This research considered the effect of differences between instruction patterns in consecutive, selective reaction-time tests administered to early childhood participants. Participants included 62 young male children (mean age 5.3 ± 0.6 years, mean height 107.4 ± 5.5 cm, mean mass 17.9 ± 2.2 kg). Starting from a standing position, each participant rapidly moved eight times on a sheet-either left, right, forward, backward, or diagonal-in accordance with the given target. Five different combinations were used; each combination required participants to move in each of the eight possible directions once, including the four diagonal directions. On each pattern, the total times for all participants were added to yield a consecutive, selective reaction time for that pattern. Single-factor dispersion analysis results did not indicate a statistically significant difference in reaction times between the test patterns (the level of significance was determined as 0.05). Furthermore, a greater-than-medium correlation between the five patterns with regard to their total consecutive, selective reaction-times was observed. Consequently, while no large difference was demonstrated between patterns, a relatively high correlation was observed between patterns on consecutive, selective reaction-time tests administered to young children.

The objective of this study was to consider the gender differences in the monthly variation in throwing distances among kindergarten children using different balls. The subjects of this study were 111 healthy males and 109 healthy females. The subjects' throwing distances of softballs and tennis balls were measured in June and November. By a gender-based two-way analysis of variance (difference by ball type × difference by month), we observed that the throwing distance of softballs was less than that of tennis balls for both males and females. Moreover, we note that the throwing distance of both ball types was shorter in June than in November. A second two-way analysis of variance (difference by gender × difference by ball type) determined that the throwing distance variation ratio ((November/June) × 100) was greater for softballs than for tennis balls among females only; however, this difference was not significant. The above results show that the throwing distance of softballs is less than that of tennis balls. However, we observe that the selection of ball type has no major effect on the monthly variation in throwing distances among children and that the trend does not vary greatly between males and females.