Development of intellectual abilities of school children with the help of exercise Classics

Introduction: The problem of intellectual development of schoolchildren can be solved through exercises in physical education classes at school.

Objective: To determine the influence of exercise Classics on the development of intellectual abilities of schoolchildren aged 9-10 years.

Method: The study was conducted over a period of 9 months, in which forty 9-10 year-olds took part. Physical education classes were held twice a week, each lesson lasting for 40 minutes. The level of development of coordination abilities was assessed on the ‘Shuttle run’ test, and the indicators of intellectual abilities on the ‘Choose unnecessary’ test. The programs Bio-Stat 2009, Microsoft Excel 2016 and the student t-test were used for mathematical and statistical processing of results. There were 20 children (12 boys and 8 girls) in the Experimental group (EG) and 20 children (11 boys and 9 girls) in the Control group (CG).

Results:Before the beginning of the pedagogical experiment, the indicators of school children in the 2 groups were not significantly different (p>0.05). At the end of the study, the indicators in both groups improved. In the CG, in the ‘Shuttle run’ test, the indicators improved from 10.2±0.6 to 9.9±0.5 (p>0.05), and in the ‘Choose unnecessary’ test, the indicators improved by 5.1% (p>0.05). In EG, in the ‘Shuttle run 3x10’ test, the indicators improved from 9.9±0.5 to 8.5±0.4 (p<0.05), and in the ‘Choose unnecessary’ test, the indicators improved by 17.5%. These results indicate the education lessons in working with younger school children.

Conclusions: If at each lesson in physical culture at school, schoolchildren perform the exercise Classics, then the indicators of not only coordination, but also intellectual abilities of children will improve. This will significantly improve the quality of standard physical education lessons at school.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2021; 50(3): 442-447