The purpose of the bachelor’s thesis is to ascertain whether the frequency of performing the planned movement activities influences the movement efficiency of preschool children.
62 children were included in the research, half of them girls and half of the boys. Their average age was 65.7 months. Children were divided into three groups, that is to say, with regards to the frequency of performance of the planned movement activities in the time between the initial testing and the final testing. In the first group, there were 18 children who were performing the movement activities four times a week for three months. The other group includes 19 children: they were performing the movement activities two times a week for six months. In the third group where there were 25 children, no planned activities were performed.
In order to ascertain movement efficiency, we used the MOT 4-6 test which was standardized in Slovenia and which includes 18 movement tasks. The tasks were marked according to the three-stage scale where a child can gain 0, 1 or 2 points in the individual task. The amount of all the points offers the result of movement efficiency of an individual child. We tested the children two times, that is to say, before the performance of the planned movement activities and after the end of the performance of the planned movement activities (after three and six months).
We ascertained that the frequency of performance (i.e. the number of units) of the planned movement activities contributes to the improvement of the movement efficiency of the children and that movement efficiency of the children improves the same if we perform the planned movement activities four times a week in the period of three months or if we perform the planned movement activities two times a week in the period of six months. The analysis of the results also showed that girls were advanced more than boys.
The research thus showed that the planned movement activities influence the development of movement efficiency in children, that is to say, that the number of units and not the frequency of exercises influence the result of movement efficiency of preschool children.
|