Mengyuan Bai , Nan Lin , Jane Jie Yu , Zitong Teng , Minjie Xu
{"title":"The effect of planned active play on the fundamental movement skills of preschool children","authors":"Mengyuan Bai , Nan Lin , Jane Jie Yu , Zitong Teng , Minjie Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.humov.2024.103241","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>At present, Chinese children aged 3–6 years old are facing challenges such as insufficient physical activity, declining physical health, and obesity, and China has yet to issue curriculum standards or physical activity guidelines for this age group. At the same time, the present kindergarten physical activity curriculum is insufficient. To address this issue, this study focused on designing and executing a planned active play intervention program for the kindergarten setting to analyze its efficacy in enhancing children's fundamental movement skills (FMS). This study aims to provide a reference for the theoretical and practical exploration of children's acquisition of fundamental movement skills in the Chinese context.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>Fifty-two preschoolers participated in this study and were either part of an intervention group (<em>n</em> = 30) or a control group (<em>n</em> = 24). Children's FMS were assessed before and after the intervention using the Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3) and the balance ability of the The Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2). Physical activity (PA) during the planned active play intervention and the routine physical activity curriculum were assessed using the SOFIT throughout the intervention.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>All the children significantly improved their locomotor skills, ball skills, and TGMD from baseline to the late assessment (<em>p</em> < 0.05). Children in the planned active play intervention group demonstrated greater rates of change (<em>p</em> < 0.001) and scored higher on ball skills and TGMD in the late assessment than those in the control group (<em>p</em> < 0.001). The children in the intervention group, but not those in the control group, significantly improved their balance over time (<em>p</em> < 0.05), and the former had greater rates of change (<em>p</em> < 0.001). Similarly, planned active play was found to provide children with more physical activity than the routine physical activity curriculum.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The eight-week planned active play intervention was effective in improving FMS in preschool children, with higher rates of FMS change in children who completed the intervention than children in the control group.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":55046,"journal":{"name":"Human Movement Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Human Movement Science","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167945724000642","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
At present, Chinese children aged 3–6 years old are facing challenges such as insufficient physical activity, declining physical health, and obesity, and China has yet to issue curriculum standards or physical activity guidelines for this age group. At the same time, the present kindergarten physical activity curriculum is insufficient. To address this issue, this study focused on designing and executing a planned active play intervention program for the kindergarten setting to analyze its efficacy in enhancing children's fundamental movement skills (FMS). This study aims to provide a reference for the theoretical and practical exploration of children's acquisition of fundamental movement skills in the Chinese context.
Methods
Fifty-two preschoolers participated in this study and were either part of an intervention group (n = 30) or a control group (n = 24). Children's FMS were assessed before and after the intervention using the Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3) and the balance ability of the The Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2). Physical activity (PA) during the planned active play intervention and the routine physical activity curriculum were assessed using the SOFIT throughout the intervention.
Results
All the children significantly improved their locomotor skills, ball skills, and TGMD from baseline to the late assessment (p < 0.05). Children in the planned active play intervention group demonstrated greater rates of change (p < 0.001) and scored higher on ball skills and TGMD in the late assessment than those in the control group (p < 0.001). The children in the intervention group, but not those in the control group, significantly improved their balance over time (p < 0.05), and the former had greater rates of change (p < 0.001). Similarly, planned active play was found to provide children with more physical activity than the routine physical activity curriculum.
Conclusions
The eight-week planned active play intervention was effective in improving FMS in preschool children, with higher rates of FMS change in children who completed the intervention than children in the control group.
期刊介绍:
Human Movement Science provides a medium for publishing disciplinary and multidisciplinary studies on human movement. It brings together psychological, biomechanical and neurophysiological research on the control, organization and learning of human movement, including the perceptual support of movement. The overarching goal of the journal is to publish articles that help advance theoretical understanding of the control and organization of human movement, as well as changes therein as a function of development, learning and rehabilitation. The nature of the research reported may vary from fundamental theoretical or empirical studies to more applied studies in the fields of, for example, sport, dance and rehabilitation with the proviso that all studies have a distinct theoretical bearing. Also, reviews and meta-studies advancing the understanding of human movement are welcome.
These aims and scope imply that purely descriptive studies are not acceptable, while methodological articles are only acceptable if the methodology in question opens up new vistas in understanding the control and organization of human movement. The same holds for articles on exercise physiology, which in general are not supported, unless they speak to the control and organization of human movement. In general, it is required that the theoretical message of articles published in Human Movement Science is, to a certain extent, innovative and not dismissible as just "more of the same."