ORIGINAL PAPER
Effect of a vestibular-stimulating training program on motor skills in conjunction with cognitive aptitude of young school-aged children
 
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1
Damanhour Medical National Institute, General Organization for Teaching Hospitals and Institutes, Ministry of Health, Damanhour, El-Buhayra, Egypt
 
2
Department of Physical Therapy for Paediatrics and Its Surgery, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Pharos University,Alexandria, Egypt
 
3
Department of Physical Therapy for Pediatrics, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
 
4
Psychology Department, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
 
 
Submission date: 2020-12-31
 
 
Acceptance date: 2021-04-06
 
 
Publication date: 2023-08-30
 
 
Physiother Quart. 2023;31(3):65-79
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
The current study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the Minds-in-Motion Maze program on motor and cognitive abilities in school-aged children.

Methods:
The experimental design used was a randomised controlled trial. Participants, belonging to a public primary school, were 100 young children (50% boys) ranging from 6.00 to 8.50 years old (7.32 ± 0.82 years in average). They were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (50 subjects/each), and two dropped out from each group. While the control group received unstructured physical activity, the children in the experimental group engaged in the Minds-in- Motion Maze vestibular stimulation program (24 weeks of a 30-minute structured PA on a daily basis). A pre- and post-test were conducted to evaluate the performance in motor skills and cognitive ability using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor ProficiencyTM Second Edition, complete form and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition.

Results:
The analysed data indicated that engaging in Minds-in-Motion Maze activities positively influenced the motor and cognitive abilities among the children. The between-group analysis exhibited strong significant improvement in the experimental group compared to the control group (p < 0.05), which did not show significant development. Boys outperformed girls on most tests, notably as age increased. The within-groups analysis (experimental group) demonstrated significant differences in the post-intervention gains of all motor and cognitive parameters (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:
Taken together, the current results reinforce causal evidence for the effects of Minds- in-Motion Maze based physical activity on improving both motor skills and cognitive aptitude in school-aged children.

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