The role of pre-school children motor behavior in developing their self-concept

The assessment of motor behavior and general intellectual abilities were performed on a sample of 42 pre-school children (22 boys and 20 girls) aged 6 (±3 months); moreover, the self-concept of those children was analysed. For the assessment of their motor behavior six movement tasks were chosen and the Mary Gutrich scale was applied for the analysis of the results. The children's intellectual abilities were assessed by the means of Raven's colored progressive matrices so as to enable the groups to homogenise, as well as to eliminate potential parasite factors when drawing conclusions. The self-concept analysis was performed using the pshychological interview during the course of which the children described their impression of their own abilities with regard to the past, present and future. The data related to the self-concept were complemented with the analysis of the children's drawings. The statistical analysis of the data gathered showed that motor behavior plays a significant role in developing one's self-concept, which is especially true of boys. Even though there is no significant statistical difference between boys and girls with respect to the quality of their motor behavior, there are significant differences between them pertaining to the vocabulary they use when describing their own selves, i.e. their self-concept, especially with respect to the present and future. Boys seem to use more extensive motor-related vocabulary when describing themselves, especially those with greater motor skills. Both boys and girls show a tendency to describe themselves as incapable in the past. When describing their present moment capabilities, girls tend to use vocabulary related to play and independence, whereas they mostly use vocabulary related to professions and sex roles when referring to the future. These findings indicate that social factors are of immense importance from a very early age, especially among girls. Moreover, the results show that drawings done by children with the weakest motor sills are rather symptomatic.