Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Children’s Fundamental Motor Skills: A Study for the Taiwanese Preschoolers Teachers

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in reduced opportunities for children to engage in fundamental motor skills [FMS]. This prolonged inactivity and restriction of play can have serious consequences for children’s physical and mental health. The purpose of this study was to explore teaching strategies during the pandemic, whether there were differences in children’s motor development, and the differences in the implementation of physical movement courses before and during the pandemic from the perspective of preschool teachers. This study was a retrospective study using an internet survey, and participants comprised 2337 preschool teachers. The statistical methodology of this study included descriptive statistics, the dependent t-test, and the independent t-test. The results showed that regardless of the time, frequency, activity intensity, and frequency of outdoor courses, the results from before the pandemic was better than those taken during the pandemic. Only the “frequency of implementing physical movement courses indoors every week” had not been affected by the pandemic. This study also obtained the performance of “children’s fitness”, “overall performance of physical movement ability”, “stability movement skills”, “locomotor movement skills”, and “manipulative movement skills”. All were better before the pandemic than during the pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mixed-age classes performed better than same-age classes in terms of frequency, time, intensity, outdoor course implementation, and physical fitness. Public schools performed better than private schools in terms of frequency, time, intensity, outdoor course implementation, and fundamental motor skills performance. Private schools implemented physical movement courses indoors every week, which was more than public schools. Excepting the frequency of implementing physical movement courses indoors every week, fewer than schools with five classes performed better than those who had more than schools with six classes. Finally, rural schools were better than urban schools in the implementation of outdoor courses and fundamental motor skills performance. Therefore, we suggest that in response to the pandemic, teachers should further improve their professionalism and use diversified teaching methods, and guide students to be willing to learn and improve their skill performance.