Development of Spatial Orientation of Children Aged 8-9 Years Using a Gymnastic Stick

For the development of coordination abilities, a gymnastic stick can be used at school. The introduction of a gymnastic stick in the process of physical education at school and the effectiveness of its use. The pedagogical experiment was conducted in Russia at the Kirov school number sixty. Boys and girls in the number of 104 children took part in the pedagogical experiment. The children were differentiated into a control group (they were engaged in a standard program. The experimental group studied according to the standard program, but after the warm-up they performed a set of exercises on the gymnastic stick. The children were engaged in physical education for 40 minutes 2 times a week. The ability to spatial orientation was determined using the "Running to Numbers" test. The Student's T-test was used in statistical processing. After the end of the pedagogical experiment, the indicators of children in the control group improved by 7.9% (p>0.05), the positive dynamics can be explained by a natural increase in coordination abilities at the age of 8-9 years and the effectiveness of using the standard physical education program in Russian schools. The indicators of children in the experimental group improved by 29.4% (p<0.05). Such results can be explained by the effectiveness of the implementation of a set of exercises using a gymnastic stick in physical education lessons. The indicators of spatial orientation will significantly improve if children aged 8-9 will additionally perform a set of physical exercises on the gymnastic stick during physical education lessons.