The influence of Chinese martial arts teaching intervention based on embodied cognition theory on attention networks in 5–6-year-old children

To examine whether distinct Chinese Martial arts teaching approaches differentially enhance attention networks in preschoolers, this study enrolled 90 kindergarten children (5–6 years, M = 5.5 ± 0.2) randomly allocated to three groups: Martial arts sensory teaching (MAST) group, Martial arts traditional teaching (MATT) group, or a free activity(FA) group. Both Martial arts groups received 10-week interventions (2 sessions/week, 30 min/session), while the FA participated in scheduled outdoor free play without martial arts components. Alerting, orienting, and executive control networks were assessed pre- and post-intervention using the child version of the Attention Network Test (ANT). Baseline results showed no significant differences across groups in all three networks (p > 0.05). Post-intervention, MAST group exhibited significantly lower alerting scores than the FA (p = 0.02, d = 0.75), No significant differences were observed between MAST and MATT (p > 0.05, d = 0.58), or between MATT and FA (p > 0.05, d = 0.17). For executive control, the MAST group outperformed both the MATT group (p = 0.03, d = 0.95) and FA (p < 0.01, d = 1.32), while the MATT group also surpassed FA (p = 0.04, d = 0.57). No significant differences emerged in orienting across groups (p > 0.05). This study concludes that MAST significantly enhances the development of executive control and alerting networks in 5–6-year-old children, demonstrating superior efficacy compared to MATT. The findings suggest that dynamic task design and multi-sensory feedback mechanisms rooted in embodied cognition theory effectively promote the advancement of attention networks in preschool-aged children.