A motor skills development programme for 10 to 12 year-old children

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many children experience developmental problems without being aware thereof. In a school setting these developmental delays mostly remain unnoticed and are scarcely remediated sufficiently, if at all. Children with developmental deficits often experience movement difficulties and are labelled as clumsy, sloppy or having two left feet. The development of, and proficiency in specific motor skills have been found to play a critical role in the participation of physical activity in children, as well as the maintenance of health and well-being later in life, when entering adulthood. There are, however, countless other factors that affect the optimal development of motor skills and physical activity participation. One such factor is ascribed to instances where children experience problems associated with their environment or the circumstances in which they grow up. Poor socio-economic circumstances and a culturally poor environment, lacking sufficient developmental opportunities, may hinder a child‟s motor skills development and skill learning to such an extent that they cannot reach their full developmental potential. Research suggests that the school environment can provide ample opportunity for the development of motor skills and that all schools should consider implementing motor skills development programmes during the Physical Education (PE) time slots. The mastery of motor skills may influence and benefit the participation in various school sports and may also enhance the ability of children to learn and master new and more complex movement skills within and outside the classroom environment. Thus, due to the fact that children spend a great part of their day at school and in the classroom setting, teachers, especially those facilitating PE, have the opportunity to play a vital role in the acquisition and mastery of important motor skills and subsequently affect the physical activity and developmental future of children. The purpose of this study was to design and implement a motor skills development programme to improve the balance and bilateral coordination of children between the ages of 10 and 12 years in the Stellenbosch region. Two existing classes, from a previously disadvantaged school, were recruited and randomly selected as an experimental (n=35) and control group (n=32). The children completed the Short Form as well as all the Long Form activities for the balance and bilateral coordination subtests of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2 (BOT-2). This was done to provide an overview of the overall motor proficiency and more specifically the level of balance and bilateral coordination. A 12-week motor skills development programme, with a specific focus on balance and bilateral coordination, was designed and implemented by the researcher. The effect of this programme was determined by statistically analysing and comparing the pre- and post-test results with the use of Statistica 2010. The main findings of this study indicated that the intervention programme had a positive, although not statistically significant, effect on the overall motor proficiency and balance and significantly improved bilateral coordination. This study suggests that some of the children, between the ages of 10 and 12, from a previously disadvantaged school in the Stellenbosch region and with access to an established school PE programme, experienced movement difficulties. Consequently, there is great room for improvement and motor skill development in these children. This study can, therefore, be a stepping stone into future research regarding further motor skills research in primary school children, the implementation of expanded motor skills intervention programmes and to improve all the motor skills as opposed to selected motor skills as in this study.