The development of children’s fundamental motor skills (FMS) is shaped by the environment surrounding them. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the changes of children’s FMS after an intervention program differed between classes conducted in different schooling conditions. Participants were 295 preschool children (62 boys, 133 girls; M = 5.4 years; SD = 0.28) from eight preschools in Hong Kong. Children participated in an 8-week FMS program and their FMS were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2). A linear mixed model was used to analyze the association on the changes of FMS score between children in different schooling conditions: (1) teaching venue size (large or small); and (2) class size (large, medium, or small), while accounting for the clustering of participants within preschools. The changes of object control skills were significantly different between groups with different teaching venue size (p = 0.000) (small: 5.54 (SD = 5.84) vs. large: 2.46 (SD = 6.42)) and different class size (p = 0.000) (small: 8.12 (SD = 6.34) vs. medium: 2.92 (SD = 6.26) vs. large: 4.00 (SD = 5.79)). The findings have practical implications for the teaching of FMS in that the social and physical environment in preschools should be considered for the design of FMS intervention programs. Copyright © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

This study investigated the fundamental motor skill proficiency of Hong Kong children ages 6-9. Ninety-one male and 76 female Chinese students (mean age = 7.6 years) from six local primary schools in Hong Kong participated in this study. The Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition (TGMD-2) was administrated to assess the mastery of gross motor skills by an experienced physical education instructor. The performance was videotaped, and it was rated by the same physical education instructor again (1 week apart) to show the reliability (0.88-0.97). Results showed that the participants were in general superior to the normative samples from the TGMD-2 manual, scoring a gross motor quotient (GMQ) of 56.8-80.9. Overall, 24% of the participants were rated as superior, 36% as above average, 47% as average, and 2% as below average. Excellent proficiency (>80% in every subitem) was observed in running, galloping, leaping, sliding, catching, and throwing skills. In comparing the results with other studies, we found that the participants were superior to the data reported in previous studies in United States, Brazil, and Australia. This study added valuable information to the establishment of a worldwide normative reference for the comparison of future studies in other countries.
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