In Japan previous data did not consider distinguishing between infants' creeping, hands and knees crawling and hands and feet crawling. Therefore the process of these motor skills has not been clearly understood in the national literature and it is incomparable with well-defined international data. In 2015 a detailed questionnaire survey of 307 infants in three prefectures (Hyogo, Okayama and Tottori) revealed that the majority of infants (76.1%) did both creeping and hands and knees crawling. The length of crawling was most frequent between 3 and 4 months, which is a similar figure compared to international research findings. The results further included the measure of shuffling, which is an irregular way of crawling on the back. Substantially 14.7% infants did not process with hands and knees crawling. 11.1% of the group skipped the complete acquisition process and progressed to walking without doing either creeping or any types of crawling.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between qualitative evaluation of fundamental motor skills and the quantitative motor performances in preschool children (122 boys and girls:5.7±0.5 years) . Fundamental motor skills were assessed based on 5 tests:25 m run, standing long jump, jump over and crawl test, overarm throwing, and zigzag run. Movements were videotaped and evaluated on observational evaluation criteria of "whole-body movement sequence image" and "several movement components". Each motor performance was measured simultaneously. Children with superior skills in whole-body movement had significantly higher motor performances except for in the zigzag run using ANCOVA adjusted for sex, age, body height, and weight. Moreover, children with superior skills in several movement components had significantly higher motor performances except for arm swings in the 25 m run, the leap over in the jump over and crawl test, and all items in the zigzag run. These findings suggest that development of fundamental motor skills by qualitative evaluation may be related to the superior quantitative motor performances in preschool children.