Gross motor skill development of 5-year-old Kindergarten children in Myanmar.
Thanda Aye, Khin Saw Oo, Myo Thuzar Khin and 2 others
PMID 29184287WHAT IT FOUND
Most Myanmar 5-year-olds scored average on gross motor testing.
Rural children scored higher than urban children on running, jumping and hopping; boys scored higher than girls on throwing and kicking. Treat these patterns as local baselines, not proof of delay.
Key findings
01Of 472 children, 218 (46.2%) were rated average on the overall gross motor quotient, and only 3 (0.6%) were rated very poor.
02Boys scored significantly higher than girls on striking, stationary dribble, kick, overhand throw and underhand roll, and on object-control raw scores; catch and object-control standard scores did not differ.
03Rural children scored significantly higher than urban children on locomotor skills and overall gross motor quotient; urban children scored significantly higher on object-control standard scores and percentiles.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
The children came from only two regions of Myanmar out of 15, so the results may not represent all kindergarten children in the country. The study compared urban and rural schools by location, but it did not objectively measure family socioeconomic status, so part of the difference may be linked to wealth, school resources or other unmeasured factors. Nutrition, culture and ethnicity were not assessed, although these can influence growth and movement opportunities. Because the study measured children only once, it cannot show that being rural or male causes higher scores. The sample included one private school whose children were from high-income families, which may make the urban group less comparable to the rural group.
Declared interests
The paper states that no conflict of interest was declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the rural or male score advantages as evidence that living in a rural area or being male improves gross motor development. This was a cross-sectional assessment of children in two regions of Myanmar, and the study did not measure socioeconomic status, nutrition, culture or ethnicity, so it cannot show why the scores differed.