Loreto Alonso’s doctoral research supports school and community interventions to promote children’s motor development
The programs analyzed in her dissertation showed, above all, improvements in skills related to object control.
Learning to run, jump, or throw a ball is part of every child’s development during the early years of life. These abilities, known as fundamental motor skills, facilitate participation in games, physical activities, and sports, and can help children maintain an active lifestyle from an early age. A doctoral dissertation defended at the Public University of Navarre (UPNA) examined how factors such as family, teachers, schools, and the wider environment influence the development of these skills in children aged 4 to 6 years. The research, conducted by Loreto Alonso Martínez (Oviedo, Asturias, 1992), a graduate in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, concludes that interventions implemented through schools and communities can help improve certain motor skills, particularly those related to object control, such as throwing, catching, bouncing, or dribbling a ball.
One of the studies included in the dissertation analyzed different programs designed to improve children’s daily lifestyle habits. These initiatives focused not only on increasing physical activity but also on reducing sedentary time and promoting adequate sleep.
The findings show that this type of program, which acts in a coordinated manner on students, families, and the school environment, is effective in improving fundamental motor skills, especially those requiring object control. These include common actions found in many children's games, such as throwing, catching, bouncing, or striking a ball. By contrast, the effects were more limited in other areas, such as overall physical fitness or changes in the broader set of behaviours related to physical activity, sedentary lifestyles, and sleep.
A Reference Framework for Assessing Motor Development
The dissertation also established reference values for assessing motor skills among Spanish children. To do so, more than 200 schoolchildren completed a series of tests. These activities evaluated, for example, whether they could maintain balance, jump, roll, move, throw a ball, or catch it. The results confirmed that these tests are suitable for evaluating children in Spain and made it possible to establish age- and sex-specific reference values.
“The results showed better performance among boys in object-control tasks, whereas similar outcomes were observed between boys and girls in the other dimensions, along with a progressive improvement with age,” explains Loreto Alonso.
Memory, Attention, and Impulse Control
Another study included in the doctoral dissertation examined certain mental abilities that help individuals pay attention, remember instructions, control impulses, and adapt to new situations, collectively referred to as executive function. These abilities are necessary, for example, to wait for one’s turn, follow the rules of a game, remember a sequence of movements, or change strategy when an activity does not go as expected. The research assessed children between 3 and 7 years of age.
“The results show progressive cognitive development with age, as well as sex-related differences, with girls performing better, particularly in inhibitory control, which is the ability to regulate impulses and avoid automatic responses,” the researcher notes.
The Influence of Parents
The final part of the dissertation examined whether parents’ physical activity levels and physical fitness were related to their children’s motor development and lifestyle habits. The results indicate that a child’s age and sex explain differences in motor skills and physical fitness better than their parents’ level of physical activity. However, the study found that better maternal physical fitness was associated with some healthier childhood routines, including better sleep quality and higher levels of physical activity.
“This dissertation highlights that, although the family plays an important role, motor development and the adoption of healthy habits during childhood depend largely on strategies focused on the school and community environment,” says Loreto Alonso. “In this regard, it is essential to guarantee equitable motor opportunities within the educational context.”
Loreto Alonso carried out her research within the Exercise, Health, Metabolism and Functional Capacity (E-FIT) Research Group at Navarrabiomed, the biomedical research center jointly supported by UPNA and the Government of Navarre. The dissertation was supervised by two faculty members from the university: Professor Mikel Izquierdo Redín, head of the E-FIT group, and Associate Professor Alicia Alonso Martínez, director of the Observatory of Physical Activity among Schoolchildren in Navarre. The dissertation was completed under the International Doctorate program.
