Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) refer to the ability to coordinate basic human movements (1). They are considered to be the ‘building blocks’ of more complex movement skills required for games or other physical activities (2), including mainly gross motor skills such as running, jumping, etc., object control skills such as grasping and throwing a ball, and stability skills such as balancing and swinging (3). According to Gallahue, a model of movement development was proposed in 2012, broadly divided into four phases: Reflexive Movement Phase, Rudimentary Movement Phase, Fundamental Movement Phase, and Specialized Movement Phase. The Fundamental Movement Phase is from 2 to 7 years old and covers toddlers and early childhood, as children gradually develop more complex movement skills and coordination during this period, including fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, throwing, and so on (4). As a result, during this stage, children’s coordination and object control abilities improve significantly. Adequate exercise practice and effective instruction are needed to allow children to increase their confidence in exercise and their FMS levels. Children with high levels of FMS will be more able to participate in physical activity (5), improve cardiorespiratory fitness (6), and reduce obesity rates. Children with high levels of FMS will be able to participate in a wide variety of physical activities with high levels of FMS (7).

Physical activity (PA), which encompasses all voluntary bodily movements produced by skeletal muscles that result in energy expenditure (8), is an important factor in promoting healthy child development, and participation in physical activity in early childhood confers considerable benefits, such as improving obesity, promoting cognitive development, and skeletal, psychosocial, and cardiometabolic metabolism (9). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that preschool children should engage in at least 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day (10), yet more than 85% of children and adolescents worldwide do not meet the WHO guidelines. With continuous social and economic development, people’s living standards continue to improve. The increase in sedentary behavior and lack of physical activity has led to an increase in the risk rate of obesity in children year by year (11, 12), and physically insufficient behaviors are easy to form in childhood and continue into adulthood, which ultimately leads to other health problems (13). Therefore, it is essential to understand the underlying mechanisms of physical activity (14).

Stodden et al. noted that PA and FMS have a mutually beneficial relationship, with PA promoting the development of FMS during childhood and FMS promoting PA involvement at a slightly older age (15). One study confirmed the positive correlation between FMS and organized PA (16). Another narrative review found that 8 out of 11 studies on children aged 3–5 years showed a significant relationship between FMS and PA (17). However, longitudinal studies have highlighted significant uncertainty in directly linking physical activity to FMS (18). In a meta-analysis, researchers found that the association between FMS and PA was inconsistent in children (3). Another investigation of studies that used PA as a predictor of FMS found that objective measures of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at 3.5 years of age did not predict FMS in 5-year-old Australian children (19). This suggests that our understanding of how physical activity impacts FMS is still incomplete, and further research is necessary.

Notably, children’s FMS does not develop naturally over time (20) but requires intentional cultivation through various interventions, such as ongoing guidance, feedback, and practice (21). Consequently, a range of physical activity programs tailored to children’s physical and mental developmental stages has been created, aiming to enhance FMS. Current research has indicated that jumping classes (22, 23), rhythmic classes (24), active play (25), core movement instruction (26), strength training classes (27), motor intervention classes (28, 29), and ball games (30, 31) are all beneficial in developing children’s FMS. These programs promote the comprehensive and balanced development of children’s FMS by integrating diverse sports elements and employing open-ended physical education games that emphasize enjoyment and variety (32, 33). The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of different types of physical activity programs on improving children’s FMS levels. The study focuses on running ability, jumping ability, object control ability, and balance ability as key indicators. Running and jumping directly reflect children’s coordination and lower limb strength, which are core skills in daily life and many physical activities. Object control skills include throwing and catching, reflecting children’s upper body coordination and fine motor skills. Balance skills help children maintain stability in both static and dynamic situations, reduce the risk of falling, and improve overall body coordination. By using meta-analysis to assess the impact of physical activity on children’s FMS, the study aimed to elucidate a precise perspective on how physical activity interventions can be more effective in improving children’s levels of fundamental movement skills, laying the groundwork for more effective promotion of lifelong physical education in the future.

Due to the variation in the content and methodology of the literature cited, sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the effect of this heterogeneity. In the analysis of heterogeneity for each motor ability, the results showed that the I² for running ability, horizontal jump, hop ability, locomotion skill, dribbling, catching, kicking, striking, overhand throwing, and underhand throwing ability remained high after excluding the selected literature one by one, but it did not affect the stability of the experimental results. This means that although there were differences between the different studies, their effect on the overall effect size was not significant, suggesting that the results were relatively robust.

In the heterogeneity analysis of balance ability, after excluding Lu’s study (31), the I² dropped significantly from 96 to 0%, suggesting that this study might be a major source of heterogeneity. To further explore the reasons for heterogeneity differences, we conducted an in-depth analysis from three aspects: the intervention participants, content, and duration. Regarding the intervention participants, Lu’s study (31) involved children aged 5–6, while Hu X’s study included children aged 3–6 (24), dividing them into three age groups for comparison. As for the intervention content, Lu’s study (31) used toddler soccer training, mainly focusing on skills such as dribbling, ball control, trapping, and passing to develop children’s FMS. The course was more geared towards reaction and speed, with balance ability being applied but not as a core focus of the curriculum. As a result, the improvement in balance ability may not have been significant. In contrast, Hu et al.’s study (24) used a novel rhythmic exercise as the intervention method. This new rhythmic exercise was built upon traditional rhythmic movements (such as flexing, vibrating, twisting, and circling, which aid in the development of balance ability) and incorporated exercises for locomotor and object control abilities. This more systematic and comprehensive intervention method likely placed greater emphasis on improving balance ability, which might explain the more significant effects observed in this study. In terms of intervention duration, the duration of Hu et al.’s study (24) was longer than that of Lu’s study (31), giving children more time to participate and practice. A longer intervention period generally provides more opportunities for children to reinforce newly acquired skills. Particularly for balance, which requires repetitive practice and fine motor control, increased time might have had a substantial impact.

As less of the included literature measured balance ability, which was not suitable for subgroup analysis, this study analyzed subgroups in terms of weekly intervention duration and intervention period as well as different age groups. When comparing the performance of children in the two subgroups with weekly intervention durations of 90 min and below and 90 min and above in various basic motor skill tests, the results showed that SMD90min above > SMD90min below in running ability, horizontal jump, and catching ability, suggesting that the effect of the weekly intervention durations of 90 min and above for running ability, horizontal jump, and catching ability is better than that of below 90 min. In kicking ability, although SMD above 90 min = 2.81 is a large effect size, it is not a significant difference, which may be related to the training method or individual differences, and more data or further research is needed to confirm this (see Table 3).

This study divided the intervention cycle into less than 12 weeks, 12 weeks, and more than 12 weeks. The results showed that the intervention effect of less than 12 weeks was better than 12 weeks and more for running ability, horizontal jump, kicking ability, and catching ability; kicking ability was not significant at 12 weeks. There were no between-group differences in catching ability beyond 12 weeks. This study suggests that further observations are needed to draw accurate conclusions about the mastery of object control skills (see Table 4).

This study compares the fundamental movement skills of 3–5 and 5–7 year-olds separately. 3-5-year-olds showed a medium and significant difference in effect sizes for running ability, horizontal jump, and catching, while 5-7-year-olds did not show a significant difference for running ability, horizontal jump, and catching. 3-5-year-olds showed a statistically significant difference in kicking ability with a medium effect size, and 5-7-year-olds were more prominent in this indicator with a significant difference and a large effect size, indicating a significant increase in kicking ability for this age group. Children showed more prominent performance on this indicator with a significant difference and large effect size, indicating that children in this age group showed significant improvement in kicking ability (see Table 5).

Some studies have confirmed that physical activity programs can improve FMS levels. Ali et al. (23) found significant improvements in children’s FMS levels through a ten-week physical activity program intervention. Jones et al. (22) made a similar observation in 2011 through a twenty-week instrumental intervention. However, there was a bias in children’s jumping ability, which could be attributed to the different focuses of different physical activity programs and the different physical fitness of the children involved in the experiment, resulting in a bias in results. This may be due to the program’s different focuses and the physical qualities of the children involved in the experiment. Magistro et al. (29) proposed in their study “classroom-based physical activity,” a new type of physical activity program that combines math lessons with physical activity by starting each lesson with a 10-min running walk and other physical activities. At the beginning of each lesson, the teacher warms up with 10 min of physical activity such as running and walking. Then, in the explanation section, the teacher explains the mathematical concepts for 15 min, demonstrates the physical activity learning task, guides the children to apply the mathematical knowledge explained in the explanation section through the physical activity learning task, and then concludes the lesson. Through the integrated teaching of education and physical activity, children’s potential to improve their knowledge and skills is fully realized.

Different types of physical activity programs have a positive effect on the improvement of children’s displacement ability, which mainly consists of running ability and jumping ability, and when analyzing the effect of different physical activity programs on running ability, children’s running ability was significantly improved after the intervention, as evidenced by relevant studies (22, 26, 28, 30, 31), mainly because the running ability is one of the earliest abilities to emerge in children, however, Hu et al. (24) found in his study that after a period of intervention, the running ability of the 3-year-old experimental group was lower than the running ability of the control group, probably because some of the children at that time are still in the early stages of development, their coordination and muscle control may not have reached the level of their peers, and some of the children may have already developed better coordination and muscle control, leading to the differences in results.

When analyzing the impact of physical activity on horizontal jump, it was observed that children’s horizontal jump ability significantly improved after the intervention. However, Eyre et al.’s study (28) noted that children in the experimental group exhibited lower horizontal jump ability than those in the control group. This disparity may stem from demographic differences between the two groups. Notably, in Eyre et al.’s study (28), the experimental group was comprised predominantly of South Asian children, while the control group consisted mostly of white children. Such population variances might have influenced the outcomes due to diverse cultural and genetic backgrounds, thereby impacting the children’s athletic performance. Previous research (22, 30) has demonstrated a significant enhancement in hop ability following a training period. However, Hu et al. (24) revealed no significant discrepancy in hop ability between the experimental and control groups at the ages of 3 and 5 years post-intervention. This outcome could be attributed to the inherent demands of hop exercises, which necessitate greater muscle strength, multi-limb coordination, and dynamic balance compared to vertical jumps for proficient execution. Moreover, mastering jumping skills typically requires considerable time and practice. Furthermore, jumping entails a multifaceted task requiring extensive skill development, demanding children to possess adequate strength and coordination between their arms and legs (39).

The physical activity program successfully enhanced children’s object control skills, yet no significant improvement was observed in hand-throwing. This aligns with the findings of Hu et al. (24), where the hand-throwing ability of the 4-year-old group showed no notable change over time, possibly due to irregular movements and a lack of coordination. Regarding catching the ball, Jones et al. (22) discovered that children’s proficiency in two-handed catching did not significantly improve after a specific intervention period. This might be attributed to the study’s emphasis on enhancing children’s displacement ability rather than giving sufficient attention to the development of object control skills, leading to a lack of significant progress in this aspect of performance.

As this study has limited literature regarding balance skills, the analysis of such skills may be less precise, and further validation is necessary in the future.

Most of the studies had no more than 12 weeks of intervention. The duration of the intervention tended to be no more than 90 min per week, so this study argues that a longer duration of intervention does not necessarily lead to better exercise performance, which is in line with the conclusions reached by Li et al. (40). Additionally, a meta-analysis on the effects of physical activity programs on gross motor skill development in preschool children reached a similar conclusion (41). Except for interventions lasting longer than 12 weeks, other interventions with varying durations, frequencies, and cycles significantly promoted the development of gross motor skills in young children. This finding suggests that high-frequency and long-duration interventions may reduce children’s adherence and enthusiasm for physical activities. Furthermore, prolonged interventions might be subject to a “ceiling effect,” where further improvements become minimal once a certain developmental threshold has been reached (6).

In addition to intervention duration, exercise intensity is an important factor influencing the effectiveness of physical activity. However, in the literature surveyed, there are few clear ranges of exercise intensity for children aged 3–7 years, which may be due to the greater challenge of monitoring children’s physical activity. When providing physical activity recommendations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has specifically emphasized that a differentiated approach to instruction should be taken for children aged 3–5 years versus 5–6 years (42), and in analyzing the findings of this study, it was found that the level of basic motor skills of children aged 3–5 years was higher than that of children aged 5–7 years, especially in terms of running ability, horizontal jump, and catching ability, and that the kicking ability of 5-7-year-olds performed better, which is contrary to the results obtained by Gao and Wang (43), probably because at the age of 3–5 years, children are usually in the early stages of growth and development, their bodies may be better suited for fast running, jumping and catching the ball, and their muscle control and coordination may also be relatively good at this age. At the same time, their cognitive abilities are developing rapidly, which makes it easier for them to understand and execute simple technical movements. However, by the age of 5–7 years, their cognitive abilities may be developing further, allowing them to better understand and perform more complex skills, and this difference may also be related to their experience of physical activity: 3–5-year-olds are likely to be more involved in basic physical activity, whereas, by the age of 5–7 years, they may be exposed to more types of sport, like ball games, which require more complex skills, and therefore increase competence in these areas. Thus, kicking a ball may require more skill and coordination relative to running, horizontal jumping, and catching, which makes children aged 5–7 perform better in this area. More literature is needed to confirm this, as the methodological approach varies from experiment to experiment and the physical fitness of the children participating.

Based on the findings of this study, future research should prioritize school and community-based efforts. Schools are particularly well-suited for fostering PA and developing FMS, as children spend approximately 50% of their time in school. Building a strong foundation for FMS during childhood is essential (21), as this is a period when children acquire skills more quickly and easily, without the self-consciousness or shame associated with imperfect motor performance. A strong foundation not only breaks down a “proficiency barrier” (44) that exists prior to the different skill acquisition stages of children between the ages of 3 and 7 and 7 and 12 but also allows for the transition of children’s motor skill levels to a more specialized stage in an organized PA program. Schools need to ensure that they provide rich and varied physical activity content that includes a variety of movements such as running, jumping, throwing, and catching and that the activities are fun and interactive to cater to different children’s interests and abilities. Secondly, physical education teachers should receive professional training to effectively instruct and motivate children to promote the development of their motor skills. To ensure effective implementation of the curriculum, schools and communities should also work closely with parents to develop and implement family activity programs to further promote children’s motor development in the family environment. Schools and communities are required to provide children with continuous assessment and monitoring in light of their physical and mental development to provide more useful values for the development of fundamental movement skills by establishing the optimal time, frequency, and period of intervention.

The limited number of literature included in this study and the small number of balance tests may have resulted in an insufficient sample size, limiting to some extent the overall understanding of children’s fundamental movement skills, which could lead to the occurrence of a chance error. Future studies should expand the literature search to include more databases and keywords to increase the number of literature included. The absence of some of the key rubrics in the text had an impact on the credibility of the results, so future articles should be selected to ensure that all important rubrics are included and reported. Meanwhile, sensitivity analyses should be used in literature screening and data extraction to assess the possible impact on the results of studies with missing key rubrics. This further increases the possibility of analytical error due to the differences in experimental populations, interventions, study designs, and outcome assessments across studies. Therefore, multi-group subgroup analyses or sensitivity analyses are conducted to explore the impact of different study characteristics on the results. In terms of literature quality assessment, the assessment methods used may lack sufficient objectivity and systematicity, which may also affect the judgment of literature quality, and multiple risk assessment tools may be used in the future to improve the objectivity and consistency of the assessment. In addition, subgroup analyses of gender differences were not conducted in the study, and in future studies, gender-specific data should be collected and reported, and gender subgroup analyses should be conducted to explore the effects of gender on children’s fundamental movement skills.

In summary, different types of physical activity programs had a positive impact on promoting children’s FMS in seven main areas: running ability, standing long jump, tapping a ball in place, kicking a ball, catching a ball with both hands, hitting a stationary ball, and overhand throwing, with no significant improvement in one-legged jumping and underhand throwing, and with fewer tests of balance in the included literature, the results obtained need to be further validated. Meanwhile, the subgroup analysis revealed that interventions exceeding 90 min per week significantly positively impacted children’s running ability, horizontal jumping, and catching skills. Additionally, interventions lasting less than 12 weeks showed greater effectiveness than those of 12 weeks or longer in improving running, horizontal jump, kicking, and catching abilities. Children aged 3–5 years performed better in running, horizontal jumping, and catching, while those aged 5–7 years showed better improvements in kicking ability. This suggests that future research should focus more on the duration of interventions and the careful planning of intervention periods to ensure that children’s motor skills are maximized. It also highlights the importance of selecting appropriate physical activity programs tailored to the growth and developmental characteristics of different age groups for the comprehensive development of children. Furthermore, as a critical factor, the intensity of interventions should be explored in greater depth in future studies.