The effect of a gross motor activity on the tempo discrimination of young children

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of gross motor activity on the rhythmic discrimination skill of young children ages three to six. Forty children, five boys and five girls each from three-, four-, five-, and six-year-old groups, were selected randomly as subjects at the day-care and kindergarten center. At the first session, each subject was asked to jump on a small trampoline and his/her most comfortable jumping speed was measured. Then, the subjects was asked to listen to six pairs of musical renditions of "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" played on the piano. The tempo of the first musical example of each music pair was matched to the same tempo as each child's previously measured jumping tempo. The second example of each pair was then made five percent faster or five percent slower than the first musical example. The subject was asked to tell verbally whether the second example was faster or slower than the first example (Tempo Discrimination Task). At the second session, the subject was asked to jump on the trampoline with the musical example and to verbally indicate whether the second example of each music pair was faster or slower than the first musical example. Subjects' responses in the second session were videotaped for later analysis. No results in this study were statistically significant but they provided some implications for young children's rhythmic discrimination skills. The results implied jumping movements tend to distract attention and therefore inhibit tempi discriminationin four-, five-, and six-years old males. Jumping movement did not inhibit females' tempi discriminations. Jumping movement did not inhibit tempi discrimination in the three-year-old group.

Keyword(s): Gross-motor-activity, tempo-discrimination, children, jumping-movement.

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