In a world where physical inactivity has been recognized by the World Health Organization as
the fourth largest risk factor involved in global mortality rates (WHO….), the need for greater
levels of physical activity in all populations is clearly a necessity. To encourage people to be
physically active throughout their lives, fundamental movement skills (FMS) should be
developed in youth, allowing them to grow up confident in their competence to move effectively
in a variety of situations and contexts (Stodden, Langendorfer and Roberton, 2009). This idea of
building FMS in children, allowing them to develop into adults who have the tools to be
physically active throughout their lives, is the underpinning of the theory of physical literacy.
Whitehead (2001) argues that physical literacy is as important as language and number literacy
in developing a well rounded person, who is more fully able to interact with the world around
them. She defines a physically literate individual as an individual who “… moves with poise,
economy and confidence in a wide variety of physically challenging situations”. Physical literacy
then is not just the ability to move confidently, but also the ability to read, understand, and react
to any given physical challenge appropriately, utilizing known FMS to create an effective
response to the challenge.
At a young age, children are capable of evaluating their own skills, building a self perception of
how proficient they are at various physical tasks. A study by Eccles, Wigfield, Harold and
Blumenfield (1993), found that elementary school children had clearly measurable beliefs about
their skills in various subject areas. The results from this study also noted that these selfperceptions were differentiated, even in children in grade one. This differentiation shows that the
beliefs held by the children are not global beliefs about overall competency, but rather are
specific to each task or ability for which self-perception of ability is measured. This study also
demonstrated that children in grade one are able to differentiate between the value or importance
of a skill, and their self-perception of their competence in that particular skill. This lends support
to expectancy-value models of achievement behaviour, which purports that the relative value of a
skill and the child’s expectation of success in that skill (which reflects self perception of ability)
are two separate constructs. These models propose that the child’s beliefs independently have an
influence on future activity choice and participation. The findings of Lintunen, Valkonen,
Leskinen and Biddle (1999) provide evidence that supports the idea that a child’s self perception
of ability has an impact on activity choice. This study further noted that participation in physical
activity was positively influenced by perceived sports competence in Hungarian youth.
The role of perceived ability in determining future physical activity levels can be explained
partially by the ego and task motivation theories described in sport psychology. In the ego
motivation theory, the level of motivation to participate is derived from the amount of success in
external measures, such as winning or displaying superior skills to others with minimal effort
(Ref?) . In task motivation theory, levels of motivation to participate arise from success in
internal measures, such as improvement of one’s skills (Duda, 1993). In ego motivation, low
perceived competence would present a barrier to achieving success and likely results in choosing
to not engage in physical activity, while in task motivation low perceived competence would
provide for plenty of opportunity to improve skills, resulting in higher future activity levels.
Research by Allender, Cowburn, and Foster (2006) examined multiple qualitative studies to
examine barriers and motivators in regards to physical activity, and found that for young children
and adults, the acquisition of new skills (building FMS) was a motivator. A barrier for adults
however, was anxiety in new situations, as well as a lack of role models. Older adults also found
a lack of role models to be a barrier, along with unclear guidance. This indicates that a lack of
FMS to transfer to new situations or opportunities for physical activity was preventing these
individuals from being physically active. A physically literate individual with a strong base of
FMS should be able to adjust to new situations and take on new physical challenges regardless of
stetting or level of instructions.
Fundamental movement skills include “basic movements such as throwing, kicking, running,
jumping, hopping and catching” (Canadian Sport for Life, 2011). Rosalie and Muller (2010)
discuss the idea that they can be learned in one context, and then transferred and applied in new
similar and dissimilar contexts. This transfer of learning is an adaptation to a new environment.
The fundamental movement skill has several components, such as coordination, execution of
movement, knowledge, and ability to read a physical situation and know when to use the FMS
(Rosalie and Muller, 2010). The “feedforward” aspect of the skill, being able to understand what
is occurring in the environment and anticipating when to execute the FMS is essential to being
able to transfer the skill to a new environment. This suggests that the physical competence to
execute the FMS is only a part of the effective transfer of skills, and that the anticipatory
mechanisms developed by a physically active individual when learning the FMS are what allows
for a person to successfully adapt to a new activity. This is supported by Whitehead (2001,
p.XXX), who describes a physically literate individual as “perceptive in 'reading' all aspects of
the physical environment, anticipating movement needs or possibilities and responding
appropriately to these, with intelligence and imagination.”
As argued above, the physically literate individual is able to read situations, and use their FMSs
to develop a physical response to the environmental challenge presented to them. Children
perceive their abilities, and tend to adjust their participation in activities based on this self
perception. The purpose of this study is to examine if a child’s self-perception of their ability to
try new activities is reflected in their overall physical literacy. We hypothesize that there will be
a positive correlation between perceived ability to try new activities and overall physical literacy
scores.