Young Children's Divergent Movement Ability

To examine the relations of age, gender, movement experience, and gross motor development to young children's scores on divergent movement (i.e., ability to perform and modify fundamental movement patterns), 40 boys and girls ages 4, 6, and 8 years were tested. Ability to make divergent movements was evaluated by having subjects perform 3 different fundamental movement tasks. Movement experience was assessed by asking parents to complete a questionnaire. Ulrich's Test of Gross Motor Development was used to evaluate subjects' gross motor skill. Testing sessions were videotaped for analysis. Based on a forward stepwise regression analysis, experience and age accounted for 45% of the variance in children's gross motor skill.