The effect of a three-month sensorimotor training on the balancing ability of preschool and school-aged children

Abstract

The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of a 3-month sensorimotor balance intervention on dynamic balance in 5-6-year old preschoolers and 7-10 year old primary school children. 36 preschoolers and 41 school aged children participated in this study, and were assigned to two experimental groups (VO, VI) and two control groups (KO, KI). VO group (5-6-year old preschoolers) and VI group (7-10-year school aged children) attended a 60-min sensorimotor training two times a week for 3 months. KO and KI groups followed the regular Physical Education schedule. High and low floor beam-walking tasks were used to measure dynamic balance. Differences between the results of the groups were examined separately in pre and post-test by analysis of variance. Subsequently, the differences between the two measurements were analyzed by paired t-tests. Where conditions were not met, Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the groups within the measurements, and Wilcoxon’s test for differences in performance between pre and post-tests. It was found that 5-6 year-old preschool children and 7-10-year-old primary school children of the experimental group achieved better distance results on balance beam in post test. Examining the time results, there was no significant difference between the performances of the experimental and the control groups.