A developmental study of movement experiences for the preschool years

Green, Stella (1978) A developmental study of movement experiences for the preschool years. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop a program of movement experiences for the pre-school years and to investigate the effects of such a program on children between the age of three and five years. In order to complete this investigation, a six-week exposure to movement experiences was introduced into an urban preschool which was affiliated with a university. An evaluation was made of the effects of this six-week exposure to specific activity areas contained within the total program contents. The selected areas were locomotor and balance activities. -- The sample consisted of twenty-four children who ranged in age between three years five months and four years ten months. These children were randomly assigned to three equal groups, A, B and C. -- There were three hypotheses tested in this study: -- I: The introduction of the total contents of the daily program of movement experiences will significantly enhance the general motor skill development of the pre-school child. -- II: The specific six week program of balancing activities will significantly enhance the balancing skill of the pre-school child. -- III: The specific six week program of locomotor activities will significantly enhance the locomotor skill of the pre-school child. -- The three groups each received a different treatment: -- Group A received locomotor activities only -- Group B received balance activities only -- Group C received no activities -- Four tests, Balance 1 and 2 and Locomotor 1 and 2 were used in a Time Series Design. There was a pretest, five interim tests and a post-test. All tests were administered by the investigator. -- The hypotheses of the study were tested by using a one-way analysis of variance to compare the pretest and post-test results for all three groups on all four of the tests. The .05 level of significance was set for all hypothesis testing. The tests used were acceptable on face validity. The analysis of the data resulted in the conditional acceptance of all three hypotheses. The results seem to indicate that the six-week exposure to specific activity areas did significantly enhance the motor skill development of the pre-school child in those particular areas.

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