RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE USE OF PLAYGROUND FACILITIES AND PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN’S MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN KADUNA METROPOLIS

 The pre-school year is a period of so many developmental changes in the child. The child at this stage of life is faced with the challenges of coordinating his/her limbs, develop strength and perceptual skill, control posture and balance. The role that playground facilities play with regards to this, need, to be addressed. Therefore, the study titled “Relationship between the use of playground facilities and pre-school children’s motor development in Kaduna Metropolis” was aimed at assessing the relationship between playground facilities and the extent of motor development of pre-school child. Experimental research design using field experimental research design was employed for the study.

A sample of one hundred (100) children out of the twenty one thousand eight hundred and one (21,801) children and ten proprietors/proprietress and schools out of the hundred and two proprietors/proprietress and schools in Sabon Tasha division of the metropolis were used for the study. Observation score sheet and questionnaire were used to obtain relevant data. Collected data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Four Null hypotheses were stated and all were tested at 0.05 (P<0.05) level of significance. The tested null hypothesis (1) revealed that there was no significant relationship in the extent of motor development of preschool children who use playground facilities and those who did not. . Hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 revealed significant relationship in the use of some playground facilities for the development of specific motor skills. The observed probability were all lower than 0.05 which implied significant relationship. However, the study showed that majority of the proprietors/proprietress of private pre-schools in Kaduna metropolis fell within the middle age and were educated. The findings also revealed that some particular playground facilities were common to all the preschools. Researcher’s recommendations were that: (i) parents should ensure that they enroll their children into preschools that have adequate playgrounds equipments (ii) where they cannot afford to buy the equipment, parents should from time to time take their children to public playground centres so that they can utilize the facilities there (iii) Government at all levels should ensure proper supervision and monitoring of private preschools. The researcher concluded by stating that preschool curriculum should be designed in such a way that it will be play oriented so that preschool owners would have no alternative than providing the children with playground and adequate facilities.