The role of music and sport experiences in motor coordination: insights into extracurricular activities and child development

Extracurricular activities, particularly sports and music, are associated with motor coordination and thus critical for children’s physical and cognitive development. This study examined the relationships of age, gender, and sport and music experiences, separately and combined, with motor coordination in primary school students. A cross-sectional study included 658 children (364 boys, 294 girls; aged 9–11 years, M = 9.80, SD = 0.79) in Bangkok. Motor coordination was assessed using the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder (KTK), and background information was obtained through questionnaires. Two-way ANOVA was used to evaluate age- and gender-related differences, and hierarchical regression examined contributions of sport and music experiences. Results showed that boys reported greater sport experience than girls, whereas no gender difference was observed for music experience. Children aged 11 years reported lower levels of sport and music experience than younger children. Significant main effects of age and gender were observed for sport experience (age: F [2,652] = 8.394, p < .001, η² = 0.025; gender: F [1,652] = 11.464, p < .001, η ² = 0.017), whereas music experience showed a significant age effect only ( F [2,652] = 11.286, p < .001, η² = 0.033). A significant age × gender interaction in motor coordination ( F [2,652] = 4.137, p = .016, η ² = 0.013) indicated that gender differences varied across age groups. Sport experience was the strongest predictor of motor coordination ( β = 0.551, p < .001), while music experience showed a smaller but significant effect ( β = 0.279, p < .001). The interaction between sport and music experiences was statistically significant but small (Δ R ² = 0.005, p = .016). These findings highlight potential complementary associations of sport and music experiences with motor coordination and support the inclusion of diverse movement-based programs within school curricula.