Abstract
Aim: Motor skill competence is a primary underlying mechanism to promote engagemente in physical activity (Stodden, 2008) and to execute new tasks. Learning a motor task requires capacity to stay focuses, pay attention and activation of working memory, expecially if it is difficult (Diamond, 2016). Story telling
helps to develop executive functions and to be able to play attention.
Methods: We recently studied the effects of telling a novel to 4-5 year old children, teaching them a difficult task with cognitive engagement. Children of 2 kindergarten of northern Italy were in the study.
Methods One class of 4-5 year old children was given instructions usually provided to 7-10 year old children to execute a motor task (Sigmundsson et al. 2016, walking, running in slope); in another class the task was dramatized with a fantastic situation.
Results: Both groups understood the task but children scaffolded with the story executed the task more accurately and faster than children that received only standardized instructions.
Conclusions: for 4-5 year old children inserting a motor task in a fantasy novel improves understanding and remembering of the task resulting in more accurate and rapid execution of the task.