The differences in Motor Skills of Boys regarding on the Time Spent in Kinesiology Activities

Preschool period is ideal not only for the development and education regarding eating and health habits, but also for the overall development in the psychomotor area. Therefore, physical activity is highly important for the... [ view full abstract ]

Preschool period is ideal not only for the development and education regarding eating and health habits, but also for the overall development in the psychomotor area. Therefore, physical activity is highly important for the child`s health due to its contribution to the lifelong development and maintenance of their abilities. The aim of this paper is to determine the differences in motor efficiency between the boys who participated in the sports programme integrated in the overall kindergarten activities four times a week and the boys who participated in shorter sports programme twice a week during the period of three academic years. The survey was conducted in the Zagreb kindergarten “Vjeverica” including 55 boys aged 4-7. The boys were divided in two groups regarding their participation in the kinesiology activities. The experimental group consisted of boys exercising four times a week in duration of 60 minutes, and the other (control) group consisted of boys who worked out twice a week for 60 minutes. For the needs of this survey, four motor variables were measured based on which motor abilities of preschool boys can be assessed: agility, repetitive strength, flexibility and static strength. Basic descriptive parameters were determined in the survey: arithmetic mean (AS), standard deviation (SD), maximum result (Max), minimum result (Min) between the experimental and control groups for the motor skills assessment of four variables. The differences were determined by t- test for independent samples. The survey results indicate significant differences between the boys in the first and the third years of participation in kinesiology activities in the agility assessment test, and between the boys in the second year of participation in kinesiology activities in the agility assessment and static strength assessment tests.  

Kewords: agility assessment, psyhical activity, static strength assessment