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Principles of Motor
Development for
Elementary School
Physical Education
Katherine Thomas Thomas
Jerry R. Thomas
Iowa State University
Abstract
Four principles are drawn from approximately
100 years of research in the area of motor devel-
opment. The principles are (1) children are not
miniature adults,
(2)
boys and girls (children) are
more alike than different, (3) good things are
earned, and (4) no body (nobody) is perfect. Five
sections of this article introduce some of the ma-
jor assertions warranted by that research orga-
nized around the principles. The sections are
Physical Growth and Maturation, Motor Skills,
Physical Activity, Psychological Factors, and De-
velopmental Skill Acquisition. Quality physical
education programs are evidence based; thus
when observing such programs one can see the
principles in action. The result is a develop-
mentally appropriate program based on the 3
characteristics of developmentally appropriate
physical education: children are more alike than
different, children progress through the same
stages of development in the same order, and the
rate of those developments varies among chil-
dren.
The Elementary
School
Journal
Volume
108,
Number 3
© 2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
0013-5984/2008/10803-0004$10.00
In the last decade, physical activity has
come to be regarded as an important factor
in public health. Its role in preventing obe-
sity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and
other forms of ill health is both well docu-
mented and w^idely recognized (Dietz,
2004).
In consequence, the health benefits
associated v^^ith physically active lifestyles
are driving national efforts to be certain that
children are physically active and w^ill re-
main active as adults.
Physical education is one venue where
children experience physical activity and
where all children have an opportunity to
learn the knowledge, skills, and behaviors
required to become physically active adults
(American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006).
That fact has given new visibility to ele-
182THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
mentary school physical education, inviting
a degree of attention not previously awarded
in its traditional role as a somewhat ancillary
"special subject." Public health, however, is
not the only reason to believe that physical
education can play a vital part in children's
education.
High-quality physical education pro-
grams offer important contributions in sev-
eral other vital areas of child development.
First, physical activity in the form of sport
is a central aspect of U.S. culture, as evi-
denced by the amount of attention it is
given in the media, its place in the national
economy, and the meaningful role it plays
in the lives of many citizens. Enjoying sport
as a participant or spectator allows individ-
uals to fully share the experience of being
Americans. Accordingly, that adds impor-
tance to the fact that it is through elemen-
tary school physical education that children
receive their first systematic opportunity to
learn about sport.
Second, for many people the importance
of physical activity rests less in the rituals
of competitive sport and much more in the
daily satisfactions of living a vigorously ac-
tive physical life. Whether that takes the
form of solitary exercise such as walking or
gardening, or more social physical activities
such as square dancing and aerobics classes,
the personal meanings may be profound
and the gratification great. And, again, the
initial foundations for active living are laid
through sound instruction and positive ex-
periences in the early years of elementary
school.
Third, physical activity plays a critical
role in the process of children's growth and
development. Physical education offers an
invaluable opportunity to stimulate, guide,
shape, and monitor the unfolding of each
child's physical capacities (strength, speed,
and flexibility) and expanding repertoire of
motor skills.
Fortunately, whether the purpose of
physical activity and physical education
during childhood is to encourage healthy
living, to serve as a vehicle for the trans-
mission of culture, or to assure normal de-
velopment, the same set of principles for
designing a curriculum of movement ex-
periences will apply.
The principles of developmentally ap-
propriate movement experiences are drawn
from approximately 100 years of research in
the area of motor development. In the next
five sections of this article, our task is to
introduce some of the major assertions war-
ranted by that research. We have been se-
lective in citing resources from that knowl-
edge base and in most instances have used
physical education exemplars to illustrate
major concepts. It will require little imagi-
nation for the reader to apply the same set
of principles to other physical activity ven-
ues such as sport, leisure activity, and ex-
ercise.
Physical Growth and Maturation
During the elementary school years chil-
dren's bodies undergo dramatic changes.
Some of those are perfectly obvious, but
others are subtle and invisible. Physical
growth and some aspects of maturation are
observable biological characteristics. Physi-
cal growth, for example, is both obvious to
the eye and easily measurable in centime-
ters/inches and kilograms/pounds. In con-
trast, the hormonal shifts and final steps in
cellular differentiation that mark full physi-
cal maturity are not directly observable.
Because growth and maturation are re-
lated through the agency of their underlying
mechanisms, they often move in parallel.
The prepubescent growth spurt experienced
by boys and girls between ages 9 and 11
couples obvious changes in height, weight,
body topography, and the distribution of
hair with far more subtle internal changes
that mark the achievement of puberty.
Puberty is controlled by a biological
time clock and is variable among children
(Malina, 1984). As facial and body hair ap-
pear on young males and breasts develop
on pubescent females we know that the pro-
cess of sexual maturation has begun. What
we cannot see, however, is when sexual
JANUARY 2008
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT183
maturation is attained. For females, the on-
set of menstruation is used as a marker of
sexual maturation, but that event does not
necessarily mean reproductive capacity has
been reached. Further, for males there is no
visibly clear and entirely reliable marker for
that significant step in the process of mat-
uration. Given, then, the complexity and
subtlety of physical growth and maturation,
several principles have evolved that offer
some useful guidance for thinking about
how those factors relate to physical educa-
tion.
Principle 1: Children Are Not
Miniature Adults
Children are smaller than adults, but if
we drew a child and an adult to the same
scale, they would look very different. That
is because children's bodies have vastly dif-
ferent proportions and composition.
Children have relatively larger heads,
shorter extremities, and smaller torsos than
adults (Martorell, Malina, Castillo, Men-
doza, & Pawson, 1988). When compared to
an adult, the younger the child, the greater
the difference in proportion. Progress to-
ward the adult form is gradual across child-
hood and adolescence. At birth the head is
about
25%
of the total body length, whereas
for an adult the head is about 12% of the
total height. Similarly, adult leg length ac-
counts for at least half of the total height,
but at birth the legs are about 30% of total
body length.
Thus,
if all of our body parts grew at the
same rate during childhood, adults would
have the same proportions as infants. So,
we can see that our extremities grow faster
than our torso, which grows faster than our
heads.
All of this has complex ramifications
for the development of motor capacities.
Consider, for example, how difficult tasks
like balancing and jumping are for young
children with their disproportionately short
legs and large heads.
Activities and equipment must be care-
fully selected to meet the needs of each
developmental level. For example, using
special wedge-shaped mats for gymnastics
helps young children overcome the me-
chanical disadvantages presented by their
short arms and legs when learning the sim-
ple rolls and turns of tumbling. Professional
physical educators understand how to se-
lect activities that are appropriate for pupils
of each age, developmental level, and ex-
periential background.
Principle 2: Boys and Girls Are More
Alike Than Different
The bodies of girls and boys are more
alike than different during childhood; how-
ever, differences do emerge during puberty
that give males a performance advantage in
certain activities after puberty (Malina,
Bouchard, & Bar-Or, 2004). At puberty, or
about 12-13 years of
age,
the growth of girls
slows dramatically and will stop com-
pletely at about 15-16 years of age. Males
reach puberty about 2 years later than girls
and therefore reach their adult size at about
17-19 years of age, thus growing 2 years
longer than girls. This means boys are typ-
ically taller, have longer legs (and arms),
and broader shoulders. Longer levers
(arms,
shoulder girth, and legs) provide me-
chanical advantages for males in many
tasks.
Girls who mature later also typically
have longer legs and a performance advan-
tage over earlier-maturing peers.
Prior to puberty, however, boys and girls
are similar in height and leg length. In fact,
in elementary school the physical advan-
tages may go to the earliest-maturing girls,
who are likely to be taller than everyone
else.
What this suggests is that care must be
taken when grouping students for partici-
pation in physical education lessons.
For some tasks, children can be distrib-
uted randomly into learning and practice
groups because differences among them are
either small or simply not critical to perfor-
mance. In other tasks, however, learning is
optimized if students with similar ability
can work together. That means effective
grouping cannot be based on an arbitrary
184THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
characteristic, irrespective of the conve-
rgence offered to the teacher by doing so.
In elementary school physical educa-
tion, that same caution concerning group-
ing applies with particular reference to gen-
der. Sorting pupils by previous experience,
level of skill, or even physical size may be
far more functional for effective instruction
than is the use of gender. For example, the
distribution curves for the motor ability and
skill achievement of boys and girls in the
primary grades overlap to such an extent
that they appear virtually congruent. If
ability is important for effective learning,
groups comprised exclusively of either gen-
der will produce the disadvantage of mix-
ing both high- and low-skilled pupils.
Principle
3:
Good Things Are Earned
Bones increase in length, circumference,
breadth, and density during childhood.
This growth is partially a result of weight-
bearing physical activity and the presence
of an adequate supply of dietary calcium.
Bailey (2000) estimates that L5 hours daily
of weight-bearing physical activity during
growth is necessary to assure bone density.
Increased physical activity during child-
hood is associated with a more robust skele-
ton (e.g., wider shoulders), increased bone
mineralization, slightly increased height,
less fat, and more muscle
(Broekoff,
1985).
More muscle is important because mus-
cle,
like a machine, uses energy, which
means that less is stored as fat. Less fat has
particular relevance because increased body
fat is associated with Type 2 diabetes during
childhood. In addition, having more muscle
is associated with better performance of
many motor skills, greater physical fitness,
and better health outcomes.
During puberty, girls gain fat with the
onset of menstruation and the increase in
estrogen associated with sexual maturation.
Unfortunately, for many girls puberty is
also a time of decreased physical activity, so
fat increases more than is necessary and
healthy. Boys typically maintain just under
15%
body fat during childhood and adoles-
cence, whereas girls increase from 15% to
25%
during the same ages (Morrow, Jack-
son, Disch, & Mood, 2005). Optimally, girls
should maintain 15%-24% body fat and
boys should stay below
19%
(American Col-
lege of Sports Medicine, 1995).
The American College of Sports Medi-
cine guidelines for body fat have direct im-
plications for physical education. The di-
mensions of the recently declared "obesity
epidemic" suggest that the accumulation of
too much body fat is not a condition limited
to adolescents and adults. It is a process that
is well under way among elementary school
children (U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 2001).
Physical education classes provide an
opportunity to learn about muscle and bone
growth and to engage in activities that will
keep bones healthy and muscles strong. To
strengthen any muscle group, there are
multiple exercises from which to choose.
Eor example, if a child cannot do a pull-up,
a modified or assisted pull-up can be sub-
stituted. With use, bones and muscles be-
come stronger, so the critical issue is to find
an activity that works to produce those re-
sults.
Any focus on a child's failure to ac-
complish a particular exercise task is un-
necessary and inappropriate. For that
reason, physical education teachers should
vary both warm-up and fitness activities to
maintain interest and modify motor skills
and practice formats so all children can suc-
ceed and improve.
Principle
4:
No Body Is Perfect
Physique is described in three body
shapes: the apple/pear (endomorph), mus-
cular (mesomorph), and linear (ectomorph)
(Carter, 1980). Many of us have balanced
physiques, meaning that we are a bit of each
primary shape. Early-maturing females
tend to be endomorphs, early-maturing
males tend to be mesomorphs, and later-
maturing children tend to be ectomorphs.
Because maturation is inherited, indi-
viduals have little control over the broad
outlines of their physique. It is physical ac-
JANUARY 2008
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT185
tivity and healthy eating that allow us to
make the most of the bodies we inherit, A
variety of positive experiences during physi-
cal education, however, can encourage chil-
dren to find activities that are enjoyable and
well suited to their physical attributes. Of
equal importance, physical education teach-
ers can help children understand that there
is no ideal body shape, that we are more
alike than different, and that all of us can
have healthy bodies.
Physical educators also can help chil-
dren understand changes that occur in
their bodies during puberty, distinguish
among things that can be changed (e,g,,
proportion of body fat) and those that can-
not (e,g,, stature), and accept responsibility
for maintaining a healthy body. So, al-
though the movement of children is the
signature characteristic of physical educa-
tion classes, the integration of knowledge
about health and growth should be part of
a complete elementary school curriculum
in the gymnasium,
IVIotor Skills
From the moment of birth, the child's motor
behaviors are used for a variety of assess-
ment purposes. Pediatricians use the earli-
est movements, reflexes, reactions, and mo-
tor milestones to determine the soundness
of the central nervous system and the pro-
gress of development. Years later, the same
children will use the performance of fun-
damental motor skills to judge each other.
The acquisition of rudimentary and fun-
damental motor skills allows children to ex-
plore their environment, exert their expand-
ing independence, and socialize through
the sharing of physical activity experiences.
Over time, increasingly specialized skills al-
low children to participate in activities with
their families and friends, and, ultimately,
to engage in both recreational activities and
competitive games.
Principle 1: Children Are Not
Miniature Adults
Skills generally fall into three categories:
(a)
locomotor (moving from one place to an-
other),
(b) nonlocomotor (staying in one
place while moving), and (c) manipulative
(working with an object), Locomotor (walk-
ing, running, jumping, sliding, galloping,
hopping, and skipping) and manipulative
skills (throwing, catching, kicking, and
striking) evolve systematically from 2 years
of age through early elementary school
(Roberton, 1984),
For example, we would expect to see a
2-year-old run with arms high, extended,
and straight (i,e,, picture Frankenstein's
monster walking), feet shoulder distance
apart, with a short, flat-footed step. We
would not expect to see that sort of gait in
an adolescent or adult. All such fundamen-
tal skills follow a pattern of developmental
change from the rudimentary form to the
adult form. All healthy children typically
progress through the same stages but may
do so at different rates.
The underlying processes that produce
this evolution of motor skills are not im-
mediately evident. Several factors influence
both the changes and the early differences
observable in the pace of change among
children. Some changes are due to growth;
for example, as legs get relatively longer,
the stride length in walking (and running)
increases. Similarly, as the relative head size
decreases and balance is less of a problem,
the torso and head move more freely and
by doing so facilitate increasingly complex
performances. Also, as muscle mass and
strength develop, greater stride length can
be supported in both walking and running.
Thus,
growth itself explains a substantial
part of the improvement in fundamental
motor skills.
Meanwhile, the central nervous system
is maturing in several dimensions; there are
increases in the number of synapses, devel-
opment of more complete myelination of
nerve trunks, and better central integration
of kinesthetic information. These develop-
ments allow better motor control as age in-
creases during childhood. All of these bio-
logical changes work with opportunities for
practice to improve the execution of skills.
186THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
The vertical alignment of a developmen-
tally appropriate physical education pro-
gram is designed to recognize individual
differences in rate of change in the funda-
mental skills and to capitalize on the con-
sistency of the order of these changes.
Teachers plan for the average and accom-
modate variation by individualizing up or
down within the lesson.
This process is evident when observing
the differences in lessons about the same
concept at two grade levels. For example,
when teaching a skill like throwing to
younger children (e.g., first grade), there
may not be a target, or the target is large.
For older children (e.g., fourth grade), how-
ever, the teacher may use a smaller target
or have children throw to a partner. In the
case of jumping, younger children often
practice from a stationary standing posi-
tion, whereas older children can combine
jumping with locomotor skills like running.
Principle 2: Boys and Girls Are More
Alike Than Different
The difference between boys' and girls'
performance of motor skills such as run-
ning, jumping, and swimming is very small
before puberty (Thomas & French, 1985).
The range of performance on most skills
during elementary school is greater within
a gender than between the genders. In
adults, where the biological difference be-
tween males and females is fully developed,
the difference explained by biology is about
10%
(Ransdell & Wells, 1999). The gender
difference between world-class atheletes
based on Olympic and world records is
10%
or less, yet the difference between the mean
performance levels of average males and fe-
males is often large—for throwing it has
been observed at 57% (Nelson, Thomas,
Nelson, & Abraham, 1986). Why?
Opportunity, practice, and encourage-
ment are the prime environmental vari-
ables that explain gender-based motor-
performance differences in the average
population. The one skill, throwing, for
which large gender differences are com-
monly observed during childhood helps us
to understand these environmental factors.
Substantial differences in throwing are
found between boys and girls as young as
4 years of age in most cultures worldwide
(Thomas & Marzke, 1992).
Unfortunately, most Americans can rec-
ognize when a child "throws like a girl," a
pattern of movement in which there is no
step forward with the opposite foot, the arm
motion resembles a dart throw in which the
object is pushed straight ahead rather than
being whipped around at the end of the
arm, and the torso is motionless rather than
rotating. The outcome of such a toss is either
an arching or a flat trajectory in which the
ball travels little distance forward.
Further, we can predict what would
happen if a father were to observe his little
girl throwing that way. He would likely
think, "Well, she is a girl." If his son threw
using the same motion, however, we would
predict an intervention and a different
result. Practice with dad until throwing
improves is just one of the many gender
inequities of opportunity, practice, and en-
couragement that produce early and sub-
stantial differences in the performance of
boys and girls.
Since the time when Title IX imposed
federal mandates, opportunities to learn
and perform have opened dramatically for
elite female athletes. For the typical female,
however, things remain much the same. Im-
poverished opportunities and low expecta-
tions during childhood surely have nega-
tive consequences for many females as they
reach puberty. The decrease in physical ac-
tivity observed among adolescent girls has
its origins in culture rather than biology.
High-quality elementary school physi-
cal education is organized so that all chil-
dren have an equal opportunity to practice
important motor skills and the encourage-
ment required to master them. Students
have the guidance of a teacher who under-
stands that gender differences should be
very small or even nonexistent. Motor de-
velopment research suggests that boys and
JANUARY 2008
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT187
girls should have the same physical edu-
cation experience in terms of curriculum,
expectations for learning, and assessment
of
achievement.
Principle
3:
Good Things Are Earned
Earlier in this section we discussed skills
that children in every culture perform (e.g.,
fundamental skills that are grounded in
simple reflexive reactions). Conversely,
skills that are specific to either a culture or
a peer group are called ontogenetic skills.
Many of these are extensions of or varia-
tions on fundamental skills. For example,
bowling a cricket ball and pitching a base-
ball are extensions of throwing, but the
skills are very different in execution.
These activity-specific skills—including
dance and gymnastics, team and individual
sports, and an enormous variety of exercise
activities ranging from calisthenics and
swimming to rollerblading and Hy cast-
ing—do not develop naturally. They are
learned as a result of effortful practice and,
for fortunate children, through the agency
of systematic instruction. Consider the chal-
lenge of an infant beginning to walk; infants
master this fundamental skill without les-
sons or coaching. Contrast that with the ef-
fort, time, and money spent trying to learn
to strike a golf ball! That contrast demon-
strates the centrality of instruction and
practice in the acquisition of ontogenetic
skills,
A developmentally appropriate physical
education curriculum in the elementary
school begins with fundamental skills,
builds to transitional skills, and then pro-
vides all children the opportunity to begin
learning ontogenetic skills. For many chil-
dren, especially low-income students, physi-
cal education may be the only opportunity
to leam these skills. For that reason, skill
practice, rules and strategy, and an introduc-
tion to opportunities for participation in the
commuruty are important components of the
elementary school physical education curric-
ulum. Although children may play at recess.
and some may participate in after-school
programs or in community-based youth
sport, physical education is the only place
where all children are systematically ex-
posed to these important activity-specific
skills.
Principle
4:
No Body Is Perfect
As children get older, performance on
motor skills improves in process and out-
come. Process is the way the skill looks and
how closely this performance resembles the
"ideal." Outcome (defined as the result pro-
duced by a motor performance) is usually
measured in speed, distance, or accuracy.
With practice and instruction, most children
can master a basic repertoire of movement
skills (e.g., manipulative and locomotor
skills).
If they do not have the advantage of
such assistance and are simply left to their
own devices, children's motor skills may
improve up to a point, but then progress
typically slows or stops (Haubenstricker &
Seefeldt, 1986). At that point, the combina-
tion of guided practice and accurate feed-
back from an external source is necessary
for improvement to continue.
Because opportunities for practice and
feedback are both critical and not uniformly
available, it is inevitable that children will
vary greatly in the quality of their motor-
skill performances. Such differentials are
entirely normal, but they also can be mis-
leading to children—and to adults.
Skill varies within a child, so the child
may be very good at kicking due to soccer
practice but not be as proficient at throwing
because that skill is not used in soccer. This,
of course, means that the mastery of indi-
vidual skills also will vary among children.
Thus,
one child may have outstanding skills
in soccer, whereas another is superior at
baseball. Most children (and many adults)
believe that these differences are due to in-
herent characteristics—talent—when, in
fact, most are due to learning (e,g., oppor-
tunities for instruction, practice, and feed-
back).
188THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
Physical Activity
Unfortunately, there is ample evidence that
many children do not maintain an adequate
level of physical activity. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (2000) has
established the national goal for children as
a minimum of
1
hour of physical activity on
most days of the week. A realistic example
of the degree of compliance with that goal
can be seen in the report from a recent
phone survey (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention [CDC], 2003). A sample of
9- to 13-year-old males and females (chil-
dren in the fourth through eighth grades)
were asked whether they had participated
in any organized sport or free-time physical
activity during the previous week. Only
38%
of the children reported engaging in
sport, and
23%
indicated they had engaged
in neither sport nor free-time activity. Based
on data such as those, it is reasonable to as-
sume that many children do not obtain even
the minimum recommended amount of
physical activity (CDC, 2006).
Principle 1: Children Are Not
Miniature Adults
By their nature, children are physically
active, but much of their activity is pro-
duced in short bursts rather than in sus-
tained bouts. That characteristic pattern
reflects fundamental physiological differ-
ences between children and adults. When
adults move from rest to vigorous exercise,
their cardiovascular systems can make sub-
stantial adjustments that deliver more oxy-
gen to the working muscles. Adults have
greater capacity to meet the demands of ex-
ercise stress and therefore more endurance
for sustained physical activity than do chil-
dren. Further, adult bodies respond to re-
peated bouts of exercise with the training
effect of increased cardiovascular efficiency.
In contrast, children's systems for deliv-
ering oxygen are continuously operating at
levels that are much closer to their maxi-
mum capacity. Accordingly, they reach their
maximum more quickly, fatigue more rap-
idly, and do not acquire the same training
benefits from repeated short bouts of exer-
tion (Bar-Or, 1983).
With regular opportunities to practice a
physical activity, children do show some
performance improvements in the areas of
flexibility, strength, and muscular endur-
ance,
but a significant part of those gains
often can be attributed to improvements in
technique. This is true, for example, when
simply learning how to pace themselves
produces dramatic early improvements in
time for the mile run.
Children often "exercise" in natural set-
tings by playing backyard games after
school and riding bikes. In that free form of
physical exertion, the typical child will be
significantly more active on a Saturday than
on a school day (here, "significantly" may
mean as much as 5 hours of physical activ-
ity on a Saturday compared to 1 hour on a
typical Wednesday). In recent years, how-
ever, the weekly number of entirely seden-
tary days has been expanding from the oc-
casional school day to virtually every day.
On a casual visit, physical education
classes may look like fun and games rather
than a day at the fitness center. That im-
mediate impression is no accident. For rea-
sons that will be obvious to all, enjoyment
is one of the most important characteristics
of quality physical education programs
(Wechsler, McKenna, Lee, & Dietz, 2004).
While having fun, children will be breath-
ing hard, sweating, improving their level of
fitness, learning skills, and preparing the
dispositions required to sustain the lifelong
habit of vigorous physical activity.
Principle
2:
Boys and Girls Are More
Alike Than Different
Several measures of muscle strength and
endurance demonstrate this principle, for
example, sit-ups, vertical jump, and grip
strength (Thomas
&
French, 1985). On these
tasks,
boys and girls have similar average
scores and ranges of scores during child-
hood. At puberty, most muscle strength and
endurance tasks begin to favor boys due to
the increase in testosterone, a hormone as-
JANUARY 2008
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT189
sociated with increased muscle mass and
sexual maturation in males.
Even before puberty, upper-body strength
is often lower in girls as demonstrated in
tasks such as push-ups and chin-ups.
Elementary-school-age boys typically can
complete between one and 10 chin-ups,
whereas girls complete 0-1 at the same ages.
There is considerable overlap between the
performance distributions, however, and for
both genders poor performance is largely
due to lack of practice rather than innate fac-
tors of growth and development.
Principle
3:
Good Things Are Earned
Fitness is an outcome of physical activ-
ity. Children improve on fitness tests from
fall to spring in part because they grow, but
their scores also rise because of the practice
associated with physical education classes
and experience with testing
itself.
Children
often perform more poorly on fitness tests
in the fall than they did in the previous
spring, suggesting the loss is due to both
their more sedentary vacation lives and the
value of physical education classes as a
source of fitness training during the school
year.
Physical activity in adults appears to be
positively associated with four aspects of
childhood: enjoying physical activity, ac-
quiring competence, gaining confidence
(Whitehead & Corbin, 1997), and opportu-
nities to try out a variety of activities
(Robertson-Wilson, Baker, Derbinshyre, &
Cote,
2003). In more general terms, we can
be certain that the most active children tend
to remain active as adults, and the least ac-
tive children tend to remain sedentary as
adults. Whatever the particular mecha-
nisms of influence may
be,
there is no doubt
that childhood experiences are important
predictors for adult physical activity and
health.
Many children do not enter elementary
school with a clear understanding of the re-
lation between the act of practice and the
result of improvement. Accordingly, physi-
cal education teachers often spend class
time helping children observe and under-
stand the process of skill acquisition. Eor ex-
ample, students often practice skill tests so
that they can see how their own progress is
directly linked to previous practice trials. In
that manner, the apparent fun and games of
elementary physical education may reflect
the teaching of important understandings—
as well as valuable motor skills.
Principle
4:
No Body Is Perfect
The obesity epidemic has focused con-
siderable attention on body weight, often as
expressed in terms of the body mass index
(BMI) (the ratio of weight to height) and the
relative proportion of fat in body composi-
tion. Many physical fitness tests include
items that reflect one or both of these factors
(Morrow et al., 2005).
Particularly in the case of children, how-
ever, great care must be taken when inter-
preting what test data really can tell us
about such constructs as overweight and
obesity. The goal of these measures is to de-
termine whether or not an individual child
is at a "healthy weight." The essential issue
is whether too much of the body weight is
fat, and any measure that uses only body
weight cannot make that determination. For
example, it is possible for a muscular indi-
vidual with an appropriate percentage of
body fat to be placed in the "overweight"
category because muscle weighs propor-
tionately more than other tissues. The po-
tential for an overemphasis on weight pres-
ents two additional problems: (1) an
exclusive focus on weight shifts attention
away from vigorous physical activity, a
positive health behavior at virtually any
body weight, and (2) an overemphasis on
weight may, in some vulnerable individ-
uals,
encourage unhealthy eating and a de-
sire to be "too thin."
In terms of health outcomes, it is more
important to be physically fit than to be of
precisely normal weight (Lee, Blair,
&
Jack-
son, 1999). Increasing physical activity does
have some long-term potential for reducing
body fat and, for some children, may pre-
190THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
vent overweight. To the extent, then, that
physical education can contribute to a
child's daily or weekly accumulation of
physical activity, it is reasonable to regard
it as a health resource for all children.
Psychological Factors
One of the challenges of physical education
is that performance is public. Unlike the
classroom, where many performances are
private, a mistake or poor performance in
physical education is visible to all. There-
fore,
even though the educative process
may be the same in the classroom and gym,
the psychological meaning of performance
in physical education may be profoundly
different for the child.
Principle 1: Children Are Not
Miniature Adults
During elementary school, the motiva-
tion to learn and master skills is driven by
the answers children obtain for two ques-
tions:
"Am I getting
better?"
and "Am
I
nor-
mal?"
[as skillful as most other classmates].
Children who answer those questions pos-
itively are likely to continue practicing and
learning (Scanlan, 2002), To answer those
questions, children must select a basis for
evaluating their performance and then test
themselves. One means of evaluation is to
compare a personal performance to that of
other children. Another source of judgment
is to ask an adult. Children who find cause
to deem themselves successful on the basis
of their comparisons, or in the judgment of
adults, tend to select challenging future
tests.
Children who regard themselves as
consistently unsuccessful either avoid
self-
evaluation in the future or select tests that
are not challenging.
Because we know that learning is great-
est when the task is challenging but also at-
tainable, it is important to assure that chil-
dren are encouraged to employ appropriate
measures for evaluating their performance.
For that purpose, evaluations based on im-
provement are almost always more helpful
than those based on peer comparisons, A
key role for the teacher in this process is to
select learning tasks that are appropriate to
the varying skill levels and experiences of
children and to encourage tests that are suf-
ficiently challenging to sustain interest and
a sense of accomplishment, by allowing
success in return for effortful practice.
Principle
2:
Boys and Girls Are More
Alike Than Different
The three reasons children most com-
monly give for voluntary participation in
physical activity are having fun, being with
friends, and learning new skills (Weiss,
2000),
These reasons are broadly the same
for boys and girls. Among elementary
school children, however, there is a differ-
ence in the emphasis. Boys are most moti-
vated by opportunities to be with their
friends, whereas girls are more likely to
seek activities that are fun (a fact that can
make them willing to give more attention to
learning new skills) (Robertson-Wilson et
al,,
2003;
Weiss, 2000), The end result, how-
ever, is the same. Experiences in physical
education that meet children's needs for fun
and accomplishment within a social context
will encourage future participation.
Principle
3:
Good Things Are Earned
Most children want to be successful in
school, that
is,
they have the desire to learn.
The problem is that achieving the desired
outcome requires both a belief in its possi-
bility and a clear understanding that suc-
cess will be Hnked to the behavior practiced,
A useful test of that understanding is con-
tained in how children "explain" successful
performance of motor skills, that
is,
to what
agency they attribute mastery of a skill.
Such "attributions" describe the factor
by which the child explains a performance.
Among elementary school children, the
most common attributions for successful
performance are hard work and practice,
good luck, innate ability, and easiness.
Those explanations are commonly trans-
lated as effort, chance, talent, and difficulty.
Physical education teachers, however.
JANUARY 2008
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT191
can influence children's attributions for suc-
cess (Horn, 1987).
In
attempting
to do so,
their usual goal
is to
encourage
the
belief
that success
is
correctly attributed
to
prac-
tice
and
hard work. That pedagogical
em-
phasis on effort is more important than may
be immediately obvious. The other three at-
tributions (luck, ability,
and
task difficulty)
are unstable and/or
out of the
child's
con-
trol. Thus, those explanations
for
success do
not support engagement
and
effort (Weiss
& Horn, 1990).
Achievement-goal approaches
to
moti-
vation theory identify
two
classes
of
goals:
task
and
ego.
Ego
goals focus
on
compari-
sons with peers, winning,
and
recognition,
and task goals focus on individual improve-
ment and personal mastery (Roberts, 1992).
Younger children tend
to
adopt
a
mastery
or task approach, whereas older children
may
not. For
many children, ego-oriented
goals
are
associated with decreased moti-
vation
and
attrition. Because teachers
can
influence children's thinking,
the
primary
emphasis should
be on
devising perfor-
mance goals that are task oriented (Weiss &
Horn, 1990).
Principle
4:
No
Body
Is
Perfect
In isolation, competition
is
neither good
nor
bad for
children. Consistently losing,
however, whether
in
competitive contexts
for individuals
or for
groups,
has the neg-
ative consequence
of
distorting children's
expectations
for
success.
For
example, chil-
dren on a consistently losing team predicted
a loss
in the
next game even after
a win
(Smith, Smoll,
&
Curtis, 1978).
In
contrast,
children
who
were
on
winning teams
pre-
dicted
a win in the
next game, even after
a
loss.
Accordingly, physical education teach-
ers monitor practice
and
competition with
great care so that no child is exposed to con-
sistent failure. For some children, other neg-
ative consequences
of
competition are anxi-
ety,
a
decline
in
the quality
of
performance,
and
a
decrease
in
willingness
to
participate
(Passer & Wilson, 2002).
For
the
most part, physical education
teachers de-emphasize competition
so
that
the primary focus
of
class activities is learn-
ing rather than winning. Often,
at the end
of
a
game, children will
ask the
teacher,
"Who won?" Experienced teachers have
an
extensive repertoire
of
responses
and
probes that redirect attention
to
more fruit-
ful questions: "Did you see improvement?"
"Did
you
have fun?"
"Did
everyone play
fairly?"
"How
would
you
change
the
rules?"
"Were there examples
of
good
sportsmanship?"
and
"Give me
an
example
of
how
cooperation helped
to
make
the
team successful."
Developmental Skill Acquisition
Children have
to
learn
how to
learn motor
skills.
That involves both learning
how to
interpret the outcomes
of
their practice per-
formances
and
acquiring
all of the
neces-
sary procedural knowledge about when
to
do what in the course of
a
lesson. Of course,
some developmental changes
in
learning
motor skills parallel learning
in
other areas
such
as
math
or
reading.
The
major differ-
ence
is in the
execution phase. Generally,
the error
in
math
is
computational,
not in
actually writing
the
answer.
In
contrast,
in
motor-skill performance, the error can be
in
either area. That
is, the
child
may
know
what
to do but
can't execute
the
needed
movement, may have no problem with pro-
ducing motor responses
but
does not know
what movement
is
required,
or may
have
difficulty with both aspects
of
performance.
Principle 1: Children Are
Not
Miniature Adults
Prior
to age 11,
children need help
with
the
activities that support learning
(Thomas, Gallagher, & Thomas, 2000).
One
part
of
learning is remembering the desired
elements
of
the task
to
be performed. There
are many strategies to assist memory, for ex-
ample, repeating
the
information
to be re-
membered. At
5
years of age children do not
repeat unless told
to do
so.
By age 7
some
children will spontaneously repeat salient
192THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
aspects of directions, but it is not until age
11
that adult-like memory strategies appear
in consistent use.
In physical education class children
have both sequential orders and key skill
components to remember (e.g., first bend
the knees, then look forward, use your fin-
gertips on the ball). If they can recall all of
that, they still must execute the skill as in-
dicated. Physical education teachers help
students remember sequences and key as-
pects of performance by using mnemonic
strategies. For example, BEEF describes the
characteristics of a good free throw in bas-
ketball (Bend knees. Eyes up. Elbows in.
Feet still).
Principle
2:
Boys and Girls Are More
Alike Than Different
Feedback and reinforcement are critical
factors in improving motor performance,
and the two appear to operate indepen-
dently from gender. Feedback about perfor-
mance allows girls and boys to identify and
correct errors, whereas teacher reinforce-
ment is valuable for consolidating correct
performances and sustaining motivation.
Principle
3:
Good Things Are Earned
In several studies, investigators have ex-
amined the differences between expert and
novice children in sport and dance. One
misconception is that expert child athletes
are "naturals" or possess special talent. The
research suggests that a more appropriate
way to describe the child who is a particu-
larly proficient performer would be "hard
worker,"
During childhood, two types of expert
performers are found: short term and long
term. The short-term experts have an expi-
ration date and are no longer experts as
adults. The explanation is the relative-age
effect, an advantage for older children
(Thomas & Thomas, 1999). The oldest chil-
dren in a cohort or group have a temporary
advantage over the younger (and less ma-
ture) children. For example, in baseball the
oldest players on a youth team will play the
skill positions—pitching and infield. When
all the children reach maturity, the advan-
tage of the relative-age effect disappears.
Unfortunately, an outcome of the relative-
age effect is that some children who might
become true long-term experts do not have
the same level of practice, experience, and
encouragement as the initially older and
more mature children. Those deficits often
lead to less mature and younger children
dropping out of participation altogether.
Among children, the long-term expert
performers of motor skills differ from their
peers primarily in their game-play compe-
tence (knowledge of what to do and when
to do it). Interestingly, among youth bas-
ketball players, the factor that changes most
during a season for experts and their jour-
neyman teammates is knowledge (French
&
Thomas, 1987). Skill does not improve, es-
pecially for the novices—probably a conse-
quence of the fact that experts tend to get
more skill practice and playing time.
The form of knowledge that best ex-
plains the game-playing competence of
high-performing children is their ability to
make decisions. As novices, children begin
with limited knowledge about what to do,
and, in turn, knowing what to do often pre-
cedes being able to perform the skill. For
example, youth tennis players were able to
explain what they wanted to do in a match
well before being able to execute the requi-
site skill (McPherson & Thomas, 1989). Ex-
pert players (at any age) can accurately and
rapidly make decisions that combine play-
ing context with a tactical response in the
form of "if-then-do" statements, "If this
happens, then I do ,"
Principle
4:
No Body Is Perfect
When considering the skills required for
participation in various physical activities,
one question that always attracts interest is.
How much in the acquisition of a skill is
due to genetics and how much to practice?
(Starkes, 2003), That question is not easily
answered and varies by the activity. For
example, becoming an expert basketball
JANUARY 2008
MOTOR DEVELOPMENT193
player is far more difficult if one is short
rather than tall. In contrast, being tall is a
disadvantage in mastering almost any of
the component activities within the sport of
gymnastics. Girls and boys in elementary
school physical education classes clearly
display all of the advantages and disadvan-
tages provided by such heritable character-
istics.
Nevertheless, opportunity, encourage-
ment, instruction, and practice are also im-
portant to skill development. In fact, for the
typical child, opportunity, encouragement,
and practice are the central elements in ac-
quiring the level of skill needed to partici-
pate in most physical activities. No more
than a moderate level of skill is required to
enjoy most forms of physically vigorous ex-
ercise, and, certainly, one does not have to
be an expert to enjoy participation in rec-
reational sports and activities.
Thus, the task for elementary physical
education is to provide all children with a
solid foundation of basic movement skills,
plus an introduction to a wide variety of
activity-specific performance skills. All of
that must be accomplished in a learning
context that allows the joys and satisfac-
tions of movement to permeate the class ex-
perience. The end objective is to produce a
learner who is confident in his or her indi-
vidual capacities and positively disposed to
discover and master new ways of remain-
ing physically active throughout life.
Summary
Quality physical education programs are
evidence based. The results from 100 years
of research on children's motor develop-
ment are the foundation for developmen-
tally appropriate physical education. From
that body of knowledge we can derive three
assertions that are foundational: children
are more alike than different, children pro-
gress through the same stages of develop-
ment in the same order, and it is the rate of
those developments that varies among chil-
dren.
In this article we have used four princi-
ples to tie together five aspects of motor-
development research (e.g., growth and de-
velopment, biomechanics, pediatric exercise
physiology, psychological factors, and the
process of motor-skill acquisition). We se-
lected those principles because each is im-
portant in understanding how children de-
velop and what that information means for
physical education.
• Children
are
not miniature adults.
In the
rush
to
have children grow up all
too
quickly, adults must
not
forget that
childhood lasts
12 or
more years
for
a reason. Development
is a
process
that takes time
and
nurturing care
if
it
is to
reach
a
successful conclusion.
•
Boys and girls are more alike than
differ-
ent. Although
we
have given atten-
tion here
to the
particular matter
of
gender, the fact is that all children are
more alike than different.
The pri-
mary outcome
of
applying this prin-
ciple
in
education is,
of
course, inclu-
sion.
•
Good things are
earned.
Education
is
an
intervention based
on
the notion that
environment does matter
and
that
nurture
is an
important factor
in de-
velopment. The practical implication
of this principle
is
that teachers
and
students
are
jointly responsible
for
learning
in
physical education. Both
must cultivate
an
attitude that
fo-
cuses
on
effort, practice,
and im-
provement. Motor-development
re-
search does confirm, unconditionally,
that good things come
to
those
who
work hard.
•
No
body
is
perfect.
One of the
joys
of
being
an
educator
is
appreciating the
uniqueness
of
each individual.
Ac-
cepting
the
variability within
and
among individual children and max-
imizing
the
potential that results
from
the
endless combinations
of
their characteristics is one
of
the great
secrets
to
success
as an
educator.
Note
The authors may be contacted
at the
follow-
ing
e-mail
addresses: ktthomas@iastate.edu
and
jrthomas@iastate.edu.
194THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL
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