The Effect of Aquatic Training on Social-Emotional Skills and Gross Motor Development of Children Aged 3 to 6 Years

Introduction: Movement is a way of social communication of the child with other people in his life. By moving into the environment, the child gains various experiences, although his skills are not yet developed. This research aimed to investigate the effect of aquatic movement training on the development of social-emotional and gross motor skills of children aged 3 to 6 years old.Methods: The research was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and a control group design. The statistical population was made up of female preschool children in Faridan City, Isfahan province. 23 people were selected conveniently and were randomly divided into two experimental (n=12) and control (n=11) groups. The experimental group performed 16 sessions of 50 minutes of aquatic movement training in water for 8 weeks, and the control group performed their daily activities according to their usual programs. Both groups performed the third version of Ulrich’s Test of Gross Motor Development and the Social Skills Rating Systems by Gresham and Elliott (1990) under completely similar conditions in the pre-test and post-test. Data analysis was done by multivariate analysis of covariance at a significance level of 0.05 in SPSS version 26 software.Results: The results showed that the aquatic movement games significantly led to the development of gross motor skills (locomotors and object manipulation) and more social-emotional skills (cooperation, assertion, self-control, and responsibility) than the control group (p≤0/05).Conclusion: By providing an educational program of aquatics movement games, an opportunity can be provided for the development of social-emotional skills and gross motor skills of preschool girls.