This study intended to assess the impact of coordination-based exercise interventions on physical fitness, motor competence, and executive function among preschoolers aged 4 to 6 years.
Forty-four preschool children (22 boys and 22 girls), with a mean age of 5.90 years (SD = 0.28). Participants will be randomly assigned to an Exercise Group (n = 19) or a Control Group (n = 25). The Exercise Group will engage in 20-minute, fun, and game-based sessions focusing on foundational movement patterns appropriate for preschoolers, conducted twice weekly over eight weeks. In contrast, the Control Group continued with their regular unstructured school activities. Physical fitness was evaluated using agility tests, static-dynamic balance, and vertical jumping. Motor competence was assessed through the KTK3+ test battery, and inhibition control was measured using the Go/No-Go test. The study concluded that coordination-based exercises, structured around fun and engaging activities suitable for preschoolers, potentially enhance physical fitness, motor skills, and executive functions. These areas are essential for early childhood development, suggesting that integrating such exercises into preschool activities could be beneficial. However, specific results regarding the effectiveness of the interventions on the tested competencies would need to be detailed to confirm these hypothesized benefits fully. The study highlights the importance of structured physical activity in early childhood education settings for promoting essential developmental skills.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
44
Children in the coordinative exercise intervention group will be encouraged to participate in sessions twice a week, each lasting 20 minutes. The foundational movement patterns tailored to the specific purpose were organized in a game format suitable for preschool-aged children. These foundational movement patterns comprise open-ended tasks progressing from simple to complex, with motor planning as a prerequisite. As the exercise intervention was game-based, the sessions were maintained as a fun, active, and social learning environment for the children. Duration of the intervention is eight weeks,
Monira Aldhahi
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Motor competence
Motor competence will be assessed through the Body Coordination Test for Children (KTK). The Body Coordination Test for Children (KTK)+ test battery, supported by a hand-eye coordination task, will be used to assess the children's motor competence and it measures general gross motor coordination The Body Coordination Test for Children (KTK) test items include backward balancing (BB), sideways movement (MS), sideways jumping (JS), and hand-eye coordination tasks (EHC). All test items demonstrated good test-retest reliability: BB = 0.80, MS = 0.84, JS = 0.95, and EHC 0.87
Time frame: at baseline and end of 8 week
Inhibition control (IC)
IC will be measured using the Go/No-Go test. The Go/No-Go task is a protocol commonly used to measure inhibitory control in young children. The convergent validity of inhibitory control measurement has been observed to be good in this age group, with a strong correlation with the NIH Toolbox, which is frequently used and has a similar structure (r (80) = .40, p \< 0.001). Additionally, internal consistency analyses of the Go/No-Go task revealed good reliability for the "Go" stimulus (Cronbach α = 0.95) and the "No-Go" stimulus (Cronbach 'sα = 0.84). In the Go/No-Go task, the children will be instructed to respond to the "go" stimulus (catch fish) by pressing the screen and to withhold their response to the "no-go" stimulus (avoid sharks). The practice trials consisted of 5 blocks of "catch fish" trials, five blocks of "avoid sharks" trials, and then a mixed block of 10 trials. After a short rest period, the task was completed with 75 stimulus trials divided into three test blocks (each
Time frame: at baseline and end of 8 week
agility test
The test course will be set with markers placed five yards (4.57m) to the left and right of the starting line, with indicators (motivational for the participants' age) placed accordingly. A photocell gate will be placed at the starting line to record repeated passage times. Before the start of the application, the participants took their position and when ready, they touched the marker on the right first, then the marker on the left, and finally crossed the starting line to complete the test.
Time frame: at baseline and end of 8 week
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Countermovement jump test
Vertical jump performance was measured using an accelerometer (iVMES Athlete, Ankara, Turkey). During the test, the participants will be encouraged to jump as high as possible. The test was conducted twice with a 30-second rest between trials.
Time frame: at baseline and end of 8 week