Samenvatting

During several internships by the researcher of this study, the researcher discovered through personal experiences that there is a big diversity in the level of motor skills of the students. The goal of this theoretical part of this study is to get insight in what motor development is and how it is testable at children in 7th grade.
There are many definitions of motor development, of all those definitions a new definition is formed witch will be used in this study. The definition that will be used in the rest of this study is: 'A step by step change, that begins at conception and continues throughout life, a person has to walk through to acquire the motor skills'.
There are different views at the phases of the motor development. Gallahue and Ozmun use an hourglass to describe the motor development. The hourglass is dived into four, overlapping phase-stages in which the child will acquire the motor skills (Gallahue D. & Ozmun J. 2002).
Another view is Van Gallagher's pyramid model that describes the motor development. In this model the path of life is divided into three age periods in which the child will acquire the motor skills.
Besides what view is used to understand the motor development it is important to pay attention to the acquiring of the fundamental motor skills and to the transfer skills of a child. The motor skills that the child acquires in these two phases are the basic skills for the other motor skills that it will need to have to play different kind of sports.
It is hard to say on what age a child should have acquired a certain skill. It is confusing when an age-level is linked to a motor skill. There is a period when a child should acquire certain skills, but every child is an individual, so every child will develop at their own speed. The child needs to have enough time and the opportunity to play, for his development. This way the child can practice enough to acquire the skills and behaviors. When this happens a natural step will be made to the next stage in the child's development. A clumsy child cannot solve his own motor problems as a normal child can. The child needs support to overcome these problems, the sooner this is done, the better the results will be. It is important to pay attention how the child acquires the results, not only to look at the results. Therefore the technical side of a motion is important.
The cause of motor arrears are unknown, but it is possible that it is caused by an improperly working sensorial information process. In this case visual information and the perception of the muscles and the posture do not function as they should do. When a child has motor arrears it can be noticed through their: communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, psychosocial and during playing sports.
At schools, the teachers are usually the first ones that notice when a child has a delay in their movement behavior. When the teacher identifies that the child has problems in his movement behavior, he can differentiate during a class, or the teacher can give some extra exercises to practice. But when the arrears is to big, the teacher should ask an MRT teacher for help. The main item of Motor Remedial Teaching is that an MRT teacher observes the motor development of the child, not to what the child can not do, but at the performance of the movements. By comparing the movements of the MRT child with a 'normal' child, a picture can be made how far a child is in his motor development (www.mrtonline.nl, 2008). An MRT child's motor behavior is not as developed as other children. The child walks and acts clumsy, has bad handwriting and does not perform well during sports. Also the child's self esteem is low. The child thinks he is not good in doing things, will not try new things and will not stand up for himself. His social skills are often bad and he does not have many friends.
The way a child develops can be classified in different levels; the chronological age classification and the biological age classification. Chronological age does not provide the developments level. It is the most commonly used means of age classification, but it is the least valid one in most cases. The biological age of an individual provides a record of his rate of progress towards maturity. It is a variable age that corresponds only roughly to chronological age. Children in 7th grade are around 10 or 13 years old and about to enter their puberty, they will become adolescent. The adolescent period is a tumultuous period. The vision on the world and environment changes and the child itself changes. Some adolescents will experience it as a pleasant time, others will find it a difficult time. The adolescents are developing their own style of relationships with other people. During this period there are several processes active in the body. The biological maturation will start, their intelligence will develop and their psychosexual development begins. All these developments do not work separately, but they all work together.
There are several methods to measure the motor development. Every method has its own benefits. Often level tests are used as another way to test the motor development of a child. With the help of motor development tests the level of development can be determined. Familiar motor development test are:
 Baylay Scales of Infant Development
 Oseretsky-test
 Lincoln Oseretsky Test Kurzform 18 (LOS KF 18)
 Bruininks-Oseretskytest of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP)
 Movement Assessment battery for Children (Movement ABC)
 Motor development test.
There are important testing items in every motor development test. Coordination is one of them and can be tested by using the: 'Körper-Koordinationtest für Kinder' or the 'Hamm Marburger Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder'. Another important test item is lateralization. Lateralization can be tested using the 'Lateralization test of Vallaey' or the 'Hand Dominanz Test'. Also manual skills belong to this list. They can be tested by using the 'Gibson Spiral maze Test' or the 'Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Ability'. The last important item is writing and writing can be tested by the 'Abbreviated review method for child handwriting'.
This is the summary of the first 4 chapters. Chapter 5 and 6 enclose the third part of this study. Several individuals are questioned in an interview concerning a motor screeningstest. The most noticeable outcome of the interview is the advise the respondents give about the motor screening test.
At the end of this study the researcher will draw conclusions and recommendations for PE teachers who use or want to use motor screeningstest in their lessons. After this the researcher starts a discussion about this study and the use of a motor screening test.