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Motricidade

Print version ISSN 1646-107X

Abstract

MARTINS, Vera; SILVA, António J.; MARINHO, Daniel A.  and  COSTA, Aldo M.. Global motor development of elementary school-aged children with and without previous swimming practice in schools. Motri. [online]. 2015, vol.11, n.1, pp.87-97. ISSN 1646-107X.  https://doi.org/10.6063/motricidade.3219.

The purpose of our study was to describe the level of global motor development of elementary school-aged children with and without previous swimming practice. The study sample consisted of 140 Portuguese elementary school-aged children, from 1st to 4th grade: 53 children with no previous experience in aquatic programs and; 87 children classified as experienced through participating in previous swimming programs within the school environment. To assess global motor development, the "Test of Gross Motor Development 2" was used. Our results showed significant differences (p < .05) between groups of children regarding to the global motor development and mastery of various skills in all grades. The influence of previous swimming practice seems greater on objects control skills. Nevertheless, the qualitative classification of motor development is mostly low for both groups. In conclusion the current results showed that the level of global motor development of Portuguese elementary school-aged children, based on the proposed American normative scale, is relatively low. Nevertheless, children with prior involvement in swimming programs within the educational context seem to meet an optimized motor development state on several global motor skills but particularly on objects control skills.

Keywords : global motor development; fundamental motor skills; swimming; children.

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