Many adolescents lack the requisite physical preparation for sport participation and PA. Multi-sport participation and resistance training during youth (age 5-11) and adolescence (age 12-17) years can positively affect physical activity levels, health outcomes, and promote long-term athletic development (LTAD). The National Strength and…

According to SHAPE America, quality physical education promotes physical literacy by addressing five core standards: motor skills, knowledge, health-related fitness, personal and social behavior, and values. The purpose of this article is to introduce a physical literacy index, identify resources that could be used to assess physical literacy, and…

Amy Morris Homans was an amazing leader in the early development of physical education. She believed that every individual must be educated academically and physically. Earlier this year, SHAPE America committed to making her vision a reality with the goal of empowering ALL students with the skills, knowledge, habits, and determination to make…

Sedentary behaviors contribute to the obesity epidemic in this country and physical educators can play an important role in the battle to improve the quality of life of our citizens. Motor skill competency is a substantive factor in a person's decision to be active or not, and a quality physical education program can tip the balance in favor of…

That competences may emerge given appropriate environmental and behavioral context is a long-standing theme in developmental research. Work in the motor domain, but also in cognitive development, has made it possible to transform this idea into a mechanistic account closely linked to empirical evidence. In dynamic systems thinking, such capacities…

Four principles are drawn from approximately 100 years of research in the area of motor development. The principles are (1) children are not miniature adults, (2) boys and girls (children) are more alike than different, (3) good things are earned, and (4) no body (nobody) is perfect. Five sections of this article introduce some of the major…

Little attention has been given to the developmental process of "how children learn to move" and the changing role that emerging motor competence may play in children and youths' physical activity levels as they grow. But we need to recognize that there is a developmental trajectory to physical activity and the factors that affect it if we are…

The perspective of this article is that the purpose of the elementary physical education program is the development of a physically active lifestyle. We discuss the relative contribution of the development of motor skills, fitness, content related to encouraging participation, and the affective goals of the program to the development of a…

Standard two of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education requires students to use cognitive information to understand and enhance motor skill acquisition and performance. This article provides examples of incorporating the standard into K-12 instruction using units based on balance, fitness, and bicycling. Examples illustrate a…

A taxonomy which classifies different types of human movements heirarchically was developed for use in teacher education, curriculum development, and teacher behavior research. The taxonomy is related to M. Mosston's Three-Dimensional Model of Developmental Movement. The instruments permit an expanded and integrated way of categorizing movement…

The 36 papers in this book were presented at the Fifth International Symposium on Adapted Physical Activity. Presentations document some of the research findings and new ideas in physical education and recreation programs designed to improve the quality of life for special populations. The collection represents the breadth of the field, from the…

Recognizing the role of physical activity in helping young children to attain desired objectives, educators should continually be investigating avenues for involving children in daily physical activity. This paper presents the Active Living approach, a uniquely Canadian experience that encourages young children to be physically active every day.…