Abstract

VIDAL, Sónia Moreira et al. Motor coordination centile charts of children aged 6 to 11 years in the Azores Autonomous Region, Portugal. Rev. Port. Cien. Desp. [online]. 2009, vol.9, n.1, pp.24-35. ISSN 1645-0523.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to produce centile curves of Motor Coordination and the distribution of their values in Azorean children aged 6 to 11 years according to age and sex. Methodology: Sample size comprises 2359 girls and 2365 boys of the Autonomous Region of the Azores; they were evaluated with the KTK battery, which includes four tests: backward balance, jumping sideways, hopping on one leg and shifting platforms. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated on SPSS 15. We used LMS software version 1.32 compute centile using maximum likelihood, and Excell to construct the centile curves. Results: Both sexes showed visible increase in performance not only in mean values but also in extreme performance, described by such percentiles as P3, P10, P90 or P97. Conclusions: Motor Coordination performance percentile values may be used to portray individual profiles and to interpret their meaning according to what is expected for a given age and scholar level. Hence the contribution of this study in terms of teaching purposes for Physical Education in primary schools.

Keywords : motor coordination; centiles curves; physical education.

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