Fundamental Motor Skills, Music Intervention, Physical Activity
Conditions
Keywords
Early Childhood, Movement behaviors, Gross and fine motor skills
Brief summary
The early childhood education and care (ECEC) environment is an important setting for providing children with daily opportunities for movement and music, supporting holistic child development in the early years. To date, there are no studies evaluating the implementation of a holistic programme in the ECEC context in the areas of movement behaviour, motor, and musical skills. The main aim is to examine the impact over time of a holistic movement and music programme on correlates of movement behaviour, gross and fine motor skills, and musical skills in young children (1-3 years). The secondary aims are to examine the impact of the movement and music programme on the perceptions of the educational community, as well as the barriers and facilitators they perceive in the process of baseline assessment, construction, and implementation of the movement and music programme in their own ECEC community. This cluster-randomised controlled trial (intervention and control groups) with public ECEC centres will be performed over a 24-month period. Baseline measurements will be taken in the first year of the project, and the longitudinal evaluation of the implementation of the movement and music programme in the second year. educational community's perceptions about the barriers and facilitators associated with the correlates of movement behaviour will be taken into account, as will the results of the assessment of gross and fine motor and musical skills identified in the first year of the project, with a special focus on the structured and unstructured opportunities for movement and music both in the ECEC settings and at home. This research project aims to fill a knowledge gap during a period of childhood that has rarely been explored, either nationally or internationally (1-3 years), and to position movement and music teaching practices as key contexts in the curriculum development of infant and toddler education.
Detailed description
ECEC settings are important determinants of children´s behaviour. Ecological models help to contextualise and explain how the different environments in which children interact on a daily basis (school, home, and peer relations) have the capacity to influence childrens development. To date, there are no studies evaluating the implementation of a holistic programme in the ECEC context in the areas of movement behaviour, motor, and musical skills. A pending line of research is the identification of the key correlates of changes in movement behaviour throughout the early years, which would generate knowledge crucial to developing policy interventions that promote general wellbeing in young children. Thus, this study focuses on the importance of home and ECEC settings in the development of movement behaviour through a critical analysis of how curricular practices can be more effective in influencing childrens holistic development. Aims The main aim is to examine the impact over time of a holistic movement and music programme on correlates of movement behaviour, gross and fine motor skills, and musical skills in young children (1-3 years). The secondary aims are to examine the impact of the movement and music programme on the perceptions of the educational community, as well as the barriers and facilitators they perceive in the process of baseline assessment, construction, and implementation of the movement and music programme in their own ECEC community. Hypotheses The research set out to test the following hypotheses: 1. Girls and boys (1-2 years) will perform the same amount of PA during the school day. 2. The implementation of a music and movement intervention programme will increase children´s PA during the school day. 3. The music and movement intervention programme will have an impact on higher levels of childrens GMS as well as a variety of musical processes in the intervention group. 4. The ECEC community will be actively involved in the co-creation process of the movement and music intervention programme.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALA multi-component, multi-level programme (MoviMusi)
The MoviMusi program will be designed and implemented in each city by the 12 ECEC centres in the intervention group. In addition, the intervention programme will aim to address the main barriers and facilitators identified during the first year (baseline assessment) in relation to movement and music curricular practices. The programme will have three axes: (1) Training. Educators and families will actively participate in a series of seminars and training workshops on the promotion of PA as a healthy behaviour and the use of music as a didactic resource to strengthen holistic education both inside and outside ECEC. (2) Participation. Each ECEC institution will be supported as they design a movement and music programme to offer children better opportunities to learn about the body, its possibilities of action, and musical skills.(3) Implementation. The specific actions of the MoviMusi Programme will be put into practice in each ECEC institution.
Sponsors
University of Valencia
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Intervention model description
The allocation of ECECs to the intervention versus control group will be randomised in a blinded procedure at the end of the first year, following the baseline assessment. Once ECEC centres meeting the selection criteria are identified, they will be randomised to one of the trial arms.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
14 Months to 22 Months
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Young children aged 14 to 22 months. * Regularly attending the Early Childhood Education and Care centre. * Parents giving informed consent.
Exclusion criteria
* Young children not attending more than two days to centre. * Young children attending only half part of the day.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Physical activity | At baseline and 12 months | Accelerometry (Actigraph model) will be used to objectively assess physical activity. Children will wear an accelerometer for one week (weekend included) during ECEC hours. Accelerometer data will be downloaded and converted to 15-s epoch files using ActiLife software (version 6.4, ActiGraph Inc, Pensacola, FL, USA). |
| Sleep time | At baseline and 12 months | Sleep time wil be measured by parental report. |
| Motor skills | At baseline and 12 months | Participants' motor skills will be assessed using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, 3rd edition. The PDMS-3 is a standardized instrument to assess both gross and fine motor skills. |
| Musical skills | At baseline and 12 months | Musical skills will be assessed using a observational approach based on the five fundamental musical processes (listening, singing, instrumental interpretation, improvisation/composition and movement). |
| Sedentary time | At baseline and 12 months | Accelerometry (Actigraph model) will be used to objectively assess sedentary time. Children will wear an accelerometer for one week (weekend included) during ECEC hours. Accelerometer data will be downloaded and converted to 15-s epoch files using ActiLife software (version 6.4, ActiGraph Inc, Pensacola, FL, USA). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| For families, the second secondary outcome is the perceived barriers and facilitators to the inclusion of music at home. | At baseline and 12 months | In each ECEC setting, families will participate in focus groups, in order to identify their perceptions of barriers and facilitators to movement and music practice outside of school hours. |
| For families, the third secondary outcome are the means of transport to ECEC settings and barriers to active comm | At baseline and 12 months | The modes of transport used for commuting to and from the ECEC centre will be evaluated through a questionnaire. |
| For young children, the first secondary outcome measure is physical activity and sedentary time during unstructured and structured physical activity opportunities. | At baseline and 12 months | Accelerometry (Actigraph model) will be used to objectively assess sedentary time. Children will wear an accelerometer during unstructured and structured physical activity opportunities. |
| For families, the fifth secondary outcome is the perceived barriers and facilitators to PA in young children. | At baseline and 12 months | Barriers to active commuting will be identified also by a qualitative analysis in focus groups. |
| For families, the fourth secondary outcome is the habitual perceived PA and sedentary behaviour in the child's home environment. | At baseline and 12 months | The Preschool-aged Children's PA Questionnaire (Pre-PAQ) is a questionnaire designed to measure habitual PA and sedentary behaviour in the child's home environment. |
| For young children, the second secondary outcome measure will be the play patterns during unstructured outdoor free play. | At baseline and 12 months | The OSRAC-P is a direct observation system designed to collect information about children's physical activity and the contextual circumstances surrounding it (Brown et al., 2006). |
| For ECEC educators, the first secondary outcome will be the perceived barriers and facilitators for the inclusion of movement and music as curricular practices in the ECEC institution. | At baseline and 12 months | In each ECEC setting, educators will participate in focus groups to gather their perceptions about the place and purpose of movement and music practices in their classrooms. |
| For ECEC educators, the second secondary outcome will be the perceived impact of the implementation of the movement and music program. | At baseline and 12 months | In each ECEC setting, educators will participate in focus groups, to gather their perceptions about the place and purpose of movement and music practices in their classrooms. |
| For families, the first secondary outcome is the perceived barriers and facilitators to PA in young children. | At baseline and 12 months | Barriers to active commuting will be assessed using an adapted version of the BATACE scale (BArreras en el Transporte Activo al Centro Educativo in Spanish, translated as: barriers to active transport to educational centres) for preschool and toddler parents. |
Countries
Spain
Contacts
Primary ContactVladimir E University of Valencia, Ph.D.
Backup ContactMaría del Mar Bernabé-Villodre, Ph. D.
Outcome results
None listed