Impact of Developmental Games on Motor Skill Development of School Children in the Cape Coast Metropolis

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of some selected existing developmental games on the motor skill (balance, coordination and agility) development of children aged between 10 to 12 years, in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana. Quasi-experimental design was employed in the study. Thirty school children were randomly sampled for the study. The children included five boys and five girls from each of the age groups of 10, 11, and 12. This sample was selected to meet the demands for the test battery (i.e.Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2 (BOT-2) (Bruininks & Bruininks, 2005), which takes 15-20 minutes to test each participant). The group participated in a 12-week motor skills development programme designed for this study. The pupils’ levels of balance, coordination and agility were assessed with BOT-2 battery test using a single group pretestformulated and tested, hypotheses one, two and three were tested using repeated measure ANOVA, while hypothesis 4 was tested with a repeated factorial ANOVA. The main findings showed that the developmental games were effective tools that could be utilized in improving balance, agility and coordination among the children aged between 10-12 years, especially if the children are given about three months interval to practice. Thus, using these available developmental games can reduce the effects limited resources have on the teaching and learning of Physical Education (PE) and the general development and elevation of sports in the country. PE teachers are encouraged to use these developmental games to help children to improve their motor skills, in the resource constraint environment.