Body-oriented Interventions on Preschoolers' Social-emotional Competence

University of Évora

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social-emotional Competence

Treatments: Other: Combined; Other: Relaxation; Other: Loose parts play

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05729815

BOICHI28122022

Details and patient eligibility

About

Experimental study with 4 groups (3 experimental and 1 control). Examine the effects of 3 body-oriented intervention programs on preschoolers' social-emotional competence.

Intervention programs focused on relaxation, loose parts play and combined loose parts play and relaxation, for 12 weeks with 2 30-min sessions per week.

Full description

To examine the chronic effects of the intervention programs, instruments were collected at baseline (pretest) and at the end of the 12-week period (post-test). To measure the acute effects, salivary cortisol was measured at the beginning and end of the 1st and the 24th sessions.

Enrollment: 62 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 6 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• participants' age between 3 and 6 years
• do not have participated in a similar intervention program within the last 6 months
• do not have a physical condition that can affect the participation in the program.

Exclusion criteria

• participants' age less than 3 and under 6 years
• have participated in a similar intervention program within the last 6 months
• have a physical condition that can affect the participation in the program.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

62 participants in 4 patient groups

Relaxation group

Experimental group

Description:

Relaxation program sessions had 3 phases: initial dialogue (2 min); a main section (25 min); final ritual (3 min). During the main section, participants listened and observed the therapist, who described and demonstrated all the exercises of the session, which were focused on Jacques Choque Method (Choque, 1994).

Treatment:

Other: Relaxation

Loose parts play group

Experimental group

Description:

Loose Parts Play program sessions had 3 phases: initial dialogue (2 min); main section (25 min); final ritual (3 min). During the main section, participants were allowed to play freely with any materials (loose parts) available in the playground.

Treatment:

Other: Loose parts play

Combined group

Experimental group

Description:

In the combined program, the sessions had 4 phases: initial dialogue (3 min); loose parts play moment (20 min); relaxation exercises moment (5 min); final ritual (2 min).

Treatment:

Other: Combined

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention. Maintained their usual routines.