Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a 10-week physical activity (PA) programme, in early childhood education (ECE) settings, on 3 and 4-year-old children’s fundamental movement skills (FMS). A further aim was to examine FMS three-months post-intervention. The PA instructors delivered one 45 min session/week over 10 weeks, to 3- and 4-year-old children (n = 46), across four ECE centres. These sessions involved participation from ECE teachers. Children in the control group (CON; n = 20) received no PA classes and completed pre- and post-intervention assessments only. Locomotor (e.g., running/hopping) and object-control (e.g., kicking/throwing) skills were assessed using the Test for Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2), before and after the intervention and, for the intervention group (EXP), at 3 months. Locomotor and object-control skills significantly improved in the EXP group, with typically no change in the CON group. The EXP group’s locomotor and object-control skills were maintained at 3 months. The 10-week PA intervention successfully improved 3- and 4-year-old children’s FMS.
Highlights
Children’s health in New Zealand is in the bottom third of all countries [1], ranking 29th out of 30 OECD countries in 2009 [2]
There was no difference in baseline locomotor standard scores between control group (CON) and EXP groups, indicating that all participants were at a similar level at the start of the study
There was no difference in baseline object control scores between CON and EXP trials (p = 0.27) or between baseline and post-intervention in CON (p = 0.56)
Summary
Children’s health in New Zealand is in the bottom third of all countries [1], ranking 29th out of 30 OECD countries in 2009 [2]. One third of school-age children are overweight or obese, and there are high rates and increasing prevalence of obesity in children under the age of five years [4,5]. Morbid obesity rates (BMI of ≥35 kg/m2) are highest in children aged 2–4 years (6%), decreasing to 3% in those aged 10–14 years [6]. New Zealand’s PA guidelines recommend that young people (5–18 years) spend no more than two hours a day in front of a screen; 45% of New Zealand children (2–14 years) usually have more than two hours of screen time [10]. There is evidence from the longitudinal Growing up in New Zealand study [11] that 2-year-olds have 1.5 h per day in sedentary screen use, raising concerns about activity levels
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