Fundamental Movement Skills

The development of fundamental movement skills and motor skills is critical to establishing the foundation for participation in many sports and physical activities.  A child who has not had the opportunity to develop these basic motor skills experiences difficulties or barriers when participating in sport experiences, or later school-based programs that involve more difficult skills.

To become completely physically literate, children need to master the fundamental movement skills which include:

  • dodge
  • hop
  • skip
  • log roll
  • stork stand
  • jump
  • kick
  • dribble
  • overarm throw
  • catch
  • run
  • sidearm strike.

These skills are ideally developed between the ages of 0 and 9.

Figure 6. Consequences of Missing a Fundamental Skill (Canadian Sport For Life)LTAD_FMS

 

PHE Canada has developed a series of handbooks and an online video resource to aid educators in teaching the fundamental movement skills which correspond to the different stages of the CS4L Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model - a seven stage model that provides a framework for athlete development from 0-19+ years of age.