Pilot study on relationship between physical exercise and learning of reading and writing in primary school.

For the global growth of child it is necessary to take care of him/her in a comprehensive manner, considering his/her psychic, but also emotional and motor, sphere. The correlation between the various spheres of development is proved by the fact that deficiencies in a sphere can affect the other. Hence the importance of age-appropriate physical activity - especially in case of children in both physical and mental-motor development - which now seems a topic thoroughly discussed and understood by all. But does current school really give importance to the subject called "gymnastics"? Motor activity may be not a moment of relax, but a valuable aid to learning - this is our research’s focus. Screening aims to verify if a motor activity based on the development of basic motor patterns can improve the approach to reading and writing. We compared 90 children aged between 5 and 7 years, attending mixed classes of males and females, Italians and foreigners. Children were divided into two large groups, the first of which - 50 children - was the control group. It included children attending public primary school “Santa Maria Coverciano”, where motor activity is entrusted to the class teachers, who have no special equipment, nor a real gym, at their disposal. The experimental group, on the contrary, was consisting of 40 school children of the officially recognized (parity) primary school “Serve Maria Addolorata”. These children are supervised in their motor activity by MSc in Sport and Exercise Science, who accompanies them to the school gym, where activity is focused on the development of basic dynamic motor patterns, of body scheme, consolidating prior motor experiences and reinforcing specific skills. The purpose of the screening was to focus on interdisciplinarity of subjects, particularly motor activity and learning of written language. From now on, you can start considering motor intervention as an aid to learning.