Editorial
Antonis Lampas, Publisher Download (pdf, 28kb)
Volume 2 – 2009
Opening speech for the 4th European Congress of Psychomotricity
Lone Helleberg Frimodt, President of the European Forum of Psychomotricity (EFP) Download (pdf, 40kb)
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Validity and Reliability of the developmental Test of Visual-motor integration and its supplemental tests of Visual perception and Motor coordination in Pre-school children in Luxembourg
This study aims to control for the validity and reliability of the Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration and its supplemental tests of Visual Perception and Motor Coordination in pre-school children in Luxembourg. Additionally it serves to compare the performance of the pre-school children in Luxembourg to the age-related norms, established in the United States. In total 68 children, aged between 4 and 7 years old, participated in the study. The children were inscribed to 2 pre-schools in Luxembourg-city. One week after performing the first test 30 children performed a retest. The results indicated that the performance of the girls did not differ significantly from the performance of the boys. In general, the scores of the children of the pre-schools in Luxembourg differed significantly from the norms established in an age-related population in the United States. The children in Luxembourg scored significantly higher when comparing their standard scores of the 3 tests to the reference means. The test-retest reliability of our data was lower than in the Beery administration manual (2004). Our results show moderate to high degrees of construct validity, compared to the results of the Beery administration manual, 5th edition, 2004.
Epidemiological study of playground accidents in Greece
The purpose of the present study was to record epidemiological data concerning playground incidents in Greece. ”Student Injury and Incident Report for use in Swedish Schools (SIIR)’’ by Laflamme et al (1998) was utilized for the recording of 1066 incidents occurred in 127 playgrounds throughout Greece. Results showed that significantly more incidents took place in cities than in villages, more boys injured than girls, more accidents happening in the afternoon and most of the activities were organized by adults (p<.001). Most of the incidents occurred on the ground (20.2%). Running (16.6%) seemed to be an activity that causes injuries. Many accidents occurred because of slipping on the surface or the equipment (24.5%). Children got injured mostly at the knees (11.5%). These accidents are caused by misusage of the equipment (13.7%) and wrong technique during the activity (11.1%), while anxiousness in many ways seems to be another important factor (11.9%). Most injured children seemed to need no specific care (42.9%) and most of the injuries would (62.3%) or could (30.5) have been avoided if the conditions were better. The incidents could have been less severe, or even avoided, if the playgrounds were safer designed, maintained and supervised.
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Relationship between rhythmic ability and type of motor activities in preschool children
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the rhythmic ability of pre-school children engaging in motor activities accompanied or not by music. A total of 180 children (90 boys and 90 girls) at the age of 5±0.5 were randomly selected from kindergartens of Magnesia area-Greece to participate in the study. The High/Scope Rhythmic Competence Αnalysis Τest (Weikart, 1989) was used for the evaluation of rhythmic ability using 2 testing tempos: 120 and 130 beats. The 3-way ANOVA revealed that all children performed significantly better in lower tempo (p< .05) and girls performed better than boys (p< .05). The test scores were significantly different among the three activity groups (p< .05) with the best performance shown on the group of motor activities accompanied by music and then the group of motor activities without music. Girls in the first group (activities accompanied by music) significantly surpassed boys of the same group in both testing tempos. In conclusion, motor abilities accompanied by music, play an important role to the development of rhythmic ability. More research is needed on the effects of music on the development of children’s rhythmic abilities taking into account gender and maybe former movement repertoire.
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Concurrent Validity and Test-Retest Reliability of the Greek Version of the 3-Day Physical Activity Record in 13-15 yrs old Greek Adolescents
The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and the reliability of the Greek version of the self-report instrument “3day Physical Activity Record” (3dPAR-G, Pavlidou, Michalopoulou, Aggeloussis & Taxildaris, 2009). Participants were 57 high school students (Mean Age=14.02 y., SD=0.72 y.). Concurrent validity was assessed against the accelerometer (MTI/Actigraph) whereas reliability was assessed through two consecutive measurements that were performed two weeks apart. Participants wore the MTI/ Actigraph for five consecutive days and completed the 3dPAR-G for the last three of those days. Significant correlation was observed between MTI/Actigraph raw counts and 3dPAR-G average score (METs min. day-1, r = .41). Regarding reliability of the 3dPAR-G the intraclass correlation coefficient for total physical activity (MET/min. day-1), was significant (ICC = .57, p < .01). Finally, in terms of internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha was estimated and was rather high (α = .81). Conclusively and within the limitations of the present study (small sample size, 5 days of objective physical activity monitoring), the results indicated that the 3dPAR-G is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing group-level reported physical activity in Greek adolescents aged 13-15 years.
Effect of an exercise program emphasizing coordination on preschoolers’ motor proficiency
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of an exercise program emphasizing coordination on the motor proficiency of preschool aged children. One hundred and thirteen children, aged 4-6 years (M= 60.17 months, SD=6.43 months) living in Southern Greece, enrolled in the study. The 57 children of the experimental group (EG) attended the intervention program for 28 weeks, while the 56 children of the control group (CG) did not participate in any organized physical activity program. Both groups were tested with the “Democritus” Psychomotor Assessment Tool for Preschool Children (PAT-PRE) (Kambas, Aggeloussis & Gavriilidou, 2003) five times (one before program’s start, one after its end and three in the meantime). The ANOVA with repeated measures that was applied showed that, while both groups (EG and CG) displayed an improvement in their performance, the EG surpassed statistically significantly the CG at the fourth measurement and maintained that difference at the fifth one. It seems that an exercise program emphasizing coordination can notably improve children’s motor proficiency.
