The Effect of Integrated Movement Activities on Children's FMS

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of an integrated movement course on the FMSs of preschool children. Purposive sampling was used to select two classes at a public preschool in Chiayi City, Taiwan. The experimental group consisted of 9 boys and 12 girls, and the control group consisted of 11 boys and 8 girls. Both were administered a pretest and a posttest. There were 5 results as follows: 1. For LS, the experimental group (M = 32.38) performed better than the control group (M = 23.53). For OCS, the posttest revealed no significant difference between the two groups. 2. The experimental group performed better than the control group in running (t = 2.23, P < .05), galloping (t = 8.09, P < .001), leaping (t = 2.96, P < .01), and horizontal jumping (t = 2.96, P < .01). 3. There was a significant difference between the pre- and posttests of the experimental group in running (t = -3.05, P < .01), galloping (t = -7.90, P < .001), hopping (t = -5.19, P < .001), jumping (t = -2.31, P < .05), dribbling (t = -2.71, P < .05), throwing (t = -3.99, P < .01), and rolling (t = -3.47, P < .01), indicating improvement in each of these seven skills. 4. For the control group, there was a significant difference between the pre- and posttests only for sliding (t = -2.88, P < .05); even though they didn't participate in the integrated movement course, their sliding ability improved. 5. The experimental group performed better in the posttests for both the LS (M = 32.31 ＞ M = 24) and the OCS (M = 25.71 ＞ M = 18.81). This indicates that the integrated movement course had a positive influence on both the LS and OCS of the experimental group.