THE EFFECTS OF KINDERGARTEN SPORTS SCHOOL ON BILATERAL COORDINATION OF PRESCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Abstract

The research was conducted with the aim of determining to what extent and in what manner the kindergarten sports school program affects the coordination of preschool children. The sample consisted of 57 preschool age children. The control group comprised 31 children and the experimental one 26 children, aged 6 years ± 6 months. The experimental group applied the sports school program for a period of 8 weeks (2 x 45 minutes each week). The control group only had regular activities in the kindergarten. The level of bilateral coordination in children was determined applying seven tests and a level of balance applying nine tests at the initial and final measurement. At the initial measurement, experimental and control groups showed similar results, while the experimental group showed significantly better results at the final measurement. The tests applied in the research were taken from the BOT-2 battery of tests: the Bruininks-Oseretsky test of Motor Proficiency (Bruininks, 1987; Bruininks and Bruininks, 2005, taken from Cools et al, 2009), where body coordination as a separate composite is assessed by subtests of bilateral coordination and balance. The obtained data were processed by the SPSS 20 statistics software, and ANCOVA was used to determine the effects of the sports school program. It is assumed that the experimental program has influenced the improvement of the results between two assessments of the bilateral coordination (on three tests) and balance estimates (on one test). The obtained results point to the need for a wider application of similar programs in working with preschool age children.