Effect of Participation in Educational Games Activity on Balance, Reaction and Agility in Children

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of participation of male primary school children between the ages of 7-8 in educational games on their time of balance and reaction. 28 male students between the ages of 7-8 and studying at a primary school in kayseri participated in the study voluntarily.14 of the students participated in the educational game activities 3 days a week as the experimental group, and other 14 was the control group and they did not participated in the educational game activities. in the study, hand and foot reaction test, balance test and agility test were performed as pre-test and post-test. after the pre-test measurements, the students participated in the educational games 3 days a week for 8 weeks and the post-test measurements were taken. statistical notation was stated by arithmetic mean and standard deviation. independent t test was used in comparing independent groups, and paired sample t test in dependent groups. significance level was taken as p<0.05. significant differences occurred in post-test measurements of hand reaction test, foot reaction test, balance test and agility test between the experimental and control groups (p<0.05). no difference was found between the pre-tests. while a difference was found between the pre-test and post-test measurement values of the experimental group in hand reaction test, foot reaction test, balance test and agility test (p<0.05), no difference was observed in the control group (p>0.05). participation in educational games is thought to have a positive effect on the hand and foot reaction times, balance and agility of the children at the ages of 7-8. especially educational institutions should determine educational game activities for children, parks where primary school children can play educational games should be built by municipalities, and children at this age group should be provided to participate in such activities.