Effects of Physical Training on Social Skill Levels of Preschool Children

Abstract

Social skills should have been supported since the early childhood. Regular physical training and sporting events facilitate the development of motor and social competence skills of children in addition to being healthy. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of regularly performed physical trainings on the social skill levels of preschool children. This experimental study was designed by using pretests and posttests by using a relevant control group. The study group was composed of 42 children (21 boys and 21 girls in the age group of four) who were attending two different preschool institutions. Preschool Social Skills Rating Scale (PSSRS) teacher form was used in order to collect the data. The experimental group children had physical training for 14 weeks (2 days a week) under the control of researchers. Control group children had their routine education program with their teachers. Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were used in order to analyze the data. As a conclusion, it has been shown that physical training has significant and positive effects on the social skill levels of children. There was a significant difference between the gender of the experimental group children and PSSRS posttest scores in favor of girls (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05) and scores of girls were significantly higher compared to all scores of boys.

Integrating Social Skills in Traditional Games with Physical Education Interventions

“…Traditional games are also primarily played in groups, and children are usually able to hone their emotions in group games so that tolerance and empathy for others emerge because they are comfortable and used to being in groups [14]. Social skills are required to initiate relationships or social behaviours that are important in meeting community expectations and maintain social relations and solve problems [15]. Social skills should be instilled in children from an early age.…”

Effects of Body-Oriented Interventions on Preschoolers' Social-Emotional Competence: A Systematic Review

“…All the studies used BOI as the study intervention. Control groups were inactive in 17 studies (Lobo and Winsler, 2006;Ortega et al, 2009;Hashemi et al, 2012;Chinekesh et al, 2014;Flook et al, 2015;Ozyurek et al, 2015;Anna et al, 2016;Biber, 2016;Cheng and Ray, 2016;Robinson et al, 2016;Murray et al, 2018;Duman and Ozkur, 2019;Loukatari et al, 2019;Richard et al, 2019;Deneault et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2020;Tersi and Matsouka, 2020). In the remaining 2 studies, the BOI was compared with block building and story time reading activities (Goldstein and Lerner, 2017), and a play-based program following a teacher-directed approach (Solomon et al, 2018).…”

“…As we mentioned, BOI is an umbrella term that integrates a wider range of therapeutic approaches (Röhricht, 2009). The types of BOI in the included studies were creative dance/movement (Lobo and Winsler, 2006), group play activities (Ortega et al, 2009), gymnastics (Hashemi et al, 2012), group play therapy (Chinekesh et al, 2014), mindfulness-based activities (Flook et al, 2015), gamebased activities (Ozyurek et al, 2015), psychomotor program Reported by teachers. (Anna et al, 2016), folk dance (Biber, 2016), child-centered group play (Cheng and Ray, 2016), motor skills intervention (Robinson et al, 2016), pretend play games (Goldstein and Lerner, 2017), progressive muscle relaxation (Murray et al, 2018), play-based activities using a teacher-centered approach (Solomon et al, 2018), embedded learning-based movement education (Duman and Ozkur, 2019), structured playful activities (Loukatari et al, 2019), pretend play-based (Richard et al, 2019), symbolic sand play (Deneault et al, 2020), loose parts play and mindfulness activities (Lee et al, 2020), and structured play activities (Tersi and Matsouka, 2020).…”

The Influence of Physical Activity, Social Economy, and Family Environment toward Student’s Social Skills

“…Furthermore, [9] in his research suggested that physical activity has an important contribution to social skills "Physical training and sports have crucial contributions in the development of both the social and motor skills of children.…”