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Effects of Stability Balls on Children's On-Task Behavior, Academic Achievement, and Discipline Referrals: A
Alicia Fedewa1, Matthew A C Davis2, Soyeon Ahn3
1Alicia Fedewa, PhD, NCSP, is Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington; alicia.fedewa@uky.edu.
Objective:
We used a randomized controlled design to investigate whether using stability balls during the school day was associated with higher levels of on-task behavior and academic achievement and fewer discipline referrals.
Method:
Over 9 mo, students in 2 second-grade classrooms in a southeastern rural elementary school used stability balls as chairs while students in 2 control classrooms used chairs as usual. We collected measures of on-task behavior, standardized measures of literacy and mathematics achievement, and discipline referrals.
Results:
We found similar levels of on-task behavior and achievement in treatment and control classrooms and a downward trend in disruptive behaviors in treatment classrooms.
Conclusion:
This study did not find use of stability balls for entire general education classrooms to be a practical use of resources for schools. More research with rigorous controlled designs is needed to support the use of stability balls for the general education population.
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