Effect of educational games on basic motor skill development of primary school students

This study investigates the effect of 12-week program consisting of educational games added to the present national education primary school curriculum on basic motor skill development. Study and control groups consist of 1., 2. and 3. grade students receiving education in Private Gökkuşağı Bahçeşehir School and Beylikdüzü Bizimkent Primary School in the school year of 2016-2017. The sampling method of the study is convenience sampling method. 59 children from study groups, 59 from control groups and a total of 118 children participated in our study. Study groups were made play educational games for 12 weeks. These games were applied to study groups for 3 days a week as 40 minutes. Short form of Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor Competence Test-second version (BOT-2) was used as measurement instrument. Measurements were received before and after the study process. As a statistical method, Shapiro-Wilk normalcy test was applied for determining whether or not the data obtained from children's Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor Competence Test measurements showed a normal distribution by using the SPSS 21.0 package software. In order to determine whether there was a difference between the data, a variance analysis (Repeated Measure Anova) test was applied at the level of α= 0.05. Besides, (Paired T-Test) statistical analysis was applied for revealing the difference between groups. As a consequence; in the light of study data, it was determined that 12-week educational games applied to primary school children positively affected their basic motor skill development. This development could be increased through paying attention to criteria like age, duration, frequency and intensity in studies. Keywords: Primary School, Basic Motor Skill, Educational Games