Relationship Between Morphological Characteristics and Motor Abilities in Children

Abstract

Understanding the relationship between motor abilities and anthropometric characteristics in children of younger school age is of considerable importance for the physical education teaching process. Contemporary physical education programmes do not always adequately address the individual needs and abilities of every child. Therefore, the planning and implementation of physical activities should be based on age-specific characteristics, with careful consideration of exercise intensity and workload. The sample consisted of 122 pupils (66 boys and 56 girls), aged 7 years (±0.5 years), from the Elementary School “Janko Veselinović” in Šabac, Serbia. Standardised anthropometric instruments adapted for assessing the morphological characteristics of younger school-aged children were used. Motor abilities were evaluated using the test battery developed by Bala, Stojanović, and Stojanović (2007). The results indicated that children with optimal body height and body weight achieved better performance in motor ability tests. Conversely, excessive body weight negatively affected the execution of tasks requiring coordination, flexibility, strength, and speed. The findings suggest a significant relationship between morphological characteristics and motor abilities in younger school-aged children. It can be concluded that body composition and physical fitness directly influence the development of children’s motor abilities.