Abstract
Introduction and aims: Involvement in a mixed cognitive and motor task can be difficult for preschool children, as in the case of the “figure eight” task (Sigmundsson et al., 2015), where children are asked to run as fast as they can along an 8-shaped trail with limited indications (only the two extremes of the number 8 and the crossing are indicated on the floor). The task has several levels of difficulties as children run at their best on a curved trail and they have to remember the path along continuously changing directions.
Methods: To investigate about variables that may influence comprehension and level of performance of the difficult task, we associated to the task a fantasy story. Accordingly, part of the children was told that they were birds that had to fly from their nest one one side of a mountain to catch food for their chicken, cross a river, arrive to and circumnavigate the other mountain, cross again the river and come back home. The mountains hosted a ferocious hawk who would kill any flying bird; but if the child would run very fast it would become invisible and could fly very safely and come back home with the food for the chicken.
Two groups of children of 4 and 5 years old were told the story; two additional groups of children of the same age were asked to run but were not told the story. We measured the time of execution of the correct task for the four groups.
Results: The impact of the story was positive and children run faster than their “unmotivated” peers. Interestingly, motivated 4 y old children run faster than 5 y old ones.
Conclusion: The data indicate that environment (including motivation, relationship with adult and peers) has relevant effects on motor performance in young children. The data also suggest that motor skill assessment in small children is strongly dependent on the context.