The purpose of this thesis was to measure the difference in energy expenditure and the number of steps with the help of an energy expenditure tracker in sports activities of preschool children regarding teaching with visual aids or without them. We were also looking for statistical differences in energy expenditure and steps made between 2—4 and 4—6 year olds in exercise units with and without visual aids. For the purpose of gaining data we used the BodyMedia Core SenseWear energy expenditure meter. The sample included 20 children aged between 2 and 6 years, of which 10 were aged between 2 and 4 years and 10 between 4 and 6 years. The data was processed with the help of the statistics program SPSS; the hypothesis of this thesis was verified with a t-test for paired samples.
The research showed that there are significant differences in all of the energy expenditure indicators when using visual aids or when visual aids were not used. The tendency for the existence of characteristic differences was recorded in the number of steps, active energy expenditure and total energy expenditure. We have found out that when visual aids were used the overal number of steps in both groups increased for 241 steps. When only looking at the age group of 2 to 4 year olds it increased for 86 steps on average, and when looking at the age group of 4 to 6 year old children 369 steps more were made on average when visual aids were used. The total energy expenditure rose as well, the overall increase was 201,6 kJ, while the increase of 2 to 4 year olds was 141,3 kJ and 261,9 kJ for 4 to 6 year olds when using visual aids. The increase was also noticeable in the active energy expenditure (intensity >3.0MET). The overall increase was 238kJ, 2 to 4 year olds increased their active energy expenditure by 131,4 kJ, while 4 to 6 year olds increased it by 344,6 kJ.
Children aged 4 to 6 expended statisticaly more total energy in both exercise units (with visual aids - 1197,5 and without visual aids - 935,6 kJ) than children aged 2 to 4 ( withvisual aids - 688,7 kJ, without visual aids - 547,4 kJ). Older children expended more active energy only in the exercise unit where visual aids were used. No significant statistical difference was found in active energy expenditure between 2 to 4 and 4 to 6 year olds in the exercise unit where visaul aids were not used, as no important statistical difference was found in both exercise units in the number of steps both groups had taken.
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