YBIKE RESEARCH REPORT                                       Professor ES Bressan, Department of Sport Science, Stellenbosch University (May 2008)

Introduction

Preschool children are at a stage in their lives when they are developing and refining fundamental movement skills, which are the basis of future movement skill capabilities ¹.  The development of these fundamental motor skills is essential for achieving school readiness as well as for facilitating a child’s progression through school ³.

Balance is an essential motor ability.  It refers to the ability of the child to maintain control (equilibrium) in either a static or dynamic environment. Balance control is a critical ability because it is required for sitting, walking, running or just generally moving about without falling down. Good balance is essential for good posture and preventing a child from fatiguing too quickly ³. Therefore it is essential that children are encouraged to improve their balance through physically active play.

Another critical ability that should be developed in early childhood is laterality. Laterality is formally defined as the internal awareness that there are two sides of the body and that these sides are different. Improved Bilateral coordination (the coordination of the two sides of the body) follows the discovery of laterality, and is vital because almost all motor skills require the two sides of the body to move in a coordinated fashion.

Coordination is defined as the ability of child to get the parts of the body to work together in an ordered efficient way to achieve the desired movement outcome or goal.

When looking for toys that will encourage the development of critical abilities on children during their pre-school years, physical activity as well as contributing to improvements in balance, laterality and coordination should be considered.  Among the many toys designed to promote positive development through play is a special kind of push-bike called the Ybike. The Ybike has been specially designed with the development of balance in mind.  The instability of the Ybike encourages the child to develop good balance while experiencing the fun of play.

Results for the 2 ½ to 3 year old children

 The following data is a report of changes in the average scores for the younger children when pre-test to post-test performances are compared (see Figures 1 and 2).  The children all achieved improvements in their dynamic balance, leg coordination and static balance.

Figure 4 indicates the percentage of improvement achieved by the children for each motor ability, following their play sessions on their Y-bikes. There was a substantial improvement in static balance on the right leg (almost 700%), which is encouraging because the scores had been much lower on the right leg than the left leg on the pre-test The only motor ability that did not improve significantly was the upper body strength and coordination of the children.

Results for the 3 to 3 ½ year old children 

The following data is a report of changes in the average scores for the 3 to 3 ½ year old children when pre-test to post-test performances are compared (see Figures 3 and 4).  The children all achieved improvements in their dynamic balance, leg coordination and static balance, although the amount of the improvements was not a great as for the younger children.

The 3 – 3 ½ year olds also attempted a more challenging test of bilateral coordination – the “jump-switch” test in which they had to alternate lead legs as they jump up in the air from a stride position (switching lead legs in the air before landing).  The results are presented in Figure 8. The average number of jump switches performed by children showed a remarkable improvement. Many children could not perform the jump-switch at all during the pre-test were able to perform it on the post-test.

The results for the 3 – 3 ½ year old children were quite similar as those for the younger children (Figure 7).  There was a very slight gain in upper body strength and coordination scores, but not enough to be considered an improvement.

The 3 – 3 ½ year olds also attempted a more challenging test of bilateral coordination – the “jump-switch” test in which they had to alternate lead legs as they jump up in the air from a stride position (switching lead legs in the air before landing).  The results are presented in Figure 8. The average number of jump switches performed by children showed a remarkable improvement. Many children could not perform the jump-switch at all during the pre-test were able to perform it on the post-test.

Figure 9 shows the percentage change in all the measured motor abilities of the older age group of children. Bilateral coordination improved the most, while the other variables also showed positive improvements.  The exception is upper body strength and coordination, which does not appear to have benefited from the Y-bike play sessions.

Discussion

 The results indicate that there is a definite improvement in the motor abilities tested, with the exception of upper body strength and coordination. The improvements in the motor skills are much greater in the younger age group, which may indicated that the younger age group had a much larger room for improvement. This may also be because the younger children are at a stage in their lives where skills are developing rapidly, and therefore the YBIKE provided extra practise opportunities to improve these skills. The older age group also showed improvement, although not as much as the younger group, however their initial scores were understandably better than the scores of the younger group.

Supervised play on the YBIKE appears to have provided these children with the opportunity to practise and further develop crucial motor abilities associated with their balance as well as their leg coordination.  A possible explanation for the lack of impact on the children’s upper body strength and coordination remaining relatively unchanged could be that, although the arms are used in steering and gripping the YBIKE, they are not nearly as involved as the legs while riding the YBIKE.

Motor development follows a relatively predictable timeline, with the various motor abilities skills developing at certain ages.  Bilateral coordination is a motor skill that develops later in the pre-school years. For this reason only 3 – 3½ year olds where tested on their bilateral coordination. Their 400% improvement in bilateral coordination indicates that the YBIKE afforded them with the opportunity to develop this ability.  .

The time allocated for playing on the YBIKE was intentionally restricted to simulate what many children experience in a crèche environment.  The children must share equipment and take turns, which means that their active play time with special pieces of equipment is usually quite limited.  If the children were in a small play group and did not have to take turns with the equipment, the results might have been different. It is possible that there would have been great gains, but it is also possible that because the YBIKE is such an attractive toy and riding the YBIKE brings the children obvious enjoyment, some of the children might have “over-done-it” and played to the point where no benefits are achieved.

The YBIKE is a great toy for children to enhance their motor skills, by allowing them the opportunity to practise their gross motor skills and the YBIKE provides a new way to explore their environment.  It was apparent to everyone watching the children play that the YBIKEs brought joy to each child.  Every minute on the YBIKE was pure bliss, and they never wanted to get off. Even the least confident and timid of the children did not want to stop once they got on their YBIKE.

Although there were great improvements shown by the results, these improvements have to be interpreted with caution, There are factors other than the play on the YBIKE, which could have resulted in the improvements. Over time children develop their motor skills, and therefore over the month between the pre-test and post-test the children might naturally improve in their motor abilities. Children’s motor performance also can be highly variable from day-to-day, and this can cause them to perform differently from day-to-day on any test. It was interesting to notice that after the YBIKE play sessions, the children associated the researchers with the YBIKEs.  There became instantly happy whenever they saw the researchers. This positive association could have made the children feel more at ease in the post-test and allowed them to perform better.  However, each child did show improvements, so it is unlikely that the improvements were solely due to other variables that can affect performance. 

It was also observed that the children’s self-confidence seemed to improve with their play experiences.  Although the kinds of play experiences the children were having outside of their crèche could not be controlled, the kinds of improvements in balance and coordination found in this study are well outside of what is expected in a 4-week period.  We have concluded that the YBIKE can contribute positively to the motor development of preschool children in terms of their balance and coordination.

References

 Au, A. (1983). The effects of a motor enrichment programme on pre-school children. The Journal of The Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association, 5:5-9.

Cheatum, B.A. & Hammond, A.A. (2000). Physical activities for improving children’s learning and behaviour: A guide to sensory motor development. Champaign: Human Kinetics.

 Pieterse, M. (2002). School readiness through play. Hoheizen: Metz Press.

 Thornton, C.D. & Sutterby, J.A. (2006). Developing balancing skills on the playground. Playground Magazine. 10 May. [Hyperlink  http://playgroundmag.com/news/print.cfm?id=1265].  8 May 2008.

 For additional information, contact:

 Prof ES Bressan, Department of Sport Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600. esb@sun.ac.za