The purpose of the diploma was to research the impact of 20-minute physical activity on achieving higher attention with pre-school children. With the analysis of the results we wanted to determine the usefulness of an active break before carrying out sedentary activities in kindergarten. At the same time, we wanted to discover if there are any statistically relevant differences with both genders.
There were two groups of pre-school children from H. C. Andersen kindergarten, unit Marjetica, taking part in the study, altogether 36 children, aged 5 to 6 years, out of that 15 boys and 21 girls.
The sample of variables included two types of variables. The first presented the reconstructed »test of attention«, used by Krpač, Jerman and Kos (2010) in the Connection of active recess and attention study. The test was rearranged to suit pre-school children that were included in the study. We measured results with speed, accuracy and correctness.
Speed was the same for all children, all had 10 minutes available to complete the task. We marked accuracy and correctness with corresponding points.
The second variable was physical activity in the duration of 20 minutes.
We gathered data in two measuring sessions. In the first session we did physical activity with the first group after which children solved the attention test while the second group only solved the attention test. After the period of seven days we repeated the measurement except this time the first group only solved the attention test while the second did physical activity before that.
We processed the data in SPSS program and presented it in tables. We used t-test and reviewed statistical significance with 5% risk.
Analysis showed that there are no statistically relevant differences in solving attention test before or after physical activity although progress was seen between measurement. There were no statististical differences between genders so we cannot say girls or boys achieved better results.
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