Teaching strategies for promoting motor creativity and motor skill proficiency in early childhood

Existing research provides ambiguous evidence for associations between motor competency and motor creativity. Therefore, this study examined the association between motor skill proficiency and motor creativity. The Test of Gross Motor Development (second edition) and Bertsch's motor creativity test were used to assess motor skill proficiency and motor creativity among 39 children aged five to six. Results revealed that motor proficiency and motor creativity are not interrelated traits. Therefore, it is necessary to use different teaching strategies to promote these traits. Teaching with direct instructions and reproduction of demonstrated movement is probably the most appropriate to acquaint children with motor skills. Learning through play with less explicit teaching instructions and emphasis on motivating children to find novel and original solutions to the motor tasks is probably more suitable for facilitating motor creativity