New research, published in Frontiers in Paediatrics, shows that children who spend most of their time barefoot develop motor skills differently to those who habitually wear shoes.
It’s the first study to look specifically at how growing up wearing footwear, versus growing up barefoot, affects jumping, balancing and sprinting at different stages of childhood and adolescence.
The research shows that habitually barefoot children are noticeably better at jumping and balancing than children who habitually wear shoes, particularly between the ages of 6 and 10. That advantage fades somewhat in older adolescents, but the researchers say it still highlights how important barefoot activity can be for motor development as children grow.
Professor Astrid Zech of the University of Jena, Germany, who led the study, explains that footwear has long been discussed as a factor in foot health and movement development, given that walking barefoot is widely seen as the more natural state. While earlier research has shown that going barefoot changes biomechanics during running and jumping in both children and adults, she notes there’s been limited understanding of whether that actually matters for basic motor skill development, which is exactly what this study set out to test.
Zech, working alongside two research teams, assessed three motor skills, balance, standing long jump, and a 20-metre sprint — across 810 children and adolescents from 22 primary and secondary schools in rural Western Cape, South Africa, and urban northern Germany. The two groups were chosen deliberately to represent different footwear habits: the South African children were habitually barefoot, while the German children wore shoes most of the time.
The habitually barefoot children scored significantly higher in both the balance and jumping tests, a difference that held across all age groups tested (6–10, 11–14 and 15–18), but was strongest among the youngest group. These children also performed better barefoot than in shoes.
Professor Ranel Venter of Stellenbosch University, who led the South African side of the research, points out that most of the primary school children in the study go to school and take part in sport and leisure activities barefoot as a matter of course. Their stronger balance and jumping results, she suggests, support the idea that basic motor skill development during childhood and adolescence depends, at least in part, on regular barefoot activity.
The sprint results told a different story. Here, children who habitually wore shoes performed better, particularly those aged 11 to 14 and both groups ran faster in shoes than barefoot.
Overall, the researchers’ findings point to genuine benefits from barefoot activity for motor development. Zech suggests that PE lessons, sports programmes and recreational activities aiming to build basic motor skills could benefit from including barefoot elements, and that parents might consider encouraging some regular barefoot time at home too.
This article was taken from the National Alliance for Youth Sports website. The full, original article can be found here.
