A Quasi-Experimental Study of a Movement and Preliteracy Program for 3- and 4-Year-Old Children

Direct Parent Engagement to Improve Fundamental Movement Skills in Children: A Systematic Review

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are basic movements in children that represent the building blocks for more complex motor skill development and act as a prerequisite for enduring sport and physical activity (PA) engagement and positive health-related behaviours. The FMS proficiency is currently inadequate worldwide, and consequently there are alarming levels of inactivity and childhood obesity. However, parents are role models to their children and possess the power to influence their PA behaviour. This review investigated if parent-focused interventions could improve FMS in 2-7-year-old children and evaluated which setting and method of parent engagement was most impactful. Keyword searches were conducted via Scopus, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Only nine articles met the inclusion criteria. No research originated from the United Kingdom, highlighting the urgent need for further FMS interventions involving parents. The FMS improved in all nine studies, with significant changes in seven of the articles (p < 0.05). Parent-child co-activity, the education and empowerment of parents, and the provision of clear FMS guidance, messaging, and structure can positively influence children's FMS. Recently, smartphone apps have increased the feasibility and accessibility of FMS practice at home and may be integral to future interventions. Further research with direct parental involvement is clearly warranted.

The effects of motor skill and physical activity interventions on preschoolers' cognitive and academic skills: A systematic review

The present systematic review aimed to investigate the methodological quality and the effects of fundamental motor skills and physical activity interventions on cognitive and academic skills in typically developing 3 to 7-year-old children. The review was conducted and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. A literature search was carried out in April 2020 using seven electronic databases. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed with the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) Quality Assessment Tool. Cohen's d effect size calculations and post hoc power analyses were conducted for the included studies. A total of 35 studies, representing 2472 children met the inclusion criteria. Two of the studies demonstrated a strong methodological quality, while 24 were considered as methodologically weak. The majority (71%) of the included studies demonstrated the beneficial effects of the intervention on cognitive and academic skills. The most evidence was found for executive functions, language, and numeracy, and the effects were largest in enhancing memory. The effects were larger on cognitive and academic skills in the combined interventions compared to only fundamental motor skill and physical activity interventions, while fundamental motor skill interventions had larger effects than physical activity interventions. These findings indicate that it may be possible to support typically developing preschoolers' cognitive and academic learning with fundamental motor skill and physical activity interventions. However, most of the studies in this field have a weak methodological quality and thus, the presented evidence was considered weak in nature.

Creativity in Motion: Examining the Creative Potential System and Enriched Movement Activities as a Way to Ignite It

In a global and highly competitive world, the importance of creativity is increasing as it supports adaptability, health, and actualization. Yet, because most research focuses on what it takes to produce creative artifacts, interventions supporting growth in creative potential remains underexplored. To address this limitation, the first goal of this paper is to review the creativity science literature to identify the elements that underpin the realization of an individual’s creative potential. The summary of the literature is presented using a framework which highlights the interactions between environmental elements (i.e., cultural values, social interactions, and material world) and actors’ elements (i.e., affective attributes and states, cognitive skills, and physical expression). Using a systemic perspective, the framework illustrates ‘what’ creativity enhancement interventions should aim for, to facilitate the emergence of creative actions. Given the current lack of holistic, embodied, and interactive evidence-based interventions to nurture the creative potential elements identified, the second part of this review builds on movement sciences literature and physical literacy conceptualization to suggest that enriched movement activities are promising avenues to explore. Specifically, following non-linear pedagogy approaches, an intervention called movement improvisation is introduced. Ecological dynamics principles are used to explain how improvising with movement in a risk-friendly environment can lead to cognitive, affective, social, and cultural repertoire expansion. To interrogate this argument further, the review concludes with possible solutions to withstand research challenges and raises future study questions. Overall, combining creativity and movement sciences in this review demonstrates the potential for well-designed movement interventions to ignite creative potential for individuals and overcome the tendency to remain anchored in a state of inertia.

Physical Activity, Fitness, School Readiness, and Cognition in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Early childhood is an important age for brain and cognitive development. Given the support of physical activity and fitness on cognition and academic performance in older children, more research has emerged recently focusing on younger children. In this systematic review, the authors review the relations between physical activity/fitness and academic-related (ie, school readiness and cognitive) outcomes in early childhood.

METHODS

A search was conducted from PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, ERIC databases, and reference lists for articles that had participants aged less than 6 years were written in English, and were in peer-reviewed journals. Articles were excluded if the design was a case study or case series report. The Grading Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework was followed to assess the quality of evidence by study design.

RESULTS

Sixty-eight articles reporting on 72 studies (29 observational and 43 experimental) were included. The majority of study effects were mixed, and the quality of evidence varied from very low to low.

CONCLUSIONS

A clear consensus about the role of physical activity and fitness on academic-related outcomes in early childhood is still lacking given the high heterogeneity in methodological approaches and overall effects. Additional high-quality studies are needed to determine what specific dosages of physical activity are impactful at this age.

Physiotherapy and related management for childhood obesity: A systematic scoping review

INTRODUCTION

Despite targeted efforts globally to address childhood overweight/obesity, it remains poorly understood and challenging to manage. Physiotherapists have the potential to manage children with obesity as they are experts in movement and physical activity. However, their role remains unclear due to a lack of physiotherapy-specific guidelines. This scoping review aims to explore existing literature, critically appraising and synthesising findings to guide physiotherapists in the evidence-based management of childhood overweight/obesity.

METHOD

A scoping review was conducted, including literature up to May 2020. A review protocol exists on Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/fap8g/. Four databases were accessed including PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Medline via OVID, with grey literature searched through google via "file:pdf". A descriptive synthesis was undertaken to explore the impact of existing interventions and their efficacy.

RESULTS

From the initial capture of 1871 articles, 263 intervention-based articles were included. Interventions included qualitative focused physical activity, quantitative focused physical activity and multicomponent interventions. Various outcome measures were utilised including health-, performance- and behaviour-related outcomes. The general trend for physiotherapy involvement with children who are obese appears to favour: 1) multicomponent interventions, implementing more than one component with environmental modification and parental involvement and 2) quantitative physical activity interventions, focusing on the quantity of bodily movement. These approaches most consistently demonstrated desirable changes across behavioural and health-related outcome measures for multicomponent and quantitative physical activity interventions respectively.

CONCLUSION

When managing children with obesity, physiotherapists should consider multicomponent approaches and increasing the quantity of physical activity, given consistent improvements in various obesity-related outcomes. Such approaches are well suited to the scope of physiotherapists and their expertise in physical activity prescription for the management of childhood obesity. Future research should examine the effect of motor skill interventions and consider the role of environmental modification/parental involvement as factors contributing to intervention success.

The Acceptability and Feasibility of a Preschool Intervention Targeting Motor, Social, and Emotional Development

Background: Children and youth are facing three major challenges: (1) poor mental health, (2) physical inactivity, and (3) lack of school readiness. Fundamental movement skills (FMS) and social-emotional learning (SEL) are two developmental domains that are associated with each of these challenges. Currently, there is little focus on interventions that target both FMS and SEL. Thus, the purposes of this study were to: (1) examine the acceptability and feasibility of an FMS and SEL program (Move 2 Smile) and (2) assess the impact of Move 2 Smile on FMS and SEL in children. Methods: An exploratory, pilot study using a within-subjects design was conducted. Descriptive statistics were computed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the Move 2 Smile program. Changes in FMS and SEL were analyzed using a paired sample t-test. A focus group was conducted with parents to gain feedback after the program ended. Results: Eleven children (four girls; M age = 50.56 months, SD = 8.63) participated, with families attending 80% of the sessions. The children and parents rated the enjoyment of the program 4.1/5 and 4.7/5, respectively. The instructor rated the children's perceived enjoyment 4.6/5 and feasibility of the sessions 4.7/5. Parents engaged in the FMS take-home activities once per week and the SEL activities three times per week. The intervention had a non-significant small to medium effect on FMS (d z = 0.42, p = 0.19), a significant large effect on social skills (d z = 1.38, p = 0.001) and emotion expressiveness (d z = 0.79, p = 0.03), and a non-significant small to medium effect on emotion knowledge (d z = 0.58, p = 0.10) and emotion regulation (d z = 0.44, p = 0.17). The results from the focus group suggest that parents and children enjoyed the program and that the program was useful and effective at impacting FMS and SEL. Conclusions: This intervention is one of the first to intentionally target both FMS and SEL. Children, parents, and instructors deemed this program as acceptable and feasible. These preliminary findings warrant future evaluations of Move 2 Smile, including a randomized controlled trial.

Head, Toes, Knees, SKIP! Improving Preschool Children's Executive Function Through a Motor Competence Intervention

Executive function skills play a critical role in school readiness for young children and can be improved through targeted intervention. However, children in preschool often experience deficits in multiple developmental domains. Thus, there is a need for integrated interventions that target multiple domains in concert. This study tested whether a proven gross motor skill intervention, Successful Kinesthetic Instruction for Preschoolers (SKIP), also improves preschoolers' executive function. Participants were randomly assigned to either intervention (n = 50) or control (n = 57) conditions. Prior to intervention, executive function and gross motor skills were tested. Intervention occurred for 6 weeks with 30-min sessions twice weekly (dose = 360 min). At posttest, participants in the SKIP condition showed significantly better gross motor and executive function skills than control participants. Results are the first to document the effectiveness of the SKIP intervention in also improving children's executive function.

Promoting Self-Regulation in Health Among Vulnerable Brazilian Children: Protocol Study

The Health and Education Ministries of Brazil launched the Health in School Program (Programa Saúde na Escola - PSE) in 2007. The purpose of the PSE is two-fold: articulate the actions of the education and health systems to identify risk factors and prevent them; and promote health education in the public elementary school system. In the health field, the self-regulation (SR) construct can contribute to the understanding of life habits which can affect the improvement of individuals' health. This research aims to present a program that promotes SR in health (SRH). This program (PSRH) includes topics on healthy eating and oral health from the PSE; it is grounded on the social cognitive framework and uses story tools to train 5th grade Brazilian students in SRH. The study consists of two phases. In Phase 1, teachers and health professionals participated in a training program on SRH, and in Phase 2, they will be expected to conduct an intervention in class to promote SRH. The participants were randomly assigned into three groups: the Condition I group followed the PSE program, the Condition II group followed the PSRH (i.e., PSE plus the SRH program), and the control group (CG) did not enroll in either of the health promotion programs. For the baseline of the study, the following measures and instruments were applied: Body Mass Index (BMI), Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), Previous Day Food Questionnaire (PFDQ), and Declarative Knowledge for Health Instrument. Data indicated that the majority are eutrophic children, but preliminary outcomes showed high percentages of children that are overweight, obese and severely obese. Moreover, participants in all groups reported high consumption of ultraprocessed foods (e.g., soft drinks, artificial juices, and candies). Oral health data from the CI and CII groups showed a prevalence of regular oral hygiene, while the CG presented good oral hygiene. The implementation of both PSE and PSRH are expected to help reduce health problems in school, as well as the public expenditures with children's health (e.g., Obesity and oral diseases).

Evaluation of a Direct-Instruction Intervention to Improve Movement and Preliteracy Skills among Young Children: A Within-Subject Repeated-Measures Design

OBJECTIVE

School readiness involves the development of foundational skills such as emergent literacy and fundamental movement skills as well as the capacity to attentively engage in instructional situations. Children do not develop these skills naturally; therefore, they need the opportunity to develop these skills in their early years prior to entering school. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of a direct-instruction movement and preliteracy intervention in children aged 3-4 years.

METHODS

A within-subject repeated-measures design, embedded within a wait-list control study, was used to evaluate the intervention. The intervention was run across 10 weeks with 1 h weekly sessions. Each weekly session consisted of 30-min of movement skill instruction (e.g., through single-step acquisition strategies), 15-min of free play during which time children had access to a variety of equipment (e.g., balls, hula hoops, etc.) or toys (e.g., puzzles, building blocks), and a 15-min interactive reading circle during which children read a storybook and were taught 1-2 preliteracy skills (e.g., alphabet knowledge, narrative knowledge, etc.). A convenience sample of 11 children (mean age = 45.6 months, SD = 7.3) was recruited. All children were assessed four times: baseline (Time 1), pre-intervention (Time 2), post-intervention (Time 3), and 5-week follow-up (Time 4). Gross motor skills and preliteracy skills were assessed at each time point.

RESULTS

There was a statistically significant effect of time on the change in gross motor skills (Wilks' lambda = 0.09, p = .002), print-concept skills (Wilks' lambda = 0.09, p = .001), and alphabet knowledge (Wilks' lambda = 0.29, p = .046). Post hoc analyses reveal non-significant changes between time 1 and 2 for motor and print-concept skills and significant changes in all three outcomes between time 2 and time 3.

CONCLUSION

Participation in a direct-instruction movement and preliteracy program led to positive improvements in gross motor skills, print-concept knowledge, and alphabet knowledge in 3- to 4-year-old children over time. Future research needs to evaluate the effectiveness of this movement and preliteracy skill intervention on various other indicators of child development and health.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

Play and Pre-Literacy among Young Children (PLAY) NCT02432443.