Hop.Skip.Jump.Games: The effect of “principled” exergameplay on children's locomotor skill acquisition

Abstract

Sedentary past‐times such as video gameplay are cited as having a negative effect on children's Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) acquisition. Conversely, “exergames” utilise 3D sensor control systems (eg, Kinect®) to offer full body interactive user experiences in which FMS outputs are often part of the game “play” experience. This study evaluated the impact that participation in (1) commercial exergames and, (2) purpose‐built exergames had on user locomotor skill outcomes (run, hop, skip, jump and slide) when both sets of games were deployed with a “principled” human‐in‐the‐loop personalisation process. Typically developing children aged between 5 and 6 years were divided into two groups; a control group (n = 20; 45% girls) exposed to commercial exergames and, an experimental group (n = 20; 50% girls) exposed to purpose‐built exergames. Gameplay was delivered daily, in the classroom, over a period of 8 weeks. The Test of Gross Motor Development‐2 was utilised to assess children's locomotor skills at three time points (pre, interim and posttest). A mixed analysis of variance with repeated measures on time was conducted to evaluate results of the experimental group in comparison to the control group. A significant interaction effect was observed relating to Time × Group. Pairwise comparisons with a Bonferroni adjustment demonstrated that the experimental group made significant improvements for each locomotor skill (run, hop, skip, jump and slide) from pretest to posttest while the control group made significant improvements in only one locomotor skill (the slide) over the same timeframe. Results indicate that principled design and deployment of purpose‐built exergames support high quality locomotor outputs and, improved outcomes over time. What is already known about this topic A majority of modern children do not possess proficient locomotor skills and cannot hop, skip or even run properly Teachers typically target motor skills in the Physical Education setting but these skills require regular personalised practice to improve performance 3D sensor controlled exergames provide a potential platform to target locomotor skill acquisition in the classroom, but currently lack the necessary design principles to improve user locomotor skill outcomes What this paper adds A suite of “principled” exergames with adaptable features to target locomotor skills in the classroom A human‐in‐the‐loop deployment process that empowers the teacher to be a crucial component of the learning experience Empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of purpose‐built exergames for locomotor skill acquisition purposes in the classroom Implications for practice and/or policy Educators can work with a gaming system to effectively deploy “short bouts” of 3D sensor exergameplay in the classroom and facilitate significantly improved locomotor skills in children. Design and development of educational technology could consider the teacher as a valuable “human intelligent system” capable of making decisions about the user and user exper...

Effect of Active Video Games on Healthy Children’s Fundamental Motor Skills and Physical Fitness: A Systematic Review

“…Following screening and cross-referencing the reference lists of included studies, 10 studies satisfied the preceding inclusion criteria (See Figure 1). Of the included studies, two studies (20%) targeted preschool children aged 3-5 years, seven studies (70%) targeted school children aged 6-12 years [25][26][27][39][40][41]43], and one study (10%) focused on children with overweight and obesity aged 9-12 years [31]. Among the included studies, eight RCTs (80%) and one quasi-experiment study (10%) were performed in school settings and one RCT (10%) was conducted in a laboratory setting [26].…”

“…The sample size ranged from 36 to 106 participants, and the intervention lengths ranged from 6 to 12 weeks, with an average of 6.8 weeks. With regard to AVGs used, eight studies (80%) employed commercially-available AVGs, such as Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect, and one study developed their own purpose-built AVG [25]. Overall, these articles were published during a period from January 2012 to May 2020 and across different countries.…”

“…Overall, these articles were published during a period from January 2012 to May 2020 and across different countries. Specifically, two were from Australia [27,43], two from Canada [41,42], one from Turkey [39], one from U.S. [23], one from Greece [26], one from Ireland [25], one from China [43], and one from South Africa [31].…”

“…Regarding relevant motor skills outcomes, six studies examined motor skills competence or motor skills-related self-perceptions [23,25,27,39,42,43], while three studies examined object control skills [26,27,40], two studies examined postural stability [40,41], one study examined locomotor skills [25], and one study examined agility (i.e., reaction time) [39].…”

“…Promising findings suggest that AVGs may be an effective alternative in promoting PA and providing comparable health benefits as conventional PA strategies in children and adolescents [21,22]. Given the important role of FMS and physical fitness in child development, recent studies have started to investigate the effects of AVGs on motor skills competence and preliminary findings have indicated the potential to improve FMS and physical fitness in children with various clinical conditions [14,[23][24][25]. For example, Gao et al [23] conducted an 8-week AVG-based intervention among preschool children and found statistically significantly greater increases in PA among intervention children, supporting its potential for enhancing children's motor skills competence.…”