In the last hundred years, the way of life around the world has changed a lot. Children sit most of the day and there are few opportunities for movement in their everyday life, which is one of children's basic needs.The lack of movement affects the overall development of children. To encourage movement during classes, we introduced the practice of yoga elements for 15 minutes three times a week.
We asked ourselves whether yoga affects the motor skills of children in the 1st grade of primary school. In the master's thesis, we wanted to find out whether yoga affects coordination, balance and mobility and whether there are differences between girls and boys in mobility skills according to the implementation of the yoga programme.
The master's thesis is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part. In the theoretical part, we described the history of yoga and its features, we described yoga for children and asanas. Then we wrote about measurement instruments and defined movement skills. In the empirical part, we described in more detail a survey in which 15 1st-grade students of the Tone Tomšič Elementary School participated. The group practiced yoga three times a week for 15 minutes in January, February and March. We practiced yoga at the beginning or during the class. Withthe help of a sports training card and the Eurofit flamingo test battery, we determined whether yoga has an effect on certain movement skills.
The results showed us that the group of 1st grade students improved their motor skills, coordination, flexibility and balance. There were no differences in performance between girls and boys.
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