Promoting physical activity in an early childhood education setting: integrating gross motor skills and mathematics

Abstract

BackgroundIn recent years, integrating physical activities with teaching curriculum has been explored across school levels. This project involved a co-design process with early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers to produce activities that integrated gross motor activities with mathematics curriculum objectives. We piloted the motor-math programme in a local kindergarten and examined the effects on accrued physical activity, gross motor and mathematics skills.Methods Participants included pupils (N=41; mean age 52.84 SD 4.80 months; 19 males) from two matched kindergarten classes. Over a five-week period, we compared the motor-math programme with typical mathematics lessons. All participants wore pedometers to measure their number of steps during a three-hour class, one day per week. Gross motor skills (i.e., locomotor, object control) and mathematics skills (numeracy, geometry, math problem solving) were measured across three time points.Findings Over the five-week implementation, there was a significant interaction between time and group (F(3.05, 143.33)=2.83, p=0.04) on the participants’ average step counts per session; the motor-math group generated significantly higher step counts (t(39)=-4.79, p<0.001) than the comparison group. There were significant changes over time in locomotor (F(2, 35)=76.94, p<0.001, ƞp=0.82) and object control (F(2, 35)=26.27, p<0.001, ƞp=0.60) skills. There were significant interactions between time and group for locomotor (F(2, 35)=5.48, p=0.008, ƞp=0.24) and object control (F(2, 35)=6.92, p=0.003, ƞp=0.28). Only the motor-math group displayed significant improvements in locomotor (t(19) = -7.02, p < 0.001, d = -1.57) and object control (t(19) = -5.71, p < 0.001, d = -1.28) skills post-implementation of the motor-math programme. There were significant changes over time in numeracy (F(2, 35)=10.76, p<0.001, ƞp=0.38), geometry (F(2, 35)=12.66, p<0.001, ƞp=0.42) and problem-solving skills (F(2, 35)=20.76, p<0.001, ƞp=0.54). The interactions between time and group were not significant.ConclusionThe motor-math programme facilitated increased physical activity during class time and promoted significant improvements in gross motor skills. There was no difference in mathematics skills development. The study demonstrates that a programme co-designed with ECEC teachers could promote physical activity and gross motor skills development without any detriment on mathematics learning. In societies where academics are highly prioritised, the findings are especially useful to promote physical activity participation in early childhood education.