Impact of bilateral-coordinated movement on manipulative skill competency in school-aged children

Abstract Background Researchers found that manipulative skill competency in childhood not only help improve physical activity participation, but also help adolescent learn specialized sport skills. This study aimed at examining the effects of an 8-week bilateral-coordinated movement (BCM) intervention on manipulative skill competency in school-aged children.Methods Participants were 314 fourth-grade students in two elementary schools. This study used 2-arm quasi-experimental research design. For one elementary school, two fourth-grade classes were assigned to the BCM group, the other two fourth-grade classes were assigned to the control group. For another elementary school, one fourth-grade class was assigned to the BCM group and another fourth-grade class to the control group. The students in the BCM group received an 8-week, two 40-minute BCM lessons in soccer and another 8-week, two 40-minute BCM lessons in basketball, while the control group received an 8-week, two 40-minute regular PE lessons in soccer and basketball, respectively. Students’ manipulative skill competency in soccer and basketball skills were pre- and post-tested using the two PE Metric assessment rubrics. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, ANCOVA and ANOVA repeated measures.Results The results showed a significant main effect of time (pre-test vs. post-test) in soccer skills (F = 273.095, p = .000, 𝜂2 = .468) and in basketball skills (F = 74.619, p = .000, 𝜂2 = .193). Also, the results revealed a significant main effect of group (BCM group vs. control group) in soccer skills (F = 37.532, p = .000, 𝜂2 = .108), marginal significant main effect of group in basketball skills (F = 3.619, p = .058, 𝜂2 = .011). Further, there was significant interaction effect between the time and group in soccer skills (F = 37.532, p = .000, 𝜂2 = .108) and in basketball skills (F = 18.380, p = .000, 𝜂2 = .056).Conclusions It was concluded that after participated in the 8-week, 16 40-min lessons of BCM, the fourth-grade students had greater improvement in soccer and basketball dribbling, passing and receiving skills, compared to the control group.