Strengthening Children's Coordination and Balance in Everyday Life

Summary

The World Health Organization recommends that children and teenagers aged 5 to 17 should be physically active for at least 60 minutes every day. This should include activities that make them breathe harder, as well as exercises that strengthen muscles and bones. National guidelines in Austria and Germany also highlight the importance of basic movement skills such as endurance, strength, coordination, and balance.

Regular physical activity is important for children's physical and mental health. It can help prevent problems such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. It can also support learning, concentration, and school performance. However, many children do not move enough. In Austria and Germany, only a small number of children and teenagers meet the recommended activity levels.

Because of this, many programs have been created to encourage children to be more active, for example through active breaks, park activities, or sports clubs. These programs often include simple movement games, warm-up exercises, and strengthening exercises such as squats. Balance and coordination exercises are used less often. Also, many programs mainly count how many children take part, but they do not always measure how the programs improve children's movement skills.

This study therefore looks at whether targeted balance and coordination training improves the motor skills of children aged 6 to 11 in school sports. It will compare this training with strength training. Over four weeks, children will take part in one of the two training programs. Their motor skills, such as coordination, strength, flexibility, and endurance, will be tested before and after the program. The study will also look at how the children's general physical activity level influences their motor development.

Conditions

• Physical Functional Performance
• Physical Education and Training/Methods
• Postural Balance
• Child

Interventions

OTHER

Exercise

The balance exercise program is conducted over a four-week period and consists of two training sessions per week. Each session lasts about 30 to 35 minutes. During each session, various balance exercises are performed, with each exercise consisting of two sets of 30 seconds each. There is a 60-second rest between sets and a 90-second rest between individual exercises. The intensity of the training is adjusted by progressively increasing the level of difficulty. Initially, the exercises are performed with support and under simpler conditions, while additional challenges-such as closing the eyes, omitting arm support, or performing additional cognitive tasks-are integrated as the program progresses. The training method consists of functional balance training with static and dynamic exercises on stable and unstable surfaces (e.g., exercise mat, balance board, or balance beam).

OTHER

Exercise

The strength training program is conducted over a period of four weeks and includes two training sessions per week. Each session lasts about 30 to 35 minutes and includes six to eight exercises. These are performed in two sets with a variable number of repetitions, with breaks of one to two minutes between exercises. The intensity of the training is controlled by the number of repetitions and the subjective exertion, which should not exceed a value of 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. The exercises are performed at a slow to moderate speed to ensure controlled execution. The program consists of functional strength exercises using one's own body weight as well as simple training equipment (e.g., medicine ball or exercise ball). It primarily incorporates coordinative and stabilizing movement patterns designed to be child-friendly (e.g., crawling movements, holding exercises, or dynamic whole-body exercises).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Barmherzige Brüder Linz

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Applied Sciences for Health Professions Upper Austria

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

11 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-02-23

Primary Completion

2026-05-10

Completion

2026-10-30

Countries

• Austria

Study Locations