The Animal Fun Program to Support the Motor Development of the Italian Pre-schoolers: a Case-Control Study

NCT04714580 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 86-7/3/2018 pg 6
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 119
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The present literature supports the importance of the motor activity since the early stages of the human development. The children with poor motor skills are at greater risk for psychosocial, internalizing, and metabolic diseases. In Italy data about obesity and inactivity are increasing, anyway there is lack of motor program for pre-schoolers. The movement program Animal Fun seems to be a valid tool to support these children. The aim of this study is to verify the feasibility of using Animal Fun with Italian pre-schoolers. 119 preschool children (3-6 years old) from 3 Italian kindergartens were included in this study. The schools were randomly allocated to intervention and control group. Movement Assessment Battery for Children - 2 (MABC-2) was administered to all the children at the baseline and at one-month follow-up. During this month, the schools assigned to the control group followed the normal curriculum; the schools assigned to the Animal Fun group, followed the Animal Fun activity (thirty minutes, thrice a week). The investigators expect that the Animal Fun program demonstrates valid and feasible even in the Italian context, where there is lack of movement program supporting the development of the pre-school children.

Conditions

Motor Activity

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change form Baseline Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 at 1 month follow-up

  This test is suitable for children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years, and assesses the motor skills of children in the following domains: Aiming and Catching (AC), Balance (Bal), and Manual Dexterity (MD). Cluster and total standard scores for children are provided, with higher scores demonstrating better performance. A total test score (Tot MABC-2) at or below the 5th percentile indicates significant movement difficulty, while a score between the 5th and 15th percentile indicates that a child is "at risk". In these tests, the items and the scores were compared to the normative data of the uploaded version of the Italian MABC-2.

  One month

Study Arms (2)

Animal Fun Group

EXPERIMENTAL

Baseline assessment with MABC-2; Animal Fun activity with a certified trainer (physiotherapist) for one month, three times a week, for 30 minutes; one-month follow-up assessment with MABC-2.

Other: Animal Fun Program

Control Group

NO INTERVENTION

Baseline assessment with MABC-2; normal curricular activity at school with the teachers; one-month follow-up assessment with MABC-2.

Interventions

Animal Fun Program OTHER

This program permits the operators to propose different activities, by following the needing of the children. As the name of this program suggests, all the activities involve an animal description, and ask the children to move like this animal, in a proper, correct and supervised way.

Animal Fun Group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• parents written informed consent
• attending one of the three involved kindergartens
• years old.

You may not qualify if:

• not-typically developing children
• children with specific sickness

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Trieste: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Trieste, Physiotherapy Degree

Trieste, 34100, Italy

Location

Related Publications (4)

• Piek JP, Straker LM, Jensen L, Dender A, Barrett NC, McLaren S, Roberts C, Reid C, Rooney R, Packer T, Bradbury G, Elsley S. Rationale, design and methods for a randomised and controlled trial to evaluate "Animal Fun"--a program designed to enhance physical and mental health in young children. BMC Pediatr. 2010 Nov 4;10:78. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-10-78.

  PMID: 21050483 BACKGROUND

• Piek JP, Kane R, Rigoli D, McLaren S, Roberts CM, Rooney R, Jensen L, Dender A, Packer T, Straker L. Does the Animal Fun program improve social-emotional and behavioural outcomes in children aged 4-6 years? Hum Mov Sci. 2015 Oct;43:155-63. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2015.08.004. Epub 2015 Aug 27.

  PMID: 26298689 BACKGROUND

• Piek JP, McLaren S, Kane R, Jensen L, Dender A, Roberts C, Rooney R, Packer T, Straker L. Does the Animal Fun program improve motor performance in children aged 4-6 years? Hum Mov Sci. 2013 Oct;32(5):1086-96. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2012.08.004. Epub 2012 Nov 24.

  PMID: 23186610 BACKGROUND

• De Oliveira JA, Rigoli D, Kane R, McLaren S, Goulardins JB, Straker LM, Dender A, Rooney R, Piek JP. Does 'Animal Fun' improve aiming and catching, and balance skills in young children? Res Dev Disabil. 2019 Jan;84:122-130. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2018.07.004. Epub 2018 Aug 4.

  PMID: 30087016 BACKGROUND

Related Links

• Website of Animal Fun Program

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Motor Activity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Officials

• Francesca Policastro, PhD

  Univerisity of Trieste

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Lecturer, PhD

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 7, 2021
• First Posted: January 19, 2021
• Study Start: January 7, 2019
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2019
• Study Completion: January 31, 2020
• Last Updated: January 19, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

IT (1)