The researchers, in collaboration with a colleague from the University of Wollongong, conducted a pilot study of 53 pre-schoolers to see if there was an association between playing electronic games and the children\u2019s fundamental movement skills. The results showed that object control motor skills, such as kicking, catching, throwing a ball, were better in the children who played interactive games<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis study was not designed to assess whether interactive gaming can actually develop children\u2019s movement skills, but the results are still quite interesting and point to a need to further explore a possible connection,\u201d said Dr Lisa Barnett, lead researcher on the study and NHMRC postdoctoral researcher with Deakin\u2019s School of Health and Social Development.<\/p>\n The study was conducted in 2009 and involved 53 children aged from three to six years. The physical activity levels of the children were monitored and movement skills assessed and their parents provided a report of the time spent playing interactive games (ie. the type played on Nintendo Wii\/Eyetoy) and non-interactive electronic games (ie. games played on Nintendo DS\/ Gameboy) in a typical week.<\/p>\n The researchers found that the children who spent more time playing interactive electronic games were more competent in object control skills (ie. kicking, catching, rolling, and bouncing a ball), but there was no association with locomotor skills (ie. hopping, jumping, running). This finding was independent of the time children spent in physical activity. There was no link between playing non-interactive games and object control or locomotor skills.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we found that greater time spent playing interactive electronic games is associated with higher object control skills in these young children, we cannot say why,\u201d Dr Barnett said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be that these children have higher object control skills because they are playing interactive games that may help to develop these types of skills (for example, the under hand roll through playing the bowling game on the Wii). Playing interactive electronic games may also help eye-hand coordination. It may also be that children who already have higher object control skills tend to play interactive electronic games more.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat our findings do point to is a need to investigate further to determine if playing these games improves object control skills or if children with greater object control skill proficiency prefer and play these games.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important that we know this because children with better fundamental movement skills have been shown in my previous research to become fitter and more active adolescents compared to children who have poorer movement skills.\u201d<\/p>\n The results of the current study are published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills<\/em>.<\/p>\n Study fast facts<\/strong> From the Deakin University press release via MedicalXpress: Deakin University health researchers have found pre-schoolers who play interactive video games, such as Wii, have better motor skills. The researchers, in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[45,227,73,363,225,237],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5094,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions\/5094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Gaming2.jpg\" "\\"gaming\\"")
Deakin University health researchers have found pre-schoolers who play interactive video games, such as Wii, have better motor skills<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 53 children aged between 3 and six years took part in the study; more than half (31) were girls
\n\u2022 Participants came from the Healthy Active Preschool Years (HAPPY) study
\n\u2022 35 per cent of the children played non-interactive electronic games
\n\u2022 23 per cent played interactive games
\n\u2022 Six of the children played both interactive and non-interactive games
\n\u2022 Children spent an average of 183 minutes (3.05 hours) per week playing non-interactive games and 118 minutes (1.97 hours) playing interactive games
\n\u2022 Out of all the possible influences on a child\u2019s object control skill level, 12 per cent was associated with their time in interactive gaming
\n\u2022 There was no connection between locomotor skill ability and playing either interactive or non-interactive games<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"