The purpose of this study was to investigate female pre-service preschool teachers' attitudes towards sport in relation to the variables of grade level, the state of having done sport in the past, the reason for not doing sport in the past, the state of doing sport regularly, the level of interest in sport and the existence of a family member…

This paper focuses on one aspect of a qualitative study concerned with investigating the place and meaning of "physical education" to practitioners and children at three preschools in Scotland. We examine the ways in which the participants engaged with discourses related to physical activity and health in order to construct their…

The "National Physical Activity Plan", as well as professional and government agencies (NASPE, 2008a; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2000) acknowledge pre-kindergarten (pre-K) children should be part of comprehensive school physical activity initiatives anchored in quality physical education programming. These…

This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a two minutes' additional stretching exercise program in a 30 minutes games teaching lesson in improving the flexibility level of 6 year old preschool boys (M = 5.92, SD = 0.27) in a preschool in Malaysia. Fifty (50) preschool boys were selected for the study based on the intact sampling…

Purpose: Children from disadvantaged settings are at risk for delays in their object-control (OC) skills. Fundamental motor skill interventions, such as the Successful Kinesthetic Instruction for Preschoolers (SKIP) Program, are highly successful when led by motor development experts. However, few preschools employ such experts. This study…

This paper provides an overview of selected academic research literature that underpins contemporary preschool physical education. We highlight and interrogate diverse rationales and beliefs that serve to influence and structure preschool physical education in various forms. We speculate as to how preschool practitioners and children might engage…

Background: Preschool physical education has been largely unexplored by researchers. This article examines the meaning of the term "physical education", in relation to preschool contexts, to 14 practitioners working at three preschool settings in Scotland. Our focus on preschool physical education reflects a change in the language…

There is a good argument that in order to truly understand the influences that shape child motor development, one must consider environmental influences that reflect the multilevel ecological contexts that interact with the changing biological characteristics of the child. Although there are theories typically associated with motor development…

While motor skills develop naturally among most typically developing preschoolers, young children with disabilities often experience deficits in this area. Therefore, it is important that children with disabilities are provided with "direct and intentional instruction" for motor skill development during the preschool years. One program…

This volume contains selected papers submitted to the 20th Jubilee Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES), conducted virtually in June 2022. The 20th BCES Conference theme is "Towards the Next Epoch of Education." The theme is focused on problems, discussions, changes, solutions, and…

Preschools offer two main opportunities, recess and physical education (PE), for preschool children to participate in physical activity (PA) and are considered a suitable institution for PA promotion given the large number of children enrolled. Although PE can have a meaningful effect on preschoolers' PA levels, preschool PE characteristics…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in children's social skills after their participation in a physical education programme named ESPEC ("Early Steps" Physical Education Curriculum). The evaluators of the children's social skills were the trained educators who implemented the curriculum as well as parents of the…

This brief focuses on Head Start children's developmental progress and kindergarten experiences, drawing on data from the 2009 cohort of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2009). The focal population is children who entered Head Start for the first time in fall 2009, completed one or two years of the program, and were…

Many parents wonder what they can do to ensure that their preschoolers will be successful when they enter school, especially now with so much emphasis on state testing and learning standards. Through play and everyday activities such as cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping, young children acquire the information and skills needed to learn more…

NAEYC, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, and the US Department of Health and Human Services all recommend that preschool programs offer physical education. There are many reasons why. First, young children form healthy habits early in life. Before entering elementary school they learn to brush their teeth, bathe…