Motivation, confidence, physical competence, and knowledge and understanding are the four key attributes of physical literacy (PL). Among these, physical competency has been traditionally seen from a fitness perspective. As per the PL philosophy by Margaret Whitehead, competence now has a new dimension. It can be described as the right amount of movement vocabulary and movement capacities to develop a movement pattern that further leads to development in a range of movement forms as afforded by an individual’s aptitude.
Movement vocabulary
Movement of an organism, by definition, means a change in location per the spatial- temporal parameter (space and time) of that organism. On the other hand, vocabulary consists of a range of artistic or aesthetic forms, techniques or movements, or body of words used in a particular language. Similar to a language dictionary that consists of the complete vocabulary of a language, movement vocabulary comprises millions of movements which are humanly possible. Thus, this set of movements form the total movement vocabulary of a person.
Movement vocabulary varies from person to person and also changes with age and the person they are at any point in time. Just like new words get added to the existing pool of words in a dictionary, new movement vocabulary gets created and added to the existing pool as and when an individual develops. Few movement vocabularies can be common to all and few are self-created based on the individual’s location, level of interaction, culture and environment. There is no ceiling effect to movement vocabulary. Movement vocabulary develops over the course of time based on the individual’s interest and desire to explore.
For ease of categorization, movement vocabulary has been divided into seven categories: balance, locomotion, flight, manipulation, projection, construction, and non-verbal communication.
Although movement vocabulary and fundamental motor skills (FMS) are generally considered to be the same and are also referred to interchangeably, on a factual basis, they are not the same. Movement vocabulary is the whole big picture while FMS is a part of the bigger picture. Fundamental motor skills, according to many studies, are nothing but the movement skills which form the foundation for building sports specific skills in later part of life, according to many studies.
The buckets of FMS might be the same universally with some addition to the categories that are considered essential for primary school children. Let us try to understand this concept better by undertaking a case study of children from two states of India: Kashmir (North), Rajasthan (West) and Madhya Pradesh (Center).
Mahira is an 8-year-old girl from Kashmir. She loves to accompany her dad while he takes around the tourists for site-seeing. She also actively helps her family in other household chores such as grocery shopping. Mahira stays in a remote region and has to walk long distances to reach the market. She also helps her mother in tailoring. Apart from this, she enjoys trekking, snow skiing and cattle grazing.
From the above scenario, let us list down a few of the movements from Mahira’s day-to-day life, which will add up to a bigger movement vocabulary list. She lives in a place where it snows and has extreme winters. People living in the hilly terrains have a body developed in such a way that they can survive cold climates. Based on the location, her movement list would include walking, running, climbing uneven surfaces, climbing the hills, and since the area is covered in snow for a major portion of the year, Mahira also spends time doing snow skiing. Walking long distances would have also helped her in developing skills to walk on hoary surfaces and uneven terrains. She might possess good endurance to walk long distances and modulate her thermo-regulatory system. As she also accompanies her father for tourist scouting and enjoys cultural exchange, she might have developed newer movement vocabulary by seeing others and learning from them, which might not be common to other children in that area.
Now, let us consider the example of Zeeshan and Shama, who stay in a rural village of Rajasthan, close to the western border. Their father works at Camel Safari. Zeeshan and Shama are 13 and 9 years old, respectively. Zeeshan goes to school and wants to join the army. Shama, on the other hand, wants to become a Banjara dancer. Due to the topography, there is scarcity of water. Irrespective of the hot humid climate, the two kids have good endurance. They walk bare feet on the dry sand for long distances to fetch water. Shama likes balancing the water matkaas over her head. They draw water from a well or sometimes walk to the nearby water bodies. They play hide and seek in shrub jungles and scattered bushes. Apart from this, they enjoy playing Changa Po (marble game) and Sitolia (pittu)- traditional games of Rajasthan. The location and environment of the state also plays a major role in the acquisition of movement vocabulary along with other basic survival skills.
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