Gross motor skill development in Jengka primary schools: a comparative analysis

Proficiency in gross motor skills holds significant importance for children to achieve a high proficiency in movement that involves the use of major muscle groups in different environment settings. Without suitable progress of fundamental motor skills in the duration of childhood stage, the success of sport-specific at the level of competition is still unreachable in the future. Thus, the objective of the research was to compare the level of gross motor development among school children in Jengka, Pahang. A cross-sectional approach was used to perform this study. This study involved the participation of 110 children from two distinct locations: rural and urban areas, with 50 from rural areas and 60 from urban areas. The tool used to assess the gross motor skill development levels was the Test of Gross Motor Development- Version 2 (TGMD-2). Two subtests in TGMD-2 include 6 skills in each subtest which arelocomotor (gallop, leap, horizontal jump, hop, slide, run) and object control (catch, overhand throw, underhand roll, kick, striking a stationary ball, stationary dribble). The gross motor skill development levels were ranked based on both raw and standard scores according to its Gross-Motor Development Quotient (GMDQ). The Independent Samples T-Test was used to analyze the data. The results highlighted that there was a significant difference (p<;0.05)between the two groups. Rural children had higher mean and standard deviation (98.44±11.391) compared to urban schools(89.90±10.991) for GMDQ scores. The findings of the present study revealed that children in urban schools exhibitedpoor motor skill development levels compared with rural schools. The children might be affected by the environmental differences in their respective living areas as children living in rural areas tend to have better gross motor skills than those living in urban areas, which is believed to be due to spending more time outdoors and being more adapted to thedemands of playing outside. The findings offer insights that physical education teacher can improve the quality in physical activities that would benefit the development of gross motor skills of children.