Motor activity level and behavioural control in young children

Abstract

How do young children’s typical levels of physical movement relate to their ability to inhibit task-inappropriate behavioural responses? This question was investigated with a cross-sectional sample of 85 children, 4- to 6-years of age. Children’s typical levels of activity were assessed with actometers, mechanical measures of movement frequency. Multiple measures of contra-habitual task performance, reflecting children’s ability to inhibit the typical response associated with a task and to execute a less typical response, were aggregated. Procedurally similar control tasks, not dependent on the inhibition of behavioural responses, were also assessed. Contra-habitual task performance was positively and uniquely related to activity level, and an age by movement interaction showed that this relation was most reliable among the younger children in our sample. Young children’s motor activity is associated with enhanced, not diminished behavioural control.