Effect of Core Stability Exercise on the Gross Motor Skills among 8-Year-Old Girls with Delayed Motor Development

The core stability exercises, as a new training method, have a great influence on the muscles of the abdominal and lumbar regions, related to the childhood motor development. In the present study, the effect of core stability exercise on the gross motor skills among 8-year-old girls with delayed motor development was studied.

A semi-experimental study with pre-test-post-test design was conducted on 20 female students (mean 8.05±0.02), selected based on the test of gross motor development scores measured via Ulrich test, and randomly assigned to experimental (n= 10) and control (n= 10) groups. The experimental group performed core stability exercises for eight weeks (three sessions of 45 minutes per week), and the control group did not receive any training program. After the training sessions, both groups performed the test of gross motor development and the data were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance at 95% confidence level.

The results showed a significant improvement in locomotor skills subscale of experimental group in the post-test (18.90±2.42) compared to the pretest scores (13.50±0.97) and the control group post-test scores (14.30±1.06). The same results were obtained for object control skills subscale and motor quotient score, so the object control skills in experimental group in the post-test (18.48±1.84) improved significantly compared to the pretest (13.10±1.20) and it was significantly higher than the level of skills in the control group in the post-test (14.30 ± 1.25). Also, there was a significant improvement in motor quotient score of the experimental group in the post-test (37.20±2.74) compared to the pretest (26.66 ± 1.49), and it was significantly better than the level of motor quotient of the control group in the post-test (28.60±1.83).

Based on the evidence, play-based core stability exercises can improve gross motor skills in eight-year-old girls with delay motor development.