Game-based motor coordination (GBMC): an innovative approach to early childhood development

Introduction: this research is a pilot study and will evaluate the impact of a new approach to early childhood development, Game-Based Motor Coordination (GBMC), on children's cognitive, affective, physical activity habits and motor coordination. Objective: a GBMC approach was used to evaluate the efficacy of an eight-week intervention. Methodology: A total of 112 students (aged 7 to 8 years) from two public schools participated. One school served as the intervention group (53 students: 27 boys and 26 girls) and one school served as the control group (59 students, 29 boys and 30 girls). Motor coordination was assessed using standardized tests (KTK3+) before and after the intervention. Results: further analysis of the group-by-gender interaction on hand-eye coordination skills (p = 0.01) revealed a significant improvement among boys in the GBMC intervention group compared to boys in the control group who received regular learning. Children in the intervention group showed more significant improvements in motor coordination compared to the control group in balance beam (ηp² = 0.16), jumping sideways (ηp² = 0.19), moving sideways (ηp² = 0.14), and eye-hand coordination (ηp² = 0.16). Discussion: Given the importance of well-developed motor coordination, early childhood education and physical education teachers in schools should be taught how to implement a GBMC model into their classes. Conclusions: The GBMC model effectively enhances motor coordination and is positively received by teachers involved in this study as an innovative method for supporting meaningful and structured physical education for low-grade students in Indonesia (ages 7–9).