Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning
Scientific Journal

The Effect of Aquatic Training on Social-Emotional Skills and Gross Motor Development of Children Aged 3 to 6 Years

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license

Authors

Mahboobe Alivandidarani 1
Hassan Kordi 2
Keyvan MolaNorouzi 3

1 Department of Motor behavior and sport psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran.

2 Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Health, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

3 Department of Motor behavior and sport psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University ,Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jsmdl.2024.370385.1761
Abstract
Introduction: Movement is a way of social communication of the child with other people in his life. By moving into the environment, the child gains various experiences, although his skills are not yet developed. This research aimed to investigate the effect of aquatic movement training on the development of social-emotional and gross motor skills of children aged 3 to 6 years old.
Methods: The research was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and a control group design. The statistical population was made up of female preschool children in Faridan City, Isfahan province. 23 people were selected conveniently and were randomly divided into two experimental (n=12) and control (n=11) groups. The experimental group performed 16 sessions of 50 minutes of aquatic movement training in water for 8 weeks, and the control group performed their daily activities according to their usual programs. Both groups performed the third version of Ulrich’s Test of Gross Motor Development and the Social Skills Rating Systems by Gresham and Elliott (1990) under completely similar conditions in the pre-test and post-test. Data analysis was done by multivariate analysis of covariance at a significance level of 0.05 in SPSS version 26 software.
Results: The results showed that the aquatic movement games significantly led to the development of gross motor skills (locomotors and object manipulation) and more social-emotional skills (cooperation, assertion, self-control, and responsibility) than the control group (p≤0/05).
Conclusion: By providing an educational program of aquatics movement games, an opportunity can be provided for the development of social-emotional skills and gross motor skills of preschool girls.

Keywords

Play in water
Girls
Gross motor skills
social-emotional skills
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Journal of Sports and Motor Development and Learning
Volume 16, Issue 3
Summer 2024
Pages 93-109

  • Receive Date 30 December 2023
  • Revise Date 09 March 2024
  • Accept Date 13 March 2024

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