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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1466911

Structured Training on Gross Motor Skills and Physical Fitness in 4-5-Year-Old Children

Provisionally accepted
Sheng Quan Sheng Quan 1Yutong Liao Yutong Liao 2*Shuwen Zheng Shuwen Zheng 2Yulin Ji Yulin Ji 2
  • 1 Fujian Police College, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
  • 2 College of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Preschool children are in a period of rapid physical development, and improving their gross motor skills and physical fitness is quite important for their health. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a structured physical training program in improving Chinese preschool children's gross motor development and physical fitness. Method: A sample of 80 children aged 4 to 5 from Fujian, China, were randomly assigned to the intervention group (N = 41), which received a 15-week structured physical training, while the control group (N = 39) continued with their daily physical activity. The Test of Gross Motor Development-3, and the National Physical Fitness Measurement Standards Manual -Preschool Children Version (2003) were assessed before and after the intervention.Results: A series of ANCOVA analyses revealed significant group differences in aspects of gross motor skills (F = 10.17, p ＜ 0.01) including locomotor skills (F = 5.31, p ＜ 0.05) and ball skills (F = 15.09, p ＜ 0.001) after controlling the effect of the age, sex, and pre-test scores. Moreover, the results also indicated a higher improvement in young children's physical fitness (F = 91.33, p ＜ 0.001) including their body shape (F = 5.05, p ＜ 0.05), health-related fitness (F = 43.09, p < 0.001), and skill-related fitness (F = 61.47, p < 0.001) in the intervention group over the control group. The results demonstrated that the effect size of the structured training on young children's health-related fitness (η 2 = 0.38) and skill-related fitness (η 2 = 0.50) was much stronger than on children's body shape (η 2 = 0.07).The structured training program effectively improved young children's gross motor skills and physical fitness.

    Keywords: Structured training, young children, gross motor, Physical Fitness, intervention structured training, intervention

    Received: 29 Jul 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Quan, Liao, Zheng and Ji. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yutong Liao, College of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.