Assessment of Fundamental Motor Skills Proficiency among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder at Persatuan Kanak-Kanak Istimewa Ampang

Abstract

The Fundamental Motor Skills or FMS play the important role for the human development to improve stability in balance, locomotor in jump and hop with objective control such as catch, and throw skill. FMS are building blocks for more complex and specialised skill that involve different body parts such as feet, legs, trunk, arms and hands. In addition, FMS can be categorised into sub-group of skills, including objective control skill and locomotor skill. Therefore, FMS also have relationship with physical activity for children. The greater FMS in early children leads to higher levels of physical activity, physical fitness and perceived motor competence. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of FMS among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to compare the level of FMS between genders among them. This study utilised a non-experimental causal-comparative design. A total of 20 children (n=20), males (10) females (10), aged between 14 to 16 years old participated in the study. The children underwent fourteen (14) sub tests using The Bruiniks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) assessment. After the warming-up session, each child was given trials for each test depending on the test procedure. At the end of the test, cooling down session for seven minutes had been conducted. The data was analysed using independent t-test. The results showed there were significant difference found in Jumping Up and Clapping Hand Test, with t(18) =2.72, p<0.05), and Standing Broad Jump Test with t(18) =2.87, p<0.05. The mean and standard deviation show that males outperformed females in ten tests while females only outperformed males in four tests. In conclusion, the level of FMS and comparison between genders among children with ASD do not show much significant difference in this study.