Effectiveness of a novel digital application to promote fundamental movement skills in 3- to 6-year-old children: A randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT

Objective

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are the foundational building blocks for lifetime participation in physical activity (PA). Programmes to promote FMS development have been primarily delivered in childcare settings. No studies have evaluated the effectiveness of an interactive digital application, designed to be co-used by parent and child, to increase FMS proficiency in preschool-aged children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Moovosity™ programme, a novel digital application to increase FMS proficiency in 3- to 6-year-old children. Methods: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted involving 34 parent-child dyads randomly assigned to either the 8-week intervention (n = 17) or wait-list control (n = 17) condition. FMS proficiency, PA, and parental support for PA was assessed at baseline and 8-weeks. Intervention participants were given free access to the app over a period of 8 weeks. Wait-listed controls were given access after the 8-week period. Group differences for pre to post changes in outcomes were tested for significance using general linear mixed models. Results: There was a significant group by time interaction for object control skills (F_1,32 = 10.81, P = 0.003). Intervention children exhibited significant improvements in object control skills, while children in the wait-list control group exhibited a modest decline. Intervention children also exhibited improvements in locomotor skills, while wait-listed controls exhibited minimal change; however, the group by time interaction fell outside the 0.05 level of significance (F_1,32 = 3.15, P = 0.09). There were no significant intervention effects observed for child PA (F_1,32 = 0.03, P = 0.86) and parental support for PA (F_1,32 = 0.84, P = 0.37). Conclusions: An 8-week exposure to a digital application to promote motor competence within a family environment was effective in improving FMS proficiency in preschool-aged children. The results warrant further investigation in larger trials.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool children
• movement competence
• motor competence
• apps
• m-health
• physical activity

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the families and children for their participation in this study.

Authors contributions

SGT designed the study; DSKB recruited the participants; SGT analyzed and interpreted the data; SGT and DSKB drafted the manuscript; SGT and DSKB critically reviewed and edited the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Trial registration

ISRCTN, ISRCTN12852968. https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN12852968

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Prior to participation, parental written consent was obtained for their child to participate in the study. The study was approved on 17/08/2018 by the Queensland University of Technology Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval # 1800000675).

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this research.