Theory and Practice of Physical Culture № 12 2016

Associate Professor, PhD I.V. Starodubtseva
Institute of Physical Education of Tyumen State University, Tyumen

Keywords: 6-7 year-old preschoolers, types of physical training and sport practices, physical fitness, somatomental development, cognitive development, mental development.

Background. It is a matter of common knowledge that a human personality is largely shaped up by physical activity with the progress of a variety of personal qualities being dependent on how the individual physical activity is designed. Physical culture and sport activities are no exclusion [5], and their effects on the personal physical and mental qualities have been subject to many study reports [1, 2]. Most of the studies were focused on the physical and mental qualities of sporting schoolchildren and university students [6]. It should be noted in this context that, as demonstrated by our studies, about fifty percent of the preparatory group preschoolers attend different sport groups supported by other preschool establishments, sport schools, clubs etc in addition to the kindergarten practices. However, the relevant children’s somatomental developmental data are still insufficient and the shortage complicates the efforts to rate efficiency of different physical training and sporting activities and take prudential management decisions based on such ratings [3, 7].

Objective of the study was to study the effects of different physical culture and sport practices on preschool (6-7 years old) children attending a preparatory kindergarten group.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was performed in the period of March through May 2016 and basically designed to obtain the developmental rates of the 6-7 years-old preschoolers engaged in different additional physical training and sport activities (including football, martial arts, gymnastics, swimming, dancing, choreography etc.) and analyze them versus the developmental (age- and gender-specific) rates of their peers residing in Tyumen. Subject to the study were 301 children, including 187 boys and 114 girls.

The children’s physical fitness rates were obtained by the following tests: 30m sprint; 300m race; standing long jump; sit-ups in 30 seconds; 3х10m shuttle run; forward bends; and hand dynamometry. The tests were designed to rate the key physical qualities with an emphasis on speed, speed-strength, strength, endurance, flexibility and coordination abilities [3].

Mental development rates of the children were rated by the following set of diagnostic tools designed for group studies: Samples (Russian name: Etalony) Test by O.M. Dyachenko; Perceptive Modelling Test by V.V. Kholmovskaya to test the perception development rates; Schematizing Test by R.I. Bardina to obtain the vision-action thinking development rates; and Systematizing Test by N.B. Vegner to obtain the logical thinking development rates. Based on the above tests, we computed a rating score for each personality development aspect followed by an integrated mental development index estimated for every tested child.

Study results and discussion. Having analyzed the obtained development rates (see Tables 1-4), we found that the group average development rates of the boys and girls engaged in additional physical training and sport activities for most of the comparable parameters were higher than those of Tyumen preschool residents of the same age-gender groups. Albeit the group differences found by the study were not significant enough, they may still be indicative, in our opinion, of the practical efficiency of the physical practices subject to the study.

It may be pertinent to mention that the children tested with the higher physical fitness rates were found to show the higher mental development test rates at the same time, and it gives the grounds to assume that the physical and cognitive qualities of preschoolers are interrelated and interdependent, with the finding being supported by the study reports of a few other researchers [8].

Table 1. Group average physical fitness and functional status rates of the preparatory group boys engaged in additional physical training and sport activities

Table 2. Group average mental development rates of the preparatory group boys engaged in additional physical training and sport activities

Table 3. Group average physical fitness and functional status rates of the preparatory group girls engaged in additional physical training and sport activities

Table 4. Group average mental development rates of the preparatory group girls engaged in additional physical training and sport activities

The study showed the boys engaged in competitive gymnastics being ahead of other children as verified by most of the mental/ physical qualities test rates. This finding gives the grounds to believe that competitive gymnastics methods cause powerful and multisided developmental effects on the child’s body and personality and, therefore, may be applied for a variety of athletic training systems as recommended by some researchers [4].

It should be noted, however, that the above advantages were not found in the girls group as it was the swimming girls’ group that showed the best test rates. It is not improbable that boys and girls need different developmental sports and physical practices to attain the highest possible developmental benefits. In addition, the additionally sporting girls were tested with lower mental development rates than their male peers.

Furthermore, it is obvious that physical training and sport practices help optimize the preschoolers’ motor activity that is commonly known to be a key factor of the child’s mental functionality progress, with the additional physical activity playing the highest role in the boys’ development process as verified by the expressed improvements in the mental development and physical fitness rates.

Therefore, the study data and analyses make a valuable contribution to the theoretical knowledge of the age- and gender-specific physical fitness and mental development processes in the preschool children engaged in different additional physical training and sport activities; and complement the available study data on the ways to optimize the children’s somatomental development process using the relevant physical training and sporting practices.

Conclusion.

1. The group average physical fitness and mental development rates of the 6-7 years-old children engaged in different additional physical training and sport practices were found to be higher than the average rates of their peers of the same age-gender group.

2. The 6-7 years-old boys and girls engaged in competitive gymnastics and swimming practices, respectively, were tested with the higher mental development and physical fitness rates versus the children engaged in other physical training and sport activities.

3. It was the preschool boys who showed better progress in the mental development and physical fitness rates as a result of the additional physical training and sport activities – that may be interpreted as indicative of the boys’ progress rates being more dependent on a prudently designed motor activity than the girls’ progress.

References

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7. Soloshenko N.B. Mekhanizmy realizatsii upravlencheskikh resheniy po sovershenstvovaniyu uchebno-trenirovochnogo protsessa sportivnykh shkol Tyumeni (Management solutions implementation arrangements to improve learning and training process at Tyumen sports schools) / N.B. Soloshenko, M.V. Alekseeva, D.N. Makaridin // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. – 2015.  – #  12. – P. 10-12.
8. Starodubtseva I.V. Integratsiya umstvennogo i dvigatel'nogo razvitiya doshkol'nikov 5-7 let v protsesse fizicheskogo vospitaniya: dis. … kand. ped. nauk (Integration of mental and motor development of 5-7 year-old preschoolers in physical education process: PhD thesis) / I. V. Starodubtseva. – Tyumen, 2004. – 141 p.

Corresponding author: fizkult@teoriya.ru

Abstract

Sport practices are known to cause a variety of developmental effects on mental and physical qualities. Objective of the study was to assess effects of different physical training and sport practices on preschool (6-7 years old) children attending a preparatory kindergarten group. The article presents the physical fitness and mental development test results for the 6-7 year-olds subject to different sport practices. The study found that, irrespective of the sport discipline, boys more often than girls tend to show better progress in excess of the city average. The study findings may be interpreted as indicative of the sport practices providing efficient means for the somatomental development of preschoolers on the whole and 6-7 years-old boys in particular.