Poster #37 - Physical Activity Intervention for Improving Preschool Children’s Gross Motor Skills

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Data collected by the OECD showed the trends 2000-2016 that children and young people put their physical health at risk due to the increasing use of technology and changing family structures (OECD, 2018). Inadequate physical activity correlated to childhood obesity and overweight and it became more severe during the pandemic. This project, sponsored by the National Health Administration in Taiwan advocated children’s health promotion at 100 nursery schools, with 1571 children from age 3 to 6. As we know, this project is one of the few health promotion projects concerning preschool children and constructing concise indicators and the practicing model. The purposes of this project are to increase young children’s health literacy and skills, create a healthy learning environment, and encourage parents and nursery schools to work together to improve young children’s health.
The indicators of gross motor skills include three dimensions, each containing two sub-categories: balance (constantly footed and standing with one foot), travel (constantly jumping and jumping with two feet), and passing and catching objects (shoulder throw and ball catching). The preschool teachers conducted and recorded pre-test before the intervention and post-test after 6 months, following the definitions of each motor skill and standard procedure. The intervening strategies included daily outdoor physical activities at least 30 minutes every day, ‘sports bags’ for parents and children at weekends, and athletic games held in nursery schools. The results are as follows:
1. Young children’s gross motor skills (including balance, travel, passing and catching objects) became mature from age 3 to 6.
2. Children’s gross motor skills improved after 6-month interventions and constantly footed achieved the most significant improvement among six skills.
3. Three-year-old children had significant improvement in balance skill. Ball catching was significantly improvement among 5-year-old children. Ball catching skills require the development of children’s eye-hand coordination which matures later.
The preschool teachers were encouraged to design various physical activities to assist young children’s gross motor skills development. They incorporated plays, games, or stories with physical activities integrated to make these activities interesting, not just for skill training. As we concluded from the findings, children’s balance, travel, passing and catching abilities achieved satisfying results at four different ages. The intervention of physical activities promoted young children’s health, particularly in post-pandemic period.

Authors

• Yu-Ching Yeh, National Chiayi University
  Presenting Author

• Shio=Jean Lin, Chi Mei Medical Center

• Li-Yuan Wu, National Tainan University

• Maio-Ju Tu, Fu Jen Catholic University