Effects of the combined swimming, corrective and aqua gymnastics programme on body posture of preschool age children

Abstract

Introduction: This research paper is aimed at identifying the possible effects that the implementation of the combined kinesiological programs of swimming and hydro-kinesiological therapy may have on thebody posture in preschool children.Methods: The survey was conducted on a sample of 50 boys selected from a number of Sarajevo kindergartens, in the age group of 5.2±0.6 yrs.; mean height=114±7 cm; mean weight= 21.8±4.7 kg. In order to evaluate the postural status, we used a reduced Napoleon Wolanski method. The activities were carried out within the period of 16 weeks, twice a week for 60 minutes.Results: The analysis of the initial and fi nal series of testing with t-test indicates a high level of statistical signifi cance in the variables of shoulder posture assessment, shoulder blade posture assessment, spinalcord posture assessment, leg posture assessment, feet posture assessment, overall body posture assessment according to Wolanski, whereas somewhat lower level of statistical signifi cance was found in thevariables of abdominal posture assessment and chest posture assessment. A relatively low level of statistical significance is observed only in the variable of head posture assessment.Conclusion: It can be concluded that a combined program of corrective gymnastics with games and exercises in water had signifi cant effects on improving the muscle tone in the respondents, which in turn had a direct impact on improving their body posture, both in terms of all of the individually surveyed body parts and in overall terms.

Keywords

• Body posture, children's, swimming, corrective gymnastics, Hydro-gymnastics