The Effect of Physical and Music Education in the Development of Motor Skills in Children between Six and Eight Year-Olds in an Inclusive Environment

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the effect of the integration of music education and physical education programs on the development of locomotor skills in students who are between six and eight years old. Various activities were developed and implemented to assure the best quality of teaching in both academic subjects using 28 children –13 girls and 15 boys­. Fourteen children were in an experimental group and followed the integrated class of physical and music education for two months. The rest served as the control group and followed the physical education program, separate from musical education, for the same time period. Six of the fourteen students of the experimental group (42.9%) participate in the special education program. Fifty percent (3 of 6) of these participants have an ADHD diagnostic. Two students in the control group (14.3%) are also inscribed in special education but lack an ADHD diagnostic. Children’s level in locomotor skills such as walking-running, sliding, skipping and jumping were assessed with a rubric developed by both music education and physical education teachers. The results of this study showed an increase in the post-arithmetic means of both groups (control and experimental) in the skills previously mentioned. Furthermore, there were statistically significant findings in the post-arithmetic means of the experimental group when compared to the scores obtained during the motor skills pretest. Finally, when comparing the control group pretest and posttest scores, there was no statistically significant increase. These outcomes could be regarded as an effect of the treatment to which the participants of the experimental group were subjected