TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of 8 weeks with embodied learning on 5-6-year-old Danish children's pre-reading skills and word reading skills: the PLAYMORE project, DK

AU - Damsgaard, Linn

AU - Nielsen, Anne-Mette Veber

AU - Gejl, Anne Kær

AU - Malling, Anne Sofie Bøgh

AU - Jensen, Søren Kildahl

AU - Wienecke, Jacob

N1 - © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of embodied learning on children's pre-reading and word reading skills. We conducted a three-armed randomized controlled trial including two intervention groups and one control group. One hundred forty-nine children from grade 0 (5-6 years old) who had just started school were recruited from 10 different classes from four elementary schools. Within each class, children were randomly assigned to receive teaching of letter-sound couplings and word decoding either with whole-body movements (WM), hand movements (HM), or no movements (CON) over an 8-week period. Children were evaluated on pre-reading, word reading, and motor skills before (T1), immediately after (T2), and after 17-22 weeks of retention period (T3) following the intervention. Between-group analysis showed a significant improvement in children's ability to name letter-sounds correctly from T1 to T2 (p < 0.001) and from T1 to T3 (p < 0.05) for WM compared to CON. HM and WM improved significantly in naming conditional letter-sounds from T1 to T2 (p < 0.01, p < 0.01) compared to CON and from T1 to T3 for the HM group compared to CON (p < 0.05). We did not find an effect on word reading or a correlation between motor skill performance and reading. Results from the present study suggest that there are beneficial effects of using whole-body movements for children. Hand motor movements indeed also had a performance effect on letter-sound knowledge; however, the whole-body movements had longer-lasting effects. We do not see an effect on whole word reading.

AB - The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of embodied learning on children's pre-reading and word reading skills. We conducted a three-armed randomized controlled trial including two intervention groups and one control group. One hundred forty-nine children from grade 0 (5-6 years old) who had just started school were recruited from 10 different classes from four elementary schools. Within each class, children were randomly assigned to receive teaching of letter-sound couplings and word decoding either with whole-body movements (WM), hand movements (HM), or no movements (CON) over an 8-week period. Children were evaluated on pre-reading, word reading, and motor skills before (T1), immediately after (T2), and after 17-22 weeks of retention period (T3) following the intervention. Between-group analysis showed a significant improvement in children's ability to name letter-sounds correctly from T1 to T2 (p < 0.001) and from T1 to T3 (p < 0.05) for WM compared to CON. HM and WM improved significantly in naming conditional letter-sounds from T1 to T2 (p < 0.01, p < 0.01) compared to CON and from T1 to T3 for the HM group compared to CON (p < 0.05). We did not find an effect on word reading or a correlation between motor skill performance and reading. Results from the present study suggest that there are beneficial effects of using whole-body movements for children. Hand motor movements indeed also had a performance effect on letter-sound knowledge; however, the whole-body movements had longer-lasting effects. We do not see an effect on whole word reading.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Embodied learning

KW - Pre-reading skills

KW - Word reading skills

KW - School children

KW - Grade 0

KW - Motor skills

KW - Whole-body movements

KW - Hand motor movements

U2 - 10.1007/s10648-022-09671-8

DO - 10.1007/s10648-022-09671-8

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35437341

VL - 34

SP - 1709

EP - 1737

JO - Educational Psychology Review

JF - Educational Psychology Review

SN - 1040-726X

IS - 3

ER -