NCT06405854

Coordination-based Exercise Intervention in Preschool Children

Effect of Coordination-based Exercise Intervention on Physical Fitness, Motor Competence and Executive Function in Preschool Children

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 44 (actual)
• Sponsor: Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 4 Years – 6 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Conditions

• Motor Skills
• Balance
• Fitness
• Preschool

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Exercise	Children in the coordinative exercise intervention group will be encouraged to participate 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. Duration of the intervention is eight weeks,

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-09-12
• Primary completion: 2022-10-28
• Completion: 2023-01-10
• First posted: 2024-05-09
• Last updated: 2024-06-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Saudi Arabia