Coordination-based Exercise Intervention in Preschool Children

Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Balance; Fitness; Preschool; Motor Skills

Treatments: Other: Exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06405854

2022.198.10.22

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study intended to assess the impact of coordination-based exercise interventions on physical fitness, motor competence, and executive function among preschoolers aged 4 to 6 years.

Full description

Forty-four preschool children (22 boys and 22 girls), with a mean age of 5.90 years (SD = 0.28). Participants will be randomly assigned to an Exercise Group (n = 19) or a Control Group (n = 25). The Exercise Group will engage in 20-minute, fun, and game-based sessions focusing on foundational movement patterns appropriate for preschoolers, conducted twice weekly over eight weeks. In contrast, the Control Group continued with their regular unstructured school activities. Physical fitness was evaluated using agility tests, static-dynamic balance, and vertical jumping. Motor competence was assessed through the KTK3+ test battery, and inhibition control was measured using the Go/No-Go test. The study concluded that coordination-based exercises, structured around fun and engaging activities suitable for preschoolers, potentially enhance physical fitness, motor skills, and executive functions. These areas are essential for early childhood development, suggesting that integrating such exercises into preschool activities could be beneficial. However, specific results regarding the effectiveness of the interventions on the tested competencies would need to be detailed to confirm these hypothesized benefits fully. The study highlights the importance of structured physical activity in early childhood education settings for promoting essential developmental skills.

Enrollment: 44 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 4 to 6 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• typically preschoolers between the aged between 4-6 years old
• not taking any medication
• absence of cardiovascular, neurological, orthopedic, or psychiatric illnesses.

Exclusion criteria

• children with physical disabilities or other conditions that might significantly impact their ability to participate in the physical activity interventions might be excluded,

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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44 participants in 2 patient groups

Coordination-based exercise intervention

Experimental group

Description:

During the eight weeks, children in the coordinative exercise intervention group participated in sessions twice a week, each lasting 20 minutes. The foundational movement patterns tailored to the specific purpose were organized in a game format suitable for preschool-aged children. These foundational movement patterns comprise open-ended tasks progressing from simple to complex, with motor planning as a prerequisite. As the exercise intervention was game-based, the sessions were maintained as a fun, active, and social learning environment for the children.

Treatment:

Other: Exercise

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group continued their regular preschool classes without any intervention.