Drama-based kinesthetic engagement and motor skill development in kindergarten children: a play integrated intervention study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v77.118695Keywords:
Motor skills, kinesthetic learning, embodied cognition, early childhood, play-basedAbstract
Introduction: Kinesthetic engagement based on drama is nowadays perceived as a developmentally adequate approach to developing fundamental motor skills (FMS) in early childhood.
Objective: The aim of the study given was to determine the efficacy of an 8-week drama-based kinesthetic program on locomotors, object control, and stability skills among kindergarten children.
Methodology: The children of the Al-Surra Kindergarten in Kuwait with an age of 4 to 6 years were quasi-randomly divided into experimental (EG, n = 20) and control group (CG, n = 20). The EG underwent a systematic 8-week drama-based intervention (3 times/week, 45 minutes/session) where the FMS was practiced by immersion in fantasy plots.
Results. The EG showed a great improvement in each of the motor domains: 25-m sprint (1.25 s, 0.92), standing broad jump (1.53 cm, 2.87), softball throw (.47 m, 2.00), catch score (.55, 2.28), standing balance (2.56 s, 3.65), and beam walk 10-m (1.25 s, 3.13). Comparisons between groups established much larger improvements in the EG in all skills (partial η 2 =0.72-0.78, p <0.001).
Conclusions. The program based on dramas and kinesthetic engagement program is valuable in increasing the essential level of competence in motor skills of kindergarten children, and the effect size of this program is large in all measured areas. The results endorse the application of dramatized play as an effective intervention approach that can be used at a large scale to promote early motor development.
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