Michaela Schenkelberg, associate professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is collaborating with MAP Academy personnel to make it easier to evaluate young children’s gross motor skills — the basic, whole-body movements that lay the foundation for lifelong physical activity.
With funding from the MAP Academy’s Applied Analytics and Data Infrastructure (AADI) Catalyst Program, Schenkelberg is partnering with Amanda Prokasky, MAP Academy research assistant professor, to develop a shorter version of a widely used tool that measures movement skills in children aged 3 to 10 years old.
The project builds on Schenkelberg’s earlier research, funded by the Special Olympics International, that examined how an inclusive play program affected children’s gross motor and social-emotional development. The assessment involved more than 200 students in classrooms across Nebraska and Kansas.
“We’re really interested in learning how kids’ fundamental motor skills are changing,” Schenkelberg said. “Skills such as throwing, catching and running serve as the foundation for more complex skills as kids get older and engaged in things like sports and other physical activities.”
Prokasky is examining the characteristics of children who fully completed the 13-skill assessment versus those who didn’t. Researchers will then use that analysis to determine which movement skills provide the most useful information. The goal is to reduce the assessment to about seven key skills that provide an accurate picture of children’s motor development.
“Michaela is a wonderful collaborator and is doing really important work in the area of early childhood motor development in children with and without disabilities,” Prokasky said. “I’m excited about our findings and the impact they will have on the field, and I look forward to sustaining our collaborations beyond this Catalyst award.”
During the baseline assessment, Schenkelberg said, researchers identified some of the limitations of the gross motor tool being used.
“With the assessment’s original format, kids were tiring quickly; they didn’t have the endurance they needed,” she said. “Our hope is that condensed form of the assessment can be adopted by practitioners and researchers to be able to better capture gross motor skills of the very young children, ages 2 to 7, in an inclusive environment — appropriate for children with or without disabilities.
The short-form version of the assessment will be designed to work well for all children, while still providing reliable results.
Now in its third year, the AADI Catalyst Program connects faculty with MAP Academy researchers, drawing upon their expertise in rigorous analysis and database support. Funded by the Nebraska Research Initiative, the program supports research partnerships among MAP Academy personnel and interdisciplinary faculty across the University of Nebraska system who conduct field-based human subjects research — and lays the groundwork for future collaboration.
Schenkelberg worked with Prokasky in 2025 on an AADI project focused on youth sports participation, led by Ann Rogers, assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion in the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“Working with Amanda has been great,” Schenkelberg said. “I really appreciate that she not only has that statistical expertise, but she also has content knowledge and a passion for early childhood. I think our partnership is well-suited for this work, and I already have plans for her going forward on how we’re going to continue to collaborate on future projects.”