When you move, I move: How parents can influence children’s physical activity and motor skill development

Written and Illustrated by: Stephanie Palmer

Edited by: Chloe Rybicki-Kler, Emily L. Eberhardt, Sarah Bassiouni, and Jennifer Baker

Hey there, reader! This is the second blog post in a two part series about children’s physical activity decisions and behaviors. This post explores practical steps caregivers can take to influence children’s fundamental motor skill development and physical activity behaviors. To learn more about developmental factors that influence children’s physical activity decisions, read part 1 here! 

I want you to reminisce about your childhood physical activity experiences. Did you have a place to play in your house or backyard? Did you play in the driveway or on the street? Did your parents encourage you to play outside, or occupy you with a TV show? Did you rush home for dinner on your bike after playing at the park with friends, or was it unsafe to play outside in your neighborhood? Your recollections, similar or different, positive or negative, reflect the influence of your home environment on physical activity. The home environment for physical activity plays an important role in supporting children’s physical activity decisions and behaviors, and the development of motor skills for physical activity.  

The home environment consists of physical and social features with the potential to affect children’s FMS development and physical activity level. The physical characteristics of the home provide children with play opportunities; examples include space for play (indoor and outdoor) and toys for physical activity, such as a scooter, bike, sports equipment, or a playhouse. Social characteristics include parents’ attitudes and expectations regarding physical activity and their actions to support children in meeting those expectations. In research, strategies parents use to socialize their children to be physically active are collectively called Physical Activity Parenting Practices (PAPP). An example of a PAPP might be the expectation that children play outside for 30 minutes after school; this strategy is specifically called a supportive expectation. A parent can use other PAPPs to support children in meeting their expectations. For example, one strategy to support children in getting 30 minutes of outdoor physical activity is to enroll them in an outdoor sport (facilitation). Another might be to buy a soccer ball and play soccer together in the backyard (nondirective support). For a full list of effective physical activity parenting practice, parents are encouraged to look at The Physical Activity Parenting Practices Item Bank. The PAPPs listed there are tried and true for promoting childhood physical activity and some directly influence children’s FMS. 

Children’s FMS development is sensitive to their caregivers’ physical activity attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. This assertion is illustrated by research demonstrating that children with physically active parents exhibit better FMS development than their peers with less active parents. Although the causal relationship between parental physical activity and children’s FMS has yet to be precisely identified, experts suggest that children with physically active parents are more physically active, gaining and refining FMS through play emulating their parents. For the same reason, their peers are more likely to participate in sedentary activities that negatively affect FMS development, although contradictory findings exist. A recent, fascinating study showed that male children who spent more time watching TV had better FMS than other children. The authors of the paper suggested that children might have watched interactive programming (e.g., dance videos). However, the data from parents indicated otherwise. Parents who gave their children the most TV time said that they did so to occupy their children, and the effect of this practice was only significant for the children who had scored highest in fitness, which suggests that parents may have used TV time to decrease their child’s activity level. The obvious critique of this study is that very active children had already developed skillful FMS, and parents used TV time to keep them momentarily still.

The latter study highlights how children’s characteristics might influence parents’ use of PAPP strategies and the potential for the physical environment to affect parents’ strategy selection and children’s behaviors. Indeed, a current framework for studying how PAPP influences children’s physical activity (and FMS) includes child and parent characteristics and the proximal environment as factors influencing the choice and effect of PAPP on children’s FMS. For example, parents might encourage physical activity more often if their child is skilled in FMS and enjoys physical activity, but the effect of this strategy is null and void if there are no safe spaces for the child to play at home or in the neighborhood. Alternatively, parents who value physical activity might provide their children with sports equipment like a swingset, bicycle, or ball and bat. If the child is not skilled in FMS, the presence of equipment is unlikely to affect their behavior. There is also a balancing act to consider. Parents are keenly aware of their child’s strengths and apt to maximize them while ignoring weaknesses. This is why musically gifted children go to more music classes, science-minded children go to science camp, and athletic children play sports. 

Any number of internal, external, and interpersonal factors can affect how parents socialize children’s physical activity behavior. These factors are unique to every individual, family, community, city, nation, and culture. Consequently, the determinants of children’s physical activity and FMS are highly complex. Consider, for example, perplexing (and mounting) evidence that children from low socio-economic status (SES) exhibit better FMS and engage in more physical activity than their high SES peers, even in some of the world’s most economically depressed areas. Such findings directly counter the general assumption that low SES negatively influences children’s movement behavior and development and suggest that factors in children’s immediate environment should be closely examined.   

Additionally, children with disabilities frequently exhibit significantly delayed or impaired FMS, and their parents report weak motor skills as a significant barrier to physical activity. Indeed, motor skills are one of the most frequently cited barriers to physical activity among parents of children with disabilities following lack of time, knowledge, and appropriate programming. 

For my master’s thesis, I conducted a play-based intervention for autistic children (ages 3–10). The overarching goal of my project was to examine if supporting children in self-directed, physically active play improved motor skills in autistic children exhibiting poor FMS. The intervention consisted of 10–20 physical activity sessions (two sessions per week for ten weeks) in which I played with children, one-on-one, for 45–60 minutes. Children directed activities during each session, and I provided support through physical assistance or by elaborating activities into games. One non-verbal participant was afraid to climb the jungle gym stairs without physical assistance, so we climbed the stairs holding hands. I learned she loved to ride the slide after I knew she would climb the stairs with help. Another participant transformed into a lemur when I tied pipe cleaners (his favorite toy) to the jungle gym for a seek and retrieve game, upending his reputation as an inactive child. Ultimately, the intervention was effective for some motor skills but not others; more importantly, it was easy, requiring only the desire to understand the participant and work with them to find active solutions when needed or applicable. In this view, the best-suited physical activity guide for a child with disabilities is the child’s parent, and my best advice would be to have fun. According to meta-analytic data and comprehensive reviews, basic and fun physical activities increase physical activity and improve motor skills in differently-abled children.  

If you are feeling overwhelmed at this point, I understand. We just waded through some of the most nuanced research on children’s motor skills and physical activity that exists to date. Fortunately, it can all be boiled down to a simple take-home for parents and caregivers: teach children to value and participate in physical activity. Children learn to value physical activity by seeing their parents engage in physical activity, engaging in physical activity with their parents (and others), and receiving encouragement and support from their parents to be physically active. Parents who support their children’s physical activity simultaneously support their FMS development and physical self-competence, laying the foundation for successful participation in sports and recreational activities, even for children with developmental disabilities.

As a personal trainer, soccer coach, behavioral therapy implementer, research assistant for a cancer rehabilitation lab, and, presently, the Child Movement, Activity, and Developmental Health Lab, I have worked with individuals across the ability spectrum. From Division I athletes to cancer survivors and nonverbal autistic children to low-income, minority populations, everyone has questions about physical activity, especially those who doubt their abilities or fear accidental injury. I envision some parents doubting their ability to support their children’s physical activity for similar and different reasons. For the doubtful parent or caregiver, here is a list of activities to try: 

1. Schedule physical activity playdates for your child to be active with friends. 
2. Plan a family physical activity day. Hiking, biking, or playing at the park are great options. Encourage all family members to participate in physical activity for the duration of the day (Even adults can climb on park apparatuses!). 
3. Tell your child why physical activity is important. 
4. Ask your child what physical activities they enjoy. If your child does not enjoy physical activities, brainstorm physical activities to try (a simple Google search will pull up  thousands of ideas), and try them with your child. 
5. Teach your child physical activities that you enjoy.
6. Learn a new physical activity with your child.
7. Designate a space for play (indoors or outdoors) at home. 
8. Make screen time physically active. For example, every time Clifford the Big Red Dog barks, the child has to run or walk a lap around the room. 
9. Set physical activity goals or challenges. One goal might be to increase the number of daily steps that you and your child take every day by 100. For a challenge, try to accumulate 100,000 steps, as a family, in a week. 
10. Praise your child (and yourself) for trying new physical activities. 

The beauty of physical activity and physical activity parenting is that it’s hard to mess up, easy to get right, and can generally be done at little or no cost. Parents may take consolation in the fact that every additional, imperfect minute of movement contributes to their children’s overall health, wellbeing, and development. Move together, move often, and move forward!

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Stephanie Palmer is a Ph.D. candidate in Movement Science studying how the home physical activity ecosystem influences children’s competence in fundamental motor skills. Stephanie holds a B.S. in Psychology from Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) and MS.Ed. in Exercise Science from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Before moving to Michigan, Stephanie helped people engage in exercise and physical activity through her roles as an assistant soccer coach, personal trainer, behavioral therapy implementer, teaching assistant, and volunteer researcher in the Strong Survivors Cancer Rehabilitation Lab. Stephanie is passionate about helping people of all ages and abilities learn to love movement; she enjoys doing the same in her spare time. Stephanie competed in swimming, gymnastics, and Division I soccer at SEMO, plays for the University of Michigan Women’s Club Soccer Team, and is training to compete in the National Women’s Soccer League. Outside organized sports, she loves to read, chase chickens with her 13 nieces and nephews, and develop wild new backyard games.