Acquisition of Unfamiliar Motor Tasks in Young Children: BOT-2-Based Preliminary Phase-Specific Descriptive Estimates for Learning Progression

Background: Early childhood movement programs require developmentally appropriate progression of motor tasks, but practical information on how young children acquire unfamiliar tasks with different structural and coordinative demands remains limited. This exploratory study examined phase-specific acquisition time in relation to baseline motor proficiency and selected unfamiliar motor tasks in young children. Methods: A total of 161 children aged 58–90 months participated in a standardized seven-week task-acquisition protocol involving nine unfamiliar motor tasks. The tasks were provisionally classified according to their structural and coordinative demands as simple task set, complex task, and highly complex task. Phase 1 was defined as the first successful execution of the essential task structure, and Phase 2 as the first observable point of initial refinement. Both outcomes were expressed as cumulative task-specific acquisition time, determined retrospectively from video recordings. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine associations between task-demand category, continuous BOT-2 score, and phase-specific acquisition time. Additional adjusted models included previous structured movement exposure, expressed as cumulative exposure in hours. Results: Children with higher baseline BOT-2 scores generally reached early acquisition phases faster, while phase-specific acquisition time tended to increase across tasks with greater structural and coordinative demands. Previous structured movement exposure was associated with shorter phase-specific acquisition time. However, because the complex and highly complex categories were each represented by a single task, the findings should be interpreted as task-specific and exploratory rather than as evidence of generalizable effects of task-demand level. Conclusions: The findings provide preliminary phase-specific descriptive estimates of acquisition time for selected unfamiliar motor tasks in young children. These estimates may help researchers and practitioners consider how task demands, baseline motor proficiency, and previous movement experience interact during early task acquisition. However, they should not be interpreted as fixed progression thresholds. Future studies should include multiple tasks within each demand category, independent validation of task-demand classification, and retention or transfer assessments to examine motor learning beyond early practice performance.