Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

If a child has difficulty coordinating their body they may be less likely to be physically active and this may be bad for their health. Older children who are less coordinated tend to be less healthy; however, we do not know how young these health issues start. In our study, we have tested over 400 preschool children (age 3-5) once per year for 3 years. Each year we examined their motor skills by watching them do activities like jump, throw and balance. We then measured how healthy they were by looking at things like blood pressure, body fat and fitness. We found that children with better motor coordination had better fitness and less body fat, however their blood pressure was about the same as children with worse motor coordination. As motor coordination appears to be related to health even from a young age, it is important that we support all children to develop their motor skills in order to prevent them from becoming overweight and unfit as they get older.