The effect of systematic sports activities on the motor development of children from seven to 10 years

Abstract

It is recognized that systematic physical activities cause changes in many aspects of children's development. Thus, the present study aimed to verify the impact of programmed sports activities, classical ballet and futsal, on indicators of global motor function and balance in children. The sample consisted of 160 children between 7 and 10 years of age. Eighty school children of both sexes were selected, characterized by the exclusive practice of school Physical Education. The programmed sports groups were composed of 40 female children, classical ballet practitioners, and 40 males who participated in futsal, characterizing the systematized practice group. The Motor Development Scale MDS was applied to assess global motor function and balance. In addition, the habitual physical activity questionnaire was used to calculate energy expenditure. Data distribution was verified using the Shapiro-Wilk's test and then were applied non-parametric tests of the Kruskall-Wallis test with post hoc Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon and Chi-Square Pearson tests. The significance level was set at 5% (p ≤ 0.05). Significant results were found in the systematized practice groups, with indices classified as superior and higher percentage for Motor Age of Global Motricity (MAGM) and Motor Age of Balance (MAB), when compared to chronological age (CA). In conclusion the children who practiced programmed sports activities demonstrated superiority in the tests when compared to the control group, where more than 65% were classified as normal.