Differences of Gross Motor Development of Early Year Children in

Swimming Activities

Taufik Rihatno

, Sri Nuraini

, Yufiarti

, Ahmad Syukri Sitorus

, Suharti

Dept of Physical Education, Jakarta State University, Rawamangun, Jakarta, Indonesia

Dept of Psychology, Jakarta State University, Rawamangun, Jakarta, Indonesia

Postgraduate Programs, Jakarta State University, Rawamangun, Jakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Swimming activity, gross motor development, early childhood education

Abstract: This study aims to determine the differences in gross motor development of children who take swimming

activities in school. This study used a survey method for 146 children aged 4-5 years in Jakarta. The data

collection technique uses observations on early childhood education institutions that have been randomly

selected. The results of this study indicate that children who take swimming activities have locomotor skills

of gross motor development better than children who do not take swimming activities in school. The

implication of this research is that swimming activities can be used as extracurricular activities that must be

followed by children aged 4-5 years in a school institution that provides a choice of swimming activities.

1 INTRODUCTION

Early childhood at a golden age has developed from

various aspects. The process of growth and

development of children cannot be separated from

each other. One important aspect that is easily

observed and influences other aspects of development

is motor development. Motor development is closely

related to gestures. Motor development is a process of

increasing a person's ability to move, movements

carried out by children are the result of interactions of

various parts and systems in the body that are

controlled by the brain. Motor development is divided

into gross motor and fine motor. The focus of this

study is on the gross motor development of children

aged 4-5 years.

Various activities can be carried out to stimulate

children's gross motor development. Among the

stimulation of motion is done by doing various

physical activities that train the movement of a child,

for example, running, jumping, walking, gymnastics,

swimming, and others. Swimming is one type of

water sport that can stimulate gross motor

development. Early childhood education institutions

provide programs that facilitate renewal activities for

their students. Swimming activities are included in

extracurricular programs that are not mandatory or

optional. So that there will be differences in the gross

motor development of children who take swimming

and those who do not.

Swimming programs at school provide

opportunities for children to exercise their abilities,

especially gross motor skills. The lack of adequate

learning facilities influenced negatively provision of

quality education (Chepkonga, 2017). Hurlock

revealed that motor development means controlling

physical movement through the activity of

coordinated nerve, nerve, and muscle centers. From

controlling the body above, it contributes to children's

motor development. Participation in physical activity

requires basic gross motor proficiency in early

childhood (Roberts, Veneri, Decker, & Gannotti,

2012).

Instead, children actively build skills to achieve

goals within the limits determined by the body and

environment. Nature and learning, children and the

environment, both works together as part of an

interconnected system. Motor ability, should not be

construed as static, but may be developed

differentially and changed through practice and

experience (that is, exposure to environmental

influences) (Hands & Mcintyre, 2018). The more

active and creative, the more children can develop

motoric development because motor development is

related to the child itself, the environment and

ongoing training

230

Rihatno, T., Nuraini, S., Yuﬁarti, ., Syukri Sitorus, A. and Suharti, .

Differences of Gross Motor Development of Early Year Children in Swimming Activities.

DOI: 10.5220/0009997100002499

In Proceedings of the 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education (SULE-IC 2018), pages 230-234

ISBN: 978-989-758-575-3

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Gross Motor Development

In the early years of childhood, a group of motor skills

known as fundamentals motor skills (FMS) who

children will begin to learn. Locomotor skills and

object control skills are part of FMS. Locomotor

skills involve moving the body through space and

including skills such as running, running, jumping,

jumping, sliding, and jumping. Object control skills

consist of manipulating and projecting objects and

include skills such as throwing, catching, bouncing,

kicking, attacking, and rolling. These skills form the

basis for future movements and physical activity (Ali,

Hassan, & Elazeim, 2017).

Gross motor skills are skills that involve large

muscle activity, such as walking, moving foot

coordination between the hands and eyes. Gross

motor (physical) skills are those which require whole

body movement and which involve the large (core

stabilising) muscles of the body to perform everyday

functions, such as standing, walking, running, and

sitting upright. It also includes eye-hand coordination

skills such as ball skills (throwing, catching,

kicking)(Kid Sense, 2017). According to Santrock,

gross motor skills are changes in the ability of motion

associated with large muscles, control of body

movements through coordinated activities as follows:

(1) nervous system, (2) muscle, (3) brain, (4) spinal

cord.

Gross motor skills are movements that involve

total movement and multi-limb movements, such as

walking jumping or swimming and shooting (Kid

Sense, 2017). Gross motor skills are movements that

involve all movements of limbs and limb movements,

such as walking, jumping, or swimming, shooting.

Skills have several functions, including: abilities

related to energy that has been released (activities

related to perception of the five senses), main

processes (organization, management, decision

making), results achieved (motor functions and

utilization of feedback) Functions and benefits

motoric, social, language, cognitive and moral skills

of children. When a child plays, he will get a lot of

experience and knowledge. The childhood experience

is prevalently acquired through games, and it makes

the transition from biological helplessness to cultural

superiority (Burac, 2015). The benefits gained in

playing and playing are very many, for example,

children can interact directly with other children,

make children responsible, make children happy and

happy, can hone children's imagination. The gross

motor skills have three dimensions they are

locomotor skills, non-locomotor and manipulative

skills (Mitchell & Fisette., 2016). The stages of gross

motor development proposed by Helen Bee are as

follows:

Table 1: The stages Locomotor skill of gross motor

development

Age Skill

18-24 months Run rigid (20 months),

climb the stairs with both

feet at each ste

2-3 years Run easily, climb and

descend the tables without

help, jump to the floor

with both feet

3-4 years Go up the stairs one foot

per ladder, jump on 2 feet,

walk ti

toe

4-5 years Go up and down the stairs

with one foot

Table 2: The stages Nonlocomotor skill of gross motor

development

Age Skill

18-24 months Push and pull the box or

wheeled, o

en the li

2-3 years Pull and push the big toy

around the groove, throw

it according to the target,

use the ar

3-4 years Pedalling and driving a 3-

wheeled bike, walking in

various directions, turning

around when throwing

usin

arms

4-5

ears Most bo

Table 3: The stages Manipulative skill of gross motor

development

e Skill

18-24 months Shows the dominance of

the hand, arranges 4-6

beams, turns the page,

takes objects without

losing balance

2-3 years Taking a small object,

using crayons, throwing a

small

all is stable.

3-4 years Starting to be able to

attach and remove

buttons, catch a large ball

by stretching your arms

and body, cutting paper,

holding a pencil

4-5 years Hit the ball, catch the ball

Differences of Gross Motor Development of Early Year Children in Swimming Activities

231

There are differences in gross motor development

based on gender. The boys performed significantly

better on individual object control skills and raw skill

(Aye et al., 2018). Gross motor development boys

better than girls. Preschool physical size in play area

affects children’s locomotor skills but not object

control skills (Chow & Louie, 2013). Children in the

kindergarten who have limited playing area, their

gross motor development is not optimal. The primary

needs of children in the early stages of development

are motor activity, active play, and exercise. Schools

can provide important arrangements for developing

motoric competencies and for promoting physically

active lifestyles through correct interdisciplinary

programs (Colella & Morano, 2011).

The critical to children’s development and

mastery of gross motor skills are on Preschool and the

early elementary school years. Teachers and parents

can identify the strengths and weaknesses of a child's

gross motor development. the earlier it identifies, the

better the results will be (Khalaj & Amri, 2014).

2.2 Swimming Activity in Early Age

Swimming is a movement activity carried out in

water. Early childhood who start learning swimming,

can move all their limbs. This is good for gross motor

development. Besides being good for gross motoric

development, learning to swim for early childhood

can also stimulate other aspects of development.

Children who learn to swim show early development

in: (1) Motor skills, (2) Reaction time, (3) Power of

concentration, (4) Intelligence, (5) Social behavior,

(6) Social interaction, (7) Self-confidence, (8)

Independence (Amelia, 2012).

When starting to learn to swim, children are first

encouraged to like swimming and condition their

peers in the group to like swimming too. Children

who glorify learning to swim with a sense of liking

will have the ability to swim better. As reported by

USA Swimming fondation (2017), if their best

friends enjoy swimming, then they will have a higher

level of swimming ability. The aspect of swimming

has a significant impact on the very young child

swimming ability (Irwin, Pharr, Layne, & Irwin,

2017).

In the process of learning swimming for early

childhood, the role of parents and teachers is

absolutely necessary. Children still need external

motivation from outside themselves to continue to do

swimming exercises. Parental factors have a strong

influence on the frequency of swimming in which

children engage (Pharr, Irwin, & Irwin, 2014).

3 RESEARCH METHOD

This study used a qualitative approach with empirical

inductive strategy. The data were collected from the

teachers and pupils based on real experience in the

form of either the speech or behaviours of the

respondents and existing field situations because this

study intended to find out the phenomena experienced

by the elementary school pupils.

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Based on observations locomotor skills of gross

motor development 146 children in institutions that

provide swimming activities can be seen in the table

below:

Table 4: Frequency children of Swimming Activity

Swimming Activit

Who take part swiming

activities

No take part swimming

activities

Table 5: Mean of observation score gross motor

development

Swimming Activity Mean of observation

score

Who take part

swimmin

activities

65.89

No take part swimming

activities

45.88

Table 6: Independent Samples Test

Table 6: Result of t-Test Group Statistics

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232

Table 7: Result of t-Test Independent Samples Test

The table above concluded that there are differences

between students who take part in swimming program

activities with students who do not participate in

swimming activities programs on gross motor skills.

In some studies, the effective function of motor

perception is very important to improve students in

three fields (cognitive include languange

development (Wang, Lekhal, Aaro, Holte, &

Schjolberg, 2014)(Londen, Juffer, & Ijzendoorn,

2007), affective and psychomotor) and also for the

development of motor skills. This ability must be

developed in the early stages of a child's life naturally;

this means this ability and can be achieved at the age

of 6 or 7 years if the child experiences normal

development (3, 4). In fact, almost every movement

is a kind of perceptual motor skills. Swimming

through games contributes to the development of a

balanced body and can be easily practiced by the

children who do not have a very good physical

condition and who usually don’t like motion (Burac,

2015). in early age (4-5 years) in order to teach

swimming is chosen a strategy (methods, materials,

resources, principles, rules, style, forms of

organization) able to fully exploit the underlying

motivations and personality of children (the pleasure

of play, playful behavior, the spirit of competition, the

need for movement, the need to socialize, etc.) then

the quality, efficiency and speed of swimming

learning are notably increasing (Giconda, 2013).

Human movements depend on the environment,

situation, and position. To develop perceptual motor

skills, the initial experience of the child's movement

has a special interest. Facilities can help promote a

positive workplace in an industry challenged to retain

experienced teachers (Gillman & The, 2007). The

number of educational facilities specialists will need

to increase so they can serve the regional and local

authorities entrusted with growing responsibilities for

implementing educational programmes (Beynon,

1997).

5 CONCLUSIONS

Gross motor development of children who take part

in swimming activities at school is better than those

who do not participate in swimming activities. This

means because of swimming can provide motion

stimulation so that it helps develop the gross motoric

development of children. Beside of that, facilities

have a very important role in early childhood. Early

childhood education institutions with various

facilities have the opportunity to give children

opportunities to move that do not directly stimulate

children's motor development.

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