Abstract:

Physical activity should be a natural part of the daily routine of children. Many children, however, spend an inadequate amount of time in a sedentary position. The aim of our work was to compare the level of basic motor competencies in children engaged in regular organized physical activities with their other peers. Using the MOBAK 1-2 test battery, we have collected the primary data on basic motor competencies from 234 first-graders (120 boys, 114 girls) at eight Slovak elementary schools. The information about which children attend organized physical activities was provided by school management. We used the t-test for independent sets to identify the differences between the level of basic motor competencies object control and self-movement of children engaged in regular physical activities in comparison with other peers, and between boys and girls. Irrespective of gender, we did not find significant differences in the level of basic motor competencies between the children engaged in regular physical activity and other children (p > 0.05). Boys engaged in regular organized physical activity achieved a significantly higher level of object control compared to other boys (p = 0.01). In girls, however, such a difference was not noted neither in the object control competence nor in the self-movement competence (p > 0.05). A possible explanation of this phenomenon is that the expected cumulative long-term effect of physical activities on the level of basic motor competencies has not manifested yet in the first-graders, and more predominantly, in girls.

Keywords:

Basic motor competence, first grader, elementary school, MOBAK 1-2 test battery, physical activity.