Development of balance in children participating in different recreational physical activities

Abstract

Balance, an important motor coordination ability, underlies the performance of various motor skills and allows for participation in common childhood activities. Research indicates that sport participation could support balance development in children. To confirm the above effect, this study investigated whether participation in different recreational physical activities could induce differences in children’s balance ability. Specifically, 138 children, 5-11 years old (Mage=8.4±1.3), classified into four groups according to the activity they took part in (basketball, track and field, rhythmic gymnastics, contemporary dance), were assessed by the balance subset of the KörperKoordinationstest für Kinder. Pearson correlations were applied to detect associations of balance scores with age, height, body mass index (BMI) and showed significant correlations for BMI (p< .001). The analyses of covariance (covariate: BMI) that were computed on children’s balance scores showed statistically significant effects of group (p