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Topic · Developmental and Educational Psychology

Children's Physical and Motor Development

Children's Physical and Motor Development is a research topic within Developmental and Educational Psychology. Science Explorer counts 31k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the developmental perspective on motor skill competence, focusing on the interrelation of motor development and cognitive development, the impact of motor competence on physical activity and health trajectories, and the psychosocial implications of poor motor coordination in children and adolescents. It also delves into the assessment, diagnosis, and interventions for developmental coordination disorder, as well as the relationship between fundamental movement skills, physical literacy, and overall well-being.

  • Motor Skill Competence
  • Developmental Coordination Disorder
  • Physical Activity
  • Cognitive Development
  • Motor Development
  • Childhood Motor Skills
  • Physical Literacy
  • Gross Motor Skills
  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Psychosocial Implications
Research works
31k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+17%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Indonesia
31% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Children's Physical and Motor Development

Which countries lead Children's Physical and Motor Development research?

By volume, Indonesia and the United States publish the most (1.7k and 997 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Indonesia 1.7k works
  2. 2 United States 997 works
  3. 3 Brazil 579 works
  4. 4 China 540 works
  5. 5 Spain 363 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 317 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 267 works
  8. 8 India 216 works
  9. 9 Australia 214 works
  10. 10 Canada 197 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Indonesia: 31.4%United States: 18.5%Brazil: 10.8%China: 10.0%6 others listed: 29.3%31%largest
Indonesia1,689 · 31.4%United States997 · 18.5%Brazil579 · 10.8%China540 · 10.0%6 others listed1,574 · 29.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Children's Physical and Motor Development research?

By volume in 2022-now, Indonesia University of Education publishes the most Children's Physical and Motor Development research, followed by Yogyakarta State University and State University of Padang.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Indonesia University of EducationIndonesia 95 works
  2. 2 Yogyakarta State UniversityIndonesia 91 works
  3. 3 State University of PadangIndonesia 79 works
  4. 4 State University of MalangIndonesia 70 works
  5. 5 State University of SemarangIndonesia 60 works
  6. 6 State University of MakassarIndonesia 60 works
  7. 7 Universitas Negeri SurabayaIndonesia 59 works
  8. 8 Universitas Muhammadiyah Tapanuli SelatanIndonesia 58 works
  9. 9 State University of MedanIndonesia 48 works
  10. 10 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 41 works

Who are the leading researchers in Children's Physical and Motor Development?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Children's Physical and Motor Development include George Davey Smith, Julian P. T. Higgins and Cyrus Cooper.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Julian P. T. Higgins United Kingdom 390k citations
  3. 3 Cyrus Cooper United Kingdom 342k citations
  4. 4 Stuart Pocock United Kingdom 273k citations
  5. 5 Valentı́n Fuster United States 257k citations
  6. 6 Tommi Juhani Vasankari Finland 248k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Children's Physical and Motor Development?

The most cited paper in Children's Physical and Motor Development is "Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States, 1999-2004" (Cynthia L. Ogden, Margaret Deutsch Carroll, Lester R. Curtin et al., 2006), with 8,754 citations. Next come "Systematic review of the health benefits of physical activity and fitness in school-aged children and youth" (4,885) and "A review of correlates of physical activity of children and adolescents" (4,439).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States, 1999-2004 Cynthia L. Ogden, Margaret Deutsch Carroll, Lester R. Curtin et al. · JAMA 4 Apr 2006 8,754
2 Systematic review of the health benefits of physical activity and fitness in school-aged children and youth Ian Janssen, Allana G. LeBlanc · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity ReviewOpen access 2010 4,885
3 A review of correlates of physical activity of children and adolescents James F. Sallis, Judith J. Prochaska, Wendell C. Taylor · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise May 2000 4,439
4 Evidence Based Physical Activity for School-age Youth William B. Strong, Robert M. Malina, Cameron J.R. Blimkie et al. · The Journal of Pediatrics Jun 2005 4,260
5 Global trends in insufficient physical activity among adolescents: a pooled analysis of 298 population-based surveys with 1·6 million participants Regina Guthold, Gretchen A Stevens, Leanne Margaret Riley et al. · The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Open access 21 Nov 2019 4,091
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Children's Physical and Motor Development research done?

The largest centres of Children's Physical and Motor Development research in 2022-now are Jakarta (Indonesia), Bandung (Indonesia), Semarang (Indonesia) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Padangsidempuan, Kelurahan Tounsaru and Badajoz.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 JakartaIndonesia 129 works
  2. 2 BandungIndonesia 125 works
  3. 3 SemarangIndonesia 119 works
  4. 4 YogyakartaIndonesia 112 works
  5. 5 São PauloBrazil 94 works
  6. 6 MalangIndonesia 91 works
  7. 7 BeijingChina 87 works
  8. 8 PadangIndonesia 84 works
  9. 9 SurabayaIndonesia 81 works
  10. 10 TehranIran 79 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. PadangsidempuanID · 58.1 works17×
  2. Kelurahan TounsaruID · 28.7 works14×
  3. BadajozES · 22.9 works12×
  4. JyvaskylaFI · 20.0 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Children's Physical and Motor Development than the world average.

See Children's Physical and Motor Development on the map

Where is the best place to study Children's Physical and Motor Development?

Among universities, judged by research, Shanghai University of Sport, The University of Queensland and Beijing Sport University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.8%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Shanghai University …The University of Qu…Chinese University o…Beijing Sport Univer…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Shanghai University of SportChina 76.143.8%55.1×23 +54.5%
2The University of QueenslandAustralia 59.430.5%3.1×22 +78.1%
3Beijing Sport UniversityChina 57.125.0%45.3×23 +180.1%
4Chinese University of Hong KongChina 56.529.1%2.7×15 +11.4%
5Deakin UniversityAustralia 56.130.5%6.5×22 -26.9%
6University of JyväskyläFinland 54.918.5%13.4×18 +39.6%
7Yogyakarta State UniversityIndonesia 53.83.4%21.4×91 +89.4%
8Universidad de ExtremaduraSpain 53.518.6%15.6×23 +46.9%
9University of BaselSwitzerland 52.926.7%3.5×10 +43.2%
10Indonesia University of EducationIndonesia 52.11.9%12.7×95 +86.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Children's Physical and Motor Development, country by country

Is Children's Physical and Motor Development research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 17% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Children's Physical and Motor Development.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Children's Physical and Motor Development as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.039% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Children's Physical and Motor Development0.038% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Children's Physical and Motor Development over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Children's Physical and Motor Development10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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