Kinesthetic Coordination Abilities in 6-Year-Old Children: School Quintile, Gender, and Hand Dominance Differences

Proprioceptive kinaesthetic control underpins motor movements of developing children and can be influenced by several factors. The main aim of this study was to establish proprioceptive kinaesthetic coordination differences in six-year-olds from different school quintiles, of different genders, and with different handedness. A total of 193 six-year-olds from 10 schools of different quintiles in the Motheo District, Mangaung, were included, of which 97 (50.3%) were boys and 96 (49.7%) were girls. A quantitative cross-sectional study design was followed to determine proprioceptive kinaesthetic coordination differences. Right-handed participants performed significantly better than left-handed participants in the Finger-to-Nose task (p = 0.0125) when moving and positioning their dominant arm and hand. When using their dominant arm, significant differences in the shoulder-level-arm-raise (p = 0.0288) favoured boys. Girls showed superior execution of the force perception task (p = 0.0322). In conclusion, significant proprioceptive kinaesthetic coordination differences in six-year-olds were mainly not evident. Future work should explore proprioceptive kinaesthetic coordination differences in children of other ages and determine the practical implications of identified differences.