Biomechanical Quantification of Children’s Gross Motor Movement: A Systematic Scoping Review

Hammocks, Andrew; Price, Carina; A. Jones, Paul

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Children continually learn and develop new motor skills towards mastery, resulting in varying movement patterns at different stages of motor competence. Understanding this progression and confidently recognising development delay requires synthesising the children’s biomechanics literature. Firstly though, we must understand the past research and the approaches used. This review aims to identify and map the approaches and sources of the current literature in biomechanically quantifying the gross motor movement of typically developing children.

Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. A database search of MEDLINE (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), ProQuest, CINAHL (EBSCO), and Web of Science identified English, peer-reviewed research biomechanically quantifying the movement of healthy children aged 3–12 years. Results include a bibliometric analysis and narrative summary.

Results: Overall, 171 papers were included, representing a range of fields including footwear, injury, development, exercise, and activity. Country of origin and funding sources were equally variable. Walking was the predominantly assessed gross motor movement in children, followed by jumping and running. Equipment and facilities often resulted in more artificial settings, and important factors such as footwear used, testing environment, and condition familiarity were rarely reported.

Conclusions: The literature results from diverse disciplines, institutions, and funding sources, but inconsistent reporting of conditions hinders synthesis. Future research is recommended to transparently report participant characteristics, environment, and testing conditions and to implement more ecologically valid protocols. Recommendations from this review will improve the quality of future research on children’s movement.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 24, 2025
• Publication Date: May 2, 2025
• Deposit Date: May 6, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 8, 2025
• Journal: Biomechanics
• Print ISSN: 2673-7078
• Electronic ISSN: 2673-7078
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 28
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/biomechanics5020028
• Keywords: biomechanics; children; gross motor movement; methodology; bibliometrics