Perception of a Teacher-Tutor on Motor and Social Competence in Children's School. Intervention of a Motor Reinforcement Program

This paper describes a teacher-tutor's perception of Motor Competence , Social Relationships in pre-school children. The aim of this study was threefold: on the one hand, to find out whether the participating teacher-tutor was able to identify schoolchildren with motor and social difficulties. On the other hand, to analyse the impact of a Motor Reinforcement Programme on Motor Competence and Social Relationships in these schoolchildren. Finally, to find out if the teacher-mentor perceives the effect of the programme. The study involved the teacher-tutor and 6 schoolchildren with motor difficulties, with a mean age of 5.60 years (SD +/- 0.53). A mixed pre-experimental study was designed combining a quantitative approach for the Pre-Test and Post-Test measures and a qualitative approach to observe the behaviour of the participants. Motor competence was assessed objectively using the Motor Competence Assessment Battery (Mabc-2) (Henderson et al., 2007) and a Sociogram was conducted to assess Social Relationships. On the other hand, a questionnaire was given to the tutor-teacher. The results showed that the tutor-teacher, in general terms, detects among the students those who present motor and/or social difficulties in a very evident way. Likewise, the results show an improvement in the pupils in both variables. In conclusion, early childhood teachers, as one of the main agents of socialisation, can become a fundamental element in helping children to overcome motor and social difficulties.