Development of Small Movements in Three- to Four-Year-Old Children
The aim of this paper was to determine how the development of small movements in three- to four-year-old children changes if influenced systematically. We studied in what way and to what extent differences were shown in children participating in the systematic programme compared to those not participating in the programme. In compliance with theoretical findings, we presumed that greater progress would be observed in girls, so the groups were also compared in terms of sex.
Our sample comprised 38 children aged between three and four years from the Čebelica (Little Bee) Preschool in Šentjernej. The experimental group consisted of 19 children from the group Čarobni bobenček (Magical Drum), and the control group comprised 19 children from the group Zvezdno nebo (Starry Sky). Both groups were tested using an adjusted test to measure small movements by putting perforated objects on a string. Following the initial test, the experimental group participated in ten prepared systematic activities performed twice a week through carefully selected game situations, with the aim to make more advanced and improve their small movements. The control group did not participate in these activities. After five weeks, both groups (the experimental and the control groups) retook the initial test of putting perforated objects on a string.
The obtained results showed that, following a five-week implementation and ten systematically prepared activities, the progress of the experimental group was almost five times greater than the progress of the control group. We conclude that the development of small movements improves after ten systematically prepared activities.
Even though the differences between boys and girls were considerable, as the girls were faster by 23 seconds, the t-test did not show statistical significance of these differences (t-value = 1.21 (df) 16 , p < 0.241).
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