Basic motor skills are the basis for the formation and execution of movements that will be utilized throughout an individual’s lifetime, thus promoting their involvement and continued participation in physical activity. (1) Background: This study aimed to assess the impact of a physical education program, based on a model of structured and unstructured physical activity, on the motor development of kindergarten students at a private school for girls in Con Con, Chile. (2) Methods: Thirty-four female students were divided into two groups, one participated in structured physical activity and the other in unstructured physical activity, and both groups then underwent a 12-week intervention. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) was utilized to evaluate motor behaviors, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and relative frequencies. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare differences at the beginning and end of the intervention, while the Whitney–Mann U test was used to determine differences between groups. (3) Results: Statistically significant differences were observed in the overall group when comparing the start and end of the intervention for total motor development (p = 0.001), locomotion skills (p = 0.018), and object control (p = 0.001). However, no significant differences were found between the two types of intervention activities. (4) Conclusions: This study suggests that both structured and unstructured physical activity interventions enhance overall motor development, particularly in the dimensions of locomotion and object control. The results indicate that unstructured physical activity interventions may lead to better outcomes in motor development tests compared to structured interventions.

Introduction: The classroom environment is ideal for promoting physical activity interventions since children spend most of their day there but often engage in sedentary behavior. Given this context, an emerging trend to promote physical activity is active breaks at school. This systematic review evaluated the effects of school-based physical activity interventions involving active breaks on children and adolescents’ classroom behavior, executive functions, and physical fitness.Methods: This review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A literature search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and EBSCOhost. Studies published between January 2010 and August 31, 2023, including participants aged 5 to 18, were included. Interventions involving active breaks and outcomes related to classroom behavior, executive functions, and physical fitness were considered.Results: Initially, 145 studies were identified, with 22 duplicates excluded. After screening 123 articles by title and abstract, 86 were excluded. Subsequently, 37 articles underwent full-text screening, resulting in 22 included studies. Six studies showed positive effects on classroom behavior; five studies showed improvements in executive functions, and only two studies indicated increases in physical fitness.Discussion: This review suggests incorporating active breaks during school hours can improve classroom behavior in children and adolescents. However, the effects of active breaks on executive functions and physical fitness are unclear. More research is needed to fully understand the benefits of implementing active break programs in the classroom.Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, CRD42023448267, available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023448267.

Basic motor skills are recognized as fundamental movements that allow children to interact with their environment and are identified as the basic structure on which more complex movements are built. Objective: to identify the level of motor development of children from 3 to 10 years of age according to sex and age group. Methodology. We studied a sample with a total of 328 participants (girls = 170; boys = 158) at preschool (n = 154) and school levels (n = 174). The ages of the students ranged from 3 to 10 years, with a mean of 5.94 years (±2.53). TGMD2 was applied to identify motor development. Results: boys and girls present low levels of physical activity, with most of them in the very poor, poor, and low-average categories (n = 182, 55.5%). Levels of motor development in locomotion, manipulation, and general development by age show significant differences (p = 0.000). However, levels of development by sex are not significant in manipulation, locomotion, and gross motor skills tests, respectively (p = 0.150, p = 0.208, and p = 0.210), and in relation to chronological age and motor development age show significant differences (p = 0.000).

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the benefits of an exercise intervention based on small-sided soccer games (SSSGs) on health-related physical fitness and cardiometabolic health in previously untrained children and adolescents. Methods: A systematic search on PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, and EBSCO databases was performed. Randomized or non-randomized controlled trials conducted in previously untrained children or adolescents (age < 18 years) that assessed the effect of SSSG-based intervention on health-related physical fitness and cardiometabolic risk biomarkers were included. Primary outcomes were cardiorespiratory fitness and waist circumference. Evidence was synthesized as the mean difference or standardized mean difference using a random-effects meta-analysis. The quality of evidence was assessed using ROB2 and ROBINS-I tools. Results: Sixteen studies (n = 2872 participants) were included in this meta-analysis. SSSGs significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness (SMD, 0.12 [0.01; 0.23]) and showed a non-significant trend in decreased waist circumference (−7.49 cm [−15.03; 0.06]). Additionally, SSSGs significantly decreased systolic (MD, −3.85 mmHg [−5.75; −1.94]) and diastolic blood pressure (MD, −1.26 mmHg [−2.44; −0.08]) and triglycerides (−30.34 mg·dL⁻¹ [−45.99; −14.69]). No effects on body composition or other cardiometabolic risk biomarkers were observed. After a sensitivity analysis, waist circumference and muscle strength were also shown to improve significantly following SSSGs. Comparisons between SSSG and other types of exercise interventions showed no differences in improved physical fitness or cardiometabolic risk. Conclusions: SSSG-based interventions effectively improve cardiorespiratory fitness, blood pressure, triglycerides, muscle strength, and waist circumference. There is less evidence of the effects of SSSGs on other health markers. Particular attention should be given to improving SSSG protocol reporting in future studies.

All the variables that arise in family dynamics can have significant effects on the lives of children concerning their nutritional status and motor development. The objective of this study was to relate the PAL of parents to the level of motor development and the BMI of their children. A total of 198 subjects participated, with the age of the students ranging between 8 and 10 years. To measure the BMI, the norms for the nutritional evaluation of children and teenagers from 5 to 19 years were used; to identify the motor behaviors, the TGMD-2 Test was used; and to identify the level of physical activity of parents, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used. For the analysis, the independent samples t-test and the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test (Wilcoxon) were used, and for the correlational analysis, Spearman’s rho test was applied. This study found no significant correlation between the activity level of parents and nutritional status variables (p = 0.162), or between the PAL variables of parents and the motor development of their children (p = 0.738). A parent’s level of physical activity does not have a direct relationship with the nutritional status or the motor development of their children.