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The current study evaluated the developmental characteristics of printed and cursive letter writing in early school-age children. We predicted fewer age-related changes on spatial and temporal measures in cursive letter writing due to lower explicit timing demands compared with printed letter writing. Thirty children wrote the letters e and l in cursive and printed forms repetitively. For printed letters, significant age effects were seen in temporal consistency, whereas cursive letters showed age-related improvement in spatial consistency. Children tended to have higher consistency for printed handwriting than they did for cursive writing. Because of an overall advantage for printed handwriting, the explicit timing hypothesis was not fully supported. We argue that experiential factors influence the development of handwriting.

The objectives of this study were to examine sex and age differences in fundamental motor skills (FMS) and to describe the prevalence of low motor proficiency and mastery competence. The Test of Gross Motor Development—Second Edition was used to assess 2,377 children (3–10 years old) from eight states and 75 schools in Brazil. The results showed that (a) boys are more proficient than girls in the majority of FMS, (b) FMS development begins to plateau at age 7, (c) low motor proficiency is present at age 10 for several FMS, and (d) mastery competence was achieved by only a small number of children. These findings suggest that increased opportunities to engage in physical activity that promotes FMS competence are needed.

The Test of Gross Motor Development, 3rd Edition (TGMD-3) is a process-oriented fundamental movement skill assessment to examine the movement patterns displayed by children between the ages of 3 and 10 years. Within this paper, results of a pilot study on the reliability, validity, and measurement invariance across gender of the TGMD-3 (German translation) are presented. In total, performances of 189 typically developing children (99 boys, 90 girls, 56 kindergarten children, 133 elementary school children, M _age = 7.15 ± 2.02 years) are analyzed. Results provide preliminary evidence for test-retest, interrater and intrarater reliability, internal consistency, age- and gender- specific performance trends, factorial validity, measurement invariance across gender, divergent validity, and ball skill–related concurrent and predictive validity of the TGMD-3 (German translation). Subsequent research should be focused on a verification of the present findings on a representative database to foster the application of the TGMD-3 (German translation) in different settings.

This study examined the effect of demonstration conditions (multimedia and live) in school-age children on performance of the Test of Gross Motor Development—Second Edition (TGMD-2) locomotor and object control subscale raw scores, and participants’ enjoyment in the preoperational and operational stages of cognitive development. Forty-five children ages 5–10 years were divided into two age groups: younger (n = 21, M _age = 5.95 years, SD = .80) and older (n = 24, M _age = 8.96 years, SD = .86). Children completed the TGMD-2 under two counterbalanced conditions: live and multimedia demonstration. Immediately following each testing condition, children ranked their enjoyment and completed a semistructured interview. Paired sample t tests examined motor skill and enjoyment differences in each age group. For both groups, no statistically significant differences were present for motor skill performance or participants’ enjoyment between the two demonstration conditions (p ≥ .05). Overall, 44.5% of participants preferred the multimedia demonstration, while 32.5% preferred the live demonstration. Mixed responses were reported by 22.5% of participants. Within age groups, younger participants preferred the multimedia demonstration more than older participants (multimedia = 50%, 41%; live = 23%, 41%, respectively). This study provides evidence that multimedia demonstration may be suitable for administration of the TGMD-2.

The performance of various fundamental movement skills is important for children with movement difficulties (MD) to be successful in physical education and play. The current study aimed to provide a detailed understanding of the aspects impaired in the performance of static and dynamic locomotor and object control skills among children with MD, identified with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, relative to their same-aged peers without MD. Children, 7–10 years, were recruited from three elementary schools. Eighteen children with MD (mean age = 9.14 years, SD = 0.97) and 18 without MD (mean age = 9.12 years, SD = 0.97) participated in the study. Quantitative and qualitative aspects of their movement performance were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2) and PE Metrics. Children with MD demonstrated significantly poorer performance than children without MD for locomotor skills on the PE Metrics and object control skills on both the TGMD-2 and PE Metrics. The findings of this study suggest that children with MD primarily demonstrate immature movement patterns, inefficient movement strategies, and impaired aspects of movement that impact their performance for dynamic object control skills.