Movement-Based Interventions and Motor Competence in Physical Education and Paediatric Exercise Contexts: A Narrative Synthesis of Experimental Evidence

Abstract

Objectives. Movement competence is fundamental to physical education, physical literacy, and sustained participation in physical activity. This critical narrative synthesis examined contemporary experimental and intervention-based evidence on movement-based interventions in children and adolescents, focusing on the direction, consistency, specificity, transferability, and methodological limitations of reported effects. Materials and Methods. A structured narrative review was used to identify and critically integrate literature published from 2018 onward. Study selection considered population, design, intervention or experimental focus, comparator, outcome domain, context, language, and relevance to the review question. Eighteen studies formed the core evidence base: 16 intervention or comparative studies and two structured experimental assessment studies addressing strength-effort regulation as a component of motor control. Evidence was synthesized thematically, with attention to methodological strengths, limitations, inconsistencies, and transfer effects. Results. Structured physical education and motor-competence programmes generally improved directly targeted gross motor and fundamental movement skills. Structured play, balance-bike training, physical activity programmes, and sport-based activities improved selected motor and fitness outcomes, but these gains did not consistently transfer to broader motor competence. Coordinative interventions improved several balance, jumping, and coordination outcomes, whereas effects on inhibitory control and other cognitive outcomes were inconsistent. Resistance training improved selected muscular fitness and performance outcomes, therapeutic exercise improved specific fundamental movement skills in a paediatric clinical population, and the FIFA 11+ Kids programme reduced overall injury incidence by 57% (IRR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.29–0.61). Strength-effort studies also suggested that force-regulation accuracy may vary with the relative effort reproduced. Conclusions. Contemporary evidence supports structured and developmentally appropriate movement experiences for improving motor competence and selected related outcomes in children and adolescents. However, benefits are often domain-specific, and improvements in directly practised abilities should not automatically be interpreted as transfer to generalised motor competence, physical activity, or cognitive functioning. Intervention structure, task specificity, progression, participant characteristics, and assessment methods appear to influence observed effects. Future studies should distinguish direct training effects from broader developmental transfer.