Associations Between Exercise Experiences in the Home Environment During Early Childhood and Motor Skill Development in Preschool Children: A Longitudinal Follow-Up Study

Background/Objectives: Early childhood is a critical period for physical development, yet the long-term impact of initial exercise experiences on specific motor skills remains underexplored. This study adopted a longitudinal follow-up design to examine the development of specific motor skills, while early exercise experiences were assessed retrospectively. We examined differences by age, sex, and skill type. Methods: Participants were drawn from a single private preschool in Japan. Early exercise experiences defined as the frequency of physical play and active movement opportunities in the home environment were retrospectively categorized as abundant or limited based on parental reports. Five motor skills (25 m dash, standing long jump, tennis ball throw, double-leg continuous jump, and plank duration) were measured longitudinally in children at ages 3, 4, and 5. Results: Among boys, the abundant group demonstrated significantly superior performance in four of the five motor skills, excepting the tennis ball throw. Notably, a significant interaction between age and early exercise experiences was observed in boys’ double-leg continuous jump (p = 0.041, ηp2 = 0.044); the initial performance gap at age 3 substantially diminished by age 5, illustrating a catch-up effect. Conversely, no consistent differences based on early exercise experiences were observed among girls across any motor skills. Conclusions: Motor skill development during early childhood is highly skill-specific and sex-dependent. The observed catch-up effect in double-leg continuous jumps, although requiring cautious interpretation due to the observational nature of this study, suggests that preschool environments may play a vital role in bridging early developmental gaps. Ultimately, this study highlights the crucial, complementary roles of both home and early childhood education settings in maximizing motor development.