The Effectiveness of a Program based on Cooperative and Competitive Games in the Development of Basic Motor Skills and Social Development among Pre-school Children in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of a program based on cooperative games and competitiveness in developing some basic motor skills and social skills for pre-school children in the Sultanate of Oman. The study employed an experimental research approach using Two-groups Pretest- Posttest design. The study was done on two groups of pre-school children aged 5-6 years from Al-Ruwad Private School in Muscat. The children were randomly selected from two classes with 25 children per class. The researchers applied the program based on the cooperative games and competitiveness for the experimental group, whereas the control group used the traditional teaching method. The tests measuring the motor skills and social skills were administered to both groups. Results showed the effectiveness of the program in developing the basic motor and social skills favoring the experimental group. The overall level of the social skills was high for the experimental group. The levels of the dimensions of the social skills measure ranged between moderate and high. In light of these results, the authors provided many recommenations.

Keywords

• Program of cooperative and competitive games, motor skills, social skills, the Sultanate of Oman.