number of students was 478 (248 male students, and 230 female students) in 8 cities and regencies in West Sumatera, Indonesia. This study used a cross-sectional research design. The fundamental motor skills were examined using the Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition. This included assessing locomotor skills (running, galloping, sliding, leaping, hopping, and jumping) and object control skills (striking, catching, throwing, dribbling, rolling, and kicking). Motor coordination performance was assessed by using the Körperkoordinations Test für Kinder including balance beam, moving sideways, jumping sideways, and eye-hand coordination. The data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS statistic version 25. Results. Students in urban areas demonstrated certain levels in Gross Motor Quotients scores, while their counterparts in rural areas achieved marginally higher scores with slightly less variation. In schools where Physical Education teachers were present, students generally scored higher compared to schools without Physical Education teachers, albeit with a bit less variation in the latter. When comparing motor coordination performance, students in urban areas typically outperformed those in rural areas, exhibiting slightly more consistent scores. Similarly, students with access to Physical Education teachers showed better motor coordination performance than those without, though with a somewhat greater range in their scores. A noticeable trend was observed in the Gross Motor Quotients scores of Fundamental Motor Skills, which tended to decrease as age increased. Conversely, students' motor coordination performance generally improved with age. Supporting these observations, the result of the one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, obtained from Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed), was 0.200 > 0.05. Additionally, the Pearson correlation value between motor coordination performance and fundamental motor skills was 0.633 with a sig value of 0.000, indicating a significant relationship. Conclusions. Based on the study's findings, it is recommended to focus on enhancing motor skill programs for children in rural areas. Schools should invest in Physical Education teachers, especially where they are currently absent, to benefit children. Age-specific programs are needed to address the decline in Gross Motor Quotients with age in children.  Regular monitoring and evaluation of these initiatives for children are essential.