Preschoolers' time on-task and physical activity during a classroom activity break

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health
• Educational Psychology
• Kinesiology

Background:

• Preschool children often struggle with maintaining focus during instructional periods.
• Integrating physical activity into the classroom may offer a solution to improve attention and participation.
• Understanding the impact of short, structured activity breaks is crucial for early childhood education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the immediate effects of a 10-minute classroom-based activity break (AB) on physical activity levels and time on-task in preschoolers.
• To determine if ABs influence overall daily physical activity participation.
• To identify if ABs specifically benefit children who exhibit off-task behaviors.

Main Methods:

• A 4-day intervention in a preschool setting with 118 children (mean age 3.80 years).
• Two days included teacher-implemented 10-minute activity breaks (AB), and two days involved typical instruction.
• Physical activity was measured using accelerometry, and time on-task was assessed through direct observation.

Main Results:

• Activity breaks (AB) significantly increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during the break (29.7%).
• Following ABs, students demonstrated significantly improved on-task behavior, with the most off-task children improving by 30 percentage points.
• Days with ABs showed a higher percentage of school day MVPA compared to typical instruction days.

Conclusions:

• Teacher-implemented classroom activity breaks are an effective strategy to enhance preschoolers' time on-task immediately following the break.
• Short bouts of physical activity in the classroom can positively impact children's attention, particularly those most prone to off-task behavior.
• Classroom-based activity breaks contribute to overall daily physical activity, though increases in MVPA during the breaks themselves were marginal.