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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1477001
This article is part of the Research Topic Physical Activity Applied to Learning and Psycho-social Variables in Young People View all 14 articles
A comparative study of four physical education curricula on the developmental behavior of Chinese preschool children aged 4 to 6 years and its correlation with balance ability
Provisionally accepted
Minjie Qiao 1,2*
Laite Yu 1,2* Jingyu Shi 3* Xiaoting Wang 1,2*
Ruiyuan Li 1,2 Zicheng Wan 1,2* Dongsheng Lu 1,2*- 1 Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
- 2 Shaanxi Provincial Children and Adolescent Physical Education Research Center, Xi'an, China
- 3 Henan Vocational College of Water Conservancy and Environment, Henan, China
Early childhood development is important for the future developmental behavior, physical fitness, and social adaptation. The content of the physical education curriculum in kindergarten is crucial for the growth of preschool children. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of 12-week of 4 different physical education curriculum interventions on developmental behavior and balance ability, and the correlation between these two factors in preschool children. 94 preschool children aged 4-6 years were stratified and randomly assigned to tennis group(TG), football group(FG), sensory integration group(SIG), and control group(CG). All interventions resulted in greater improvements in all developmental behavior indicators and balance ability after intervention compared to baseline.The SIG showed greater improvements in total development quotient(DQ), gross motor DQ, fine motor DQ, and balance ability than the other three groups after intervention. No significant difference in balance ability between FG and SIG was found. There was a positive and significant correlation between adaptability DQ, social behavior DQ, and balance ability after SIG intervention.The SIG training could correlate children's balance ability with their social behavior and adaptability.The sensory integration curriculum might be the optimal curriculum to promote the efficient improvement of preschool children's developmental behavior and motor competence. ** 0.743 ** 0.548 ** 0.533 ** 0.295 0.387 0.398 0.248 0.404 0.251 0.726 ** 0.602 ** FG 0.893 ** 0.562 ** 0.681 ** 0.454 * 0.289 0.238 0.346 0.366 0.321 0.345 0.799 ** 0.502 * SIG 0.840 ** 0.748 ** 0.488 0.772 ** 0.216 0.678 ** 0.283 0.207 0.307 0.613 0.613 ** 0.781 ** CG 0.862 ** 0.694 ** 0.705 ** 0.457 * 0.355 0.374 0.370 0.212 0.241 0.304 0.734 ** 0.584 **
Keywords: developmental behavior, gross motor, Balance ability, Correlation, Preschool children, physical education curriculum
Received: 06 Aug 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qiao, Yu, Shi, Wang, Li, Wan and Lu. 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:
Minjie Qiao, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
Laite Yu, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
Jingyu Shi, Henan Vocational College of Water Conservancy and Environment, Henan, China
Xiaoting Wang, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
Zicheng Wan, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
Dongsheng Lu, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
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