Difficult motor skill acquisition in 5 years old children can be modulated by educators

Introduction Expansion of affordances and acquisition of new possibilities for action depend on motor learning and development. Adolph considers affordances as continuous, probabilistic functions, representing an individual's likelihood of successful performance, across environmental increments. With this study we addressed the question of how the relation between educator and child in a difficult motor task, involving a process of expanding affordances, contributes to the acquisition of new possibilities for action [1] , [2] , [3] . Methods Sixty children 5 years old from 2 kindergartens in Treviso (Italy) were studied while performing structured and unstructured physical activity during one hour lessons at a common playground; frequency of lessons was 1/week and the total period of observation was for three months. Children of group A could rely on a teacher to get on a very difficult tool, a bar supported by two mobile springs; the teacher told them that they could jump down if they lost the balance or were scared of walking the bar. After the jump, they were encouraged to go up again at the same point of the bar. Children of group B received no help and were left alone to find out the best strategy to accomplish the task. Time and number of errors were measured and children were video recorded. Results At the beginning no children were able to climb on the bar. At the end of the 10 lessons, 20% only of the children of group B were able to climb on the bar by themselves, and none was able to walk. In group A, 80% of the children climbed on the bar by themselves, 17% requested help and three % could not climb. During free play, only children of group A used the spring bar. Conclusions The data indicate that teacher-mediated experiences promote child expansion of body scale and affordances. The data also suggest that successful experiences encourage autonomous child training thus further expanding perception of motor skill competence.