TITLE:
Language Development: The Effect of Aquatic and On-Land Motor Interventions
AUTHORS:
Ronit Ram-Tsur, Michal Nissim, Michal Zion, Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan, Zemira Mevarech
KEYWORDS:
Early Childhood Intervention; Physical Activity; Aquatic Environment; Language; Time Estimation
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.4 No.9B,
September
30,
2013
ABSTRACT: The aim of the current preliminary research was
to examine the relationship between aquatic motor activities and language abilities.
Our hypothesis suggests that changing the environment to water may improve motor
and linguistic abilities. The study included 94 children between the ages of four
and six. Thirty-one children who participated in aquatic motor activities were compared
to 41 children who participated in on-land motor activities and to 21 children who
participated in non-motor activities. Developmental-functionality tests, including
gross and fine motor, time estimation and language tests, were used to diagnose
participants’ abilities before and after six months of intervention. We found significant
improvement in gross motor, fine motor and time estimation abilities for the aquatic
motor activities group. Moreover, improvement in gross motor and time estimation
abilities moderated the association between aquatic motor activities and children’s
naming ability, suggesting the positive effect of aquatic motor activities on language
abilities. Based on these novel findings, child-development professionals can have
a better understanding of relation between language abilities and motor abilities,
possibly leading to an improvement of intervention methods with early-childhood
patients. Early childhood intervention could aid in reducing primary differences
between children in motor abilities, and especially in motor-development disorders,
which in turn are thought to lead to additional learning disabilities.