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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1402901

The effects of the 'Active Before School' programme on the academic skills of 8-9-year-old children: a physically and cognitively engaging intervention

Provisionally accepted
Agata Korcz Agata Korcz *Jana Krzysztoszek Jana Krzysztoszek Łukasz Bojkowski Łukasz Bojkowski Agnieszka Koszałka-Silska Agnieszka Koszałka-Silska Maryna Khorkova Maryna Khorkova Anna Gomołysek Anna Gomołysek Michał Bronikowski Michał Bronikowski
  • Poznan University of Physical Education, Poznan, Poland

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

    Background: Literature underscores the significance of exercise and cognitive stimulation for achieving academic success. This study aims to investigate the effects of the technologybased "Active Before the First School Bell" programme, comparing the effects of two schoolbased interventions (physical activity vs. cognitive engagement) on the academic skills of 8-9-year-old children. This encompasses their school skills, visual-motor coordination, levels and attitudes towards physical activity, and fitness.The study involved 88 primary school children (age: 8.3 years, 58.0% girls). To assess the programme's distinct effects children were categorised into three groups. The first group (n=31) participated in cognitive classes (CEG), the second (n=27), in physical activity classes (PAEG), and the third (n=30), was a control one (CG). A 12-week intervention, consisting of three 15-minute sessions per week before school, was implemented. Self-report questionnaires gauged levels of physical activity. Academic skills were assessed using a battery of diagnostic methods for school failure in 7-9-year-olds early childhood education. Fitness was measured using selected items from the Eurofit test battery. Pre-and post-test measures were collected and analysed, employing one-way ANOVA on ranks analysis of variance (ANOVAs) with Dunn's post-hoc tests.Results: Significant post-test differences between the groups were observed in visual integrationspatial function, with the PAEG outperforming the CEG, and in auditory and language functions, where both experimental groups outperformed the CG.Results suggest that before-school physical activities may be more effective than cognitive activities in improving the academic skills. The short-term effects obtained provide insights for implementing before-school programmes for children in the early school years.

    Keywords: early childhood education, before-school programme, Technology, school skills, physical activity, intervention

    Received: 18 Mar 2024; Accepted: 22 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Korcz, Krzysztoszek, Bojkowski, Koszałka-Silska, Khorkova, Gomołysek and Bronikowski. 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: Agata Korcz, Poznan University of Physical Education, Poznan, Poland

    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.