Clumsy children may avoid physical activity. Here’s how to help them become active

Children are born to play!

And yet, despite our best efforts, many parents and professionals find that some children are not motivated to get moving and prefer watching television instead. Among the potential causes of this, several studies had revealed that clumsy children, i.e. those with poor motor skills, have a tendency to withdraw from physical, sports and leisure activities.

We are, respectively, a doctoral student in education and a professor of physical activity science and motor development at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Our present research at the Laboratoire de recherche en motricité de l’enfant (Child motor skills research laboratory) aims to understand this little-known phenomenon, particularly when it affects children with a specific learning disability (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysorthographia), in order to avoid the negative cycle of disengagement.

What are motor skills?

Throwing a ball, tinkering or kicking a ball might seem like simple activities. However, to perform them, a person’s brain must continually use sensory information from their body and detect information from their environment to be able to plan, produce and correct movements.

What’s more, a person has to co-ordinate their posture and their fine, gross and ocular motor skills, all the while maintaining their body’s balance to ensure they don’t fall over. Moving is very complex, especially when you have to be precise, follow a set pace, or find strategies to outwit an opponent, for example.

These are what we call motor skills. They are particularly important for playing games. Balancing, handling and controlling objects, as well as locomotor movements (e.g. jumping, running) are “fundamental” motor skills. It is essential to develop these in childhood and to practise them regularly in contexts that are both fun and varied, since they become the foundation on which other motor skills are built.

Development of motor skills

Certain factors influence the development of motor skills, such as maturation (age), experience (practice), social context (e.g. overprotection, neglect) and the integrity of the child’s systems from birth (e.g. nervous and musculoskeletal).

Of course, if a child never rides a bike, they won’t have the chance to develop this skill. Lack of stimulation can also cause developmental delays. However, if difficulties persist even after regular practice, we must consider the possibility that the problems are due to neurological deficits.

When a child’s motor skills are inferior to those of other children their age, they are considered to have motor difficulties or a motor disorder if their performance on the standardized motor test is below the 16th percentile.

Which children are at risk of motor difficulties?

Populations at risk of motor difficulties include children who are premature, come from vulnerable backgrounds or have neurological conditions such as neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. developmental co-ordination disorder/dyspraxia).

The latter cause a dysfunction in brain maturation, i.e. an alteration in brain development, which affects children’s abilities, including some that enable them to move efficiently.

A recent literature review carried out by Mariève Blanchet (co-author of this article) and neuroscientist Christine Assaiante also shows that motor skills are significantly impaired in children with a learning disability who have no other associated disorders. In fact, compared with their typically developing peers of the same age, these children have difficulty performing different types of actions and have to use a variety of compensatory strategies in order to move.

Multiple consequences of motor difficulties

Motor difficulties can be detrimental to children’s learning and overall development.

Because of their clumsiness, these children tend to withdraw from the activities available to them (leisure activities, local parks, sports, games, etc.) since they lack confidence in their abilities. Added to this lack of confidence, these children may also enjoy taking part in activities less, and tire more quickly than their peers.

As a result, they are less physically active, leading to a sedentary lifestyle.

Suggestions for helping these children

It is essential to adapt activities so that young people feel competent moving, and to vary the activities offered to them so that they can make choices, experience success and then commit to physical activity and sport. This is especially important for young people with motor difficulties, such as those with a learning disability.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Outdoors: Playing and being active outdoors has a number of benefits. It facilitates social inclusion and increases the intensity of activities, opportunities and the wealth of sensory-motor and cognitive stimulation.

• Co-operation: Opt for activities that encourage co-operation rather than competition. Co-operation promotes inclusion, participation and socialization and increases peer acceptance.

• Slow progression of activities: Encourage practising the same task in a variety of contexts. For example, a child could run on a flat, linear and regular surface (asphalt), then progress to a sloping surface that has some curves, is irregular (roots on the ground), textured (grass, gravel), unstable (sand, rocks, branches) or narrow (rope, plank, lines on the ground, beam, strip of pavement). They could also run in water and snow. It is important to start with simple tasks (dribbling on the spot) rather than double tasks (dribbling while running or dribbling and listening to instructions).

• Free play: Offer periods of activity initiated and directed by the children, with no procedures or structure imposed by an adult, reusing materials that do not necessarily refer to sports (such as cones, rope, boxes, etc.). Free play fosters creativity, independence, motor skills, self-confidence and social inclusion.

For further suggestions and to learn more about motor difficulties, watch the video from the Laboratoire de recherche en motricité de l’enfant.