BMI Effects on Childhood Motor Skills

Abstract

Introduction: The development of Motor Skills (Fine and Gross) during
childhood is considered essential and very important considering them as
„building blocks†of their motor development. Educating early motor skill
competences are mediatory for children helping them to easily perform different
daily movements and more complex influencing on providing an active
lifestyle. But unfortunately, the motor skills in obese children seem to
be limited as a result of having difficulties controlling their posture during
different daily movements. Postural control plays an important role almost at
every type of movements, especially over those which are directly influenced
by this capacity in the biomechanical aspect. Aim: The goal of this review
paper was to investigate the relationship between BMI and Motor Skills in
children. Through this study, we wanted to provide other important scientific
reasons about the necessity of obesity prevention since childhood period as
mediatory of a better lifestyle. Methodology: To successfully realize this
review paper we studied and analyzed the contemporary scientific literature
provided by various Internet-based research sectors such as „Jab Ref†„Pub
Med†„Google Scholar†„Medline†„Sports Discuss†and „Research Gateâ€.
Results: The results have shown that obese children manifested limited
„Gross†Motor Skills, which are identified mostly in those motions that BMI
negatively impacted on their execution affecting especially their dexterity.
This limited situation regarding gross motor skills at obese children result
because of difficulties that they have to manage their heavyweight and to
keep balance during performing. Unfortunately, the relationship between fine
motor skills and BMI continues to be unclear because there are few studies analyzing this relationship and different testing protocols used by them to
identify it. Conclusion: At the end of our study, we can say that despite the
diverse evidences, BMI may negatively affect especially those Motor Skills
(fine & gross) when body weight makes it difficult to maintain balance during
motion execution reducing postural control. One of the most important
conclusion after all of this review we can strongly emphasize that Physical
Activity must be part of everyone daily life for a healthy lifespan. In addition,
for obese children, physical activities are mediatory in order to lose weight
influencing postural control improvement and better motor skills.