Effects of exercise programs on an unstable support surface for motor ability of infants

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an exercise programs on an unstable support surface designed to develop motor ability in pre-school children. For 86 children (43 four-year-olds and 43 five-year-olds), we configured 10-weeks control period and 10-weeks exercise period. During the exercise period, we carried out an exercise programs on an unstable support surface. In this study, we used a JP cushion as an unstable support surface. The exercise programs were conducted for 12 days over a period of 10 weeks, for 30 minutes per day, under the instructor's guidance. All children were subjected to 2 measurements (height and weight) and 4 performance tests (foot balance, standing broad jump, side jump, hopping on unstable support surface ; HUS task) around the each period. We found that in standing broad jump, side jump and HUS task, the children performed remarkably improve during the exercise period. Second, interaction was found between the effectiveness in the HUS task and grade, however in other tests, no correlation was found between effectiveness and gender and between effectiveness and grade. From these results, as in the case of exercise on an unstable support surface, we get that the exercise programs on an unstable support surface was effective in improving the children's motor ability. Furthermore, the exercise programs are effective regardless of the differences in gender.