A Matched-Pair Analysis of Gross Motor Skills of 3- to 5-Year-Old Children With and Without a Chronic Physical Illness

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the gross motor skills of children with a chronic physical illness with those of their healthy peers. Methods: Data for children with a chronic physical illness come from the Multimorbidity in Children and Youth Across the Life Course study, and data from children without a physical illness come from the Health Outcomes and Physical Activity in Preschoolers study. Multimorbidity in Children and Youth Across the Life Course and Health Outcomes and Physical Activity in Preschoolers included children ages 3–5 years and administered the Peabody Development Motor Scales-second edition. Participants were sex and age matched (20 male and 15 female pairs; Mage = 54.03 [9.5] mo). Results: Gross motor skills scores were “below average” for 47% of children with a physical illness compared with 9% of children without a physical illness (P = .003). Matched-paired t tests detected significant differences in total gross motor scores (dz = −0.35), locomotor (dz = −0.31), and object control (dz = −0.39) scores, with healthy children exhibiting better motor skills, and no significant difference in stationary scores (dz = −0.19). Conclusions: This skill gap may increase burden on children with physical illness and future research should assess gross motor skills longitudinally to establish whether the gap widens with age.