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Fundamental Movement Skills, Explained

By Chaz Bagri1 April 20257 min read

A boy and a woman play a catch game with bright velcro paddles on a lawn

Fundamental movement skills explained for parents: the three families, why lists say 8 or 12, when each skill tends to appear, and one home game per skill.

Fundamental movement skills are the basic movements that sport and play are built from: running, jumping, hopping, balancing, throwing, catching and kicking. Researchers usually sort them into three families: moving the body from place to place, keeping balance, and controlling an object. Lists vary in length depending on who wrote them, so there's no single official number to tick off.

Fundamental movement skills, often shortened to FMS, are the building blocks children use before they ever play a proper game. A child who can run, stop, hop and catch can pick up football, netball or rounders later. A child still unsure on one foot will find all three harder.

You'll see the term in your child's school reports, in PE plans and on coaching websites, nearly always written for teachers. This is the parent version: what the families are, why the lists disagree, when each skill tends to arrive, and a game at home for every one of them.

What are the three families of fundamental movement skills?

Most motor development researchers use three. A 2015 study of children's stability skills, published in PLoS ONE, summarises the standard grouping from the textbook by Gallahue, Ozmun and Goodway like this:

Locomotor, What it means: Moving the body from one place to another; Skills in it: Run, hop, jump, slide, gallop, leap
Object control, What it means: Moving or receiving an object with hands, feet or a bat; Skills in it: Strike, dribble, kick, throw, underarm roll, catch
Stability, What it means: Keeping or regaining balance, still or moving; Skills in it: Body rolling, bending, twisting

Some lists use other names: stability is sometimes called balance or body management, and object control is sometimes called manipulative skills. The three ideas underneath stay the same.

Why do lists say 8, 10 or 12?

Because each count comes from a different document, and none of them claims to be the only one.

Twelve is usually the locomotor and object control lists added together: six plus six from the table above. Eight is the reception-year list in England's early years guidance, which gives examples rather than a fixed set; our guide to gross motor skills goes through it. Other counts you'll come across, such as 10 or 7, are selections made by whoever wrote that list.

The national curriculum doesn't count at all. For key stage 1, the PE programme of study says pupils should develop fundamental movement skills: mastering the basics of running, jumping, throwing and catching while building their balance, agility and co-ordination.

So if a worksheet says 12 and a coach says 10, neither is wrong. Ask which family each skill belongs to; that's the useful bit.

When do children usually pick them up?

Gradually, and in roughly the order below. These come from Development Matters, the non-statutory early years guidance for England, and the PE curriculum. The lines for around 2 and around 3 are Development Matters' observation checkpoints, written as questions for nursery staff; the rest describe what children are learning to do. None of them is a deadline.

Around 2, What the guidance looks for: Runs well, kicks a ball, takes off from the ground with both feet at once
Around 3, What the guidance looks for: Climbs with confidence, catches a big ball, pedals a trike
3 and 4, What the guidance looks for: Hops, skips, balances on one leg and holds still in games such as musical statues
Reception (4 to 5), What the guidance looks for: Polishing the movements they already have, plus ball skills: throwing, catching, kicking, passing, batting, aiming
Key stage 1 (5 to 7), What the guidance looks for: The four basics (run, jump, throw, catch) mastered, with balance, agility and co-ordination growing
Key stage 2 (7 to 11), What the guidance looks for: Those four basics used singly and linked together

Children arrive at each of these at different speeds. The DfE's Help for early years providers site says that for some children, confidence comes in smaller steps and takes longer.

Why balance is the family that gets forgotten

Most of the research has measured running, jumping, throwing and catching. The authors of that 2015 study point out that stability skills have had far less attention, even though they've been described as the most basic skills in the family. Their tests for it were gymnastics-style movements: a log roll, a rock on the back, and holding a back support.

At home, this is the family most likely to be missed. Ball games and running races cover the other two without anyone planning it. Stability needs slower things: holding still on one leg, rolling sideways down a grassy slope, rocking on a curved back, twisting to look behind without falling over.

It's also where yoga fits most naturally. A balance pose is stability practice with a name and a picture. On the Sun Salutation mat, tree is pose 14 and dancer is pose 15, and both ask a child to find their balance, lose it, and find it again. If balance is the gap, our core strength and balance activities go further.

One home game for every skill

None of these needs equipment beyond what's already in a house. The UK Chief Medical Officers say evidence suggests a broader, more varied range of movement skills is likely to be beneficial, though they add that more high-quality research is needed. So mix the families rather than repeating one.

Run, Family: Locomotor; Game at home: Traffic lights: green run, amber walk, red freeze
Hop, Family: Locomotor; Game at home: Hopscotch in chalk on the path, or masking tape on a hall floor
Jump, Family: Locomotor; Game at home: Jump the river: two skipping ropes, moved further apart each turn
Slide, Family: Locomotor; Game at home: Crab shuffle sideways along the sofa edge and back
Gallop, Family: Locomotor; Game at home: Horse races down the garden, same foot leading every time
Leap, Family: Locomotor; Game at home: Stepping stones: cushions far enough apart to need a big stride
Throw, Family: Object control; Game at home: Rolled-sock throws into a washing basket, one step back after each hit
Catch, Family: Object control; Game at home: Balloon catch first, then a soft beach ball
Kick, Family: Object control; Game at home: Kick a ball between two shoes for a goal
Strike, Family: Object control; Game at home: Balloon tennis with a rolled-up newspaper
Underarm roll, Family: Object control; Game at home: Skittles with empty plastic bottles
Dribble, Family: Object control; Game at home: Bounce and catch a ball while walking to the gate
Balance, Family: Stability; Game at home: Musical statues, or tree pose while you count to five
Body roll, Family: Stability; Game at home: Log rolls down a gentle grass slope
Rock, Family: Stability; Game at home: Hug the knees and rock on the back like an egg
Twist and bend, Family: Stability; Game at home: Simon says "touch your toes", "look behind you", "reach for the ceiling"

Two or three games a day is plenty. For where this sits in a child's daily total, see the UK guidelines in how much exercise kids need.

What does FMS mean in PE?

In a school report, "FMS" means those key stage 1 basics: running, jumping, throwing, catching, balance, agility and co-ordination. Assessment tools like the one in that 2015 study score how a child performs each movement, its key parts, rather than how far or fast it goes.

The Chief Medical Officers' report says physical education is likely to play an important role in developing movement skills. It also points to moderate-quality evidence that more activity goes with better movement skills, and that the link runs both ways. So practice at home, in small and playful doses, sits well alongside PE.

Skills are also only one side of how children come to love moving. The other side is confidence, enjoyment and playing with others, which is what physical literacy describes.

When to ask a professional about how your child moves

Children learn these skills at their own pace, and a wobbly hop at four is ordinary. If something about the way your child moves worries you, you don't have to wait for a scheduled review. The NHS points parents to a health visitor (for under-fives) or GP for worries that come up between the routine checks, so get in touch whenever it's on your mind. Once your child is at school, their class teacher has watched them in PE and is a sensible first person to ask.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 12 fundamental movement skills?

There's no official list of 12. A list of 12 is often six locomotor skills (run, hop, jump, slide, gallop, leap) plus six object control skills (strike, dribble, kick, throw, underarm roll, catch), which is how the motor development textbook by Gallahue and colleagues groups them. That version leaves out stability skills such as balancing and rolling, which a 2015 study argues belong alongside them.

What age should children learn fundamental movement skills?

From the start, gradually. England's early years guidance looks for running, kicking and two-footed jumping around a child's second birthday, catching a large ball around the third, and hopping, skipping and one-leg balances at three and four. Reception refines them, and the national curriculum expects children to master the basics in key stage 1, between five and seven.

Are fundamental movement skills the same as gross motor skills?

They overlap, but they aren't quite the same. Gross motor skills are any movements that use the whole body, from a baby rolling over to an adult lifting a box. Fundamental movement skills are a short list of the basic whole-body patterns, such as running, hopping, balancing, throwing and catching, that sports and games are later built from.

How is physical literacy different from fundamental movement skills?

Fundamental movement skills are what a child can do. Physical literacy is their whole relationship with movement: whether they enjoy it, feel confident, play well with others and understand what they're doing. The UK Chief Medical Officers describe movement skills as sometimes being seen as one component of physical literacy, so the skills are one part of the bigger picture.

Sources

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