Play and Pre-Literacy Among Young Children

Summary

Children begin to develop fundamental motor skills (FMS), such as running and kicking, and pre-literacy skills, such as rhyming, during early childhood. These skills are very important as they lay the foundation for more complex movements and literacy skill development later in life, support overall healthy development in several areas, and help contribute to the child's readiness for school. A child with strong motor skills is well equipped to lead a life with healthy levels of physical activity, positive social interactions, positive self-perceptions, and greater cognitive and language abilities. These skills will not develop optimally on their own so it is essential to teach, challenge, and reinforce them at an early age; often this learning takes place at home prior to entering school. Most research on this topic has primarily focused on school-aged children or children with specific developmental challenges and less is known about teaching motor and pre-literacy skills to young children and giving parents the tools to practice these skills at home with their children. The aim of the present study is to examine the effect of a motor and pre-literacy program, which emphasizes parental involvement, on motor, pre-literacy, social skills, cognitive abilities, and self-competence in 3 to 4 year old children with typical development.

Conditions

• Child Development

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Motor and pre-literacy program

The program will run for 60 minutes once per week for 10 consecutive weeks and will consist of three components: direct FMS instruction, unstructured exploratory free-play, and an interactive storybook reading activity. The curriculum and teaching strategies to be used for the first two segments of our intervention have been successfully implemented in previous research to improve the motor skills of 4 year old children with autism (Bremer, Balogh, \& Lloyd, 2014). Specific strategies and books were selected from an existing evidence-based curriculum (Justice \& McGuinty, 2009). There will be active involvement of at least one parent in the direct instruction and reading components.

OTHER

Wait-list Comparison

The participants will not participate in the motor and pre-literacy program for 10 weeks after enrollment and will continue with their normal daily life without any intervention. After the experimental arm completes the motor and pre-literacy program, the wait-list group will receive the exact same motor and pre-literacy intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McMaster University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• John Cairney, PhD · McMaster University

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

36 Months

Max Age

59 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-06-30

Primary Completion

2016-08-31

Completion

2016-08-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations