Browsing by Author "Koivumäki, Anu"

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how five to six year old boys' need for support with their gross motor skills is associated with their other skills, such as cognitive and social skills. The scope of the material also allowed to study the associations between gross motor skills and daily functions of early childhood education. I study these other functions in my third research problem; how does the need for support with gross motor skills impact the daily activities of the child in his early childhood education. Based on earlier research, it is known that motor skills have an impact on the development of the child. My assumption was that my research data would support earlier research. The data used in this thesis was part of the University of Helsinki "Orientaation lähteillä" research project material. The data had been collected from 45 day cares, including both kindergartens and childminders in Central Uusimaa and Hämeenlinna. The material had been collected by interviewing and observing the children, and having the teachers evaluate the children's different skills. Background information and information about the learning environment was also collected. This thesis is based on the material's Needs plenty of support with gross motor skills claim, which had been evaluated on a five point scale. The data was delimited to boys aged five to six (N=243). The data was analysed using cross tabulation and correlations from child observations and skills assessments. This thesis is quantitative, and the SPSS software was used to study the associations between gross motor skills and other skills and functions. The results of this thesis show that children who needed support with their gross motor skills, often also needed support with their cognitive and social skills. The need for support with gross motor skills also impacted the child's everyday activities. A child who had a need for support with their gross motor skills played less imaginary games, spent less time in guided outdoor activities, and focused his attention more frequently on non-social targets than other children. The children who needed plenty of support where physically less active and less committed during the kindergarten day. In conclusion, motor development influences many other areas of a child's development, and therefore special attention needs to be paid to promoting motor development in early childhood education.