The effect of nonlinear pedagogy on motor proficiency and self-esteem of hyperactive obese girls

Introduction: Obesity and hyperactivity have links with various diseases and trying to eliminate the related problems is of importance. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of fundamental motor skills interventions wit non-linear pedagogy on motor proficiency and self-esteem in obese hyperactive girls in Tehran, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this study, twenty obese hyperactive girls were selected through convenience sampling in Tehran during summer-2018, and were assigned to control and experimental groups based on the scores in pre-test. In order to determine the obesity, charts from World Health Organizations were used. Campbell Scale and child’s health document, which usually is validated by a medical doctor’s comment, were utilized to evaluate hyperactivity. For measuring self-esteem, Cooper-smith Self-Esteem Inventory was used, and motor proficiency was measured using Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2. The experimental group fulfilled exercises for nine weeks (twice one-hour sessions). Motor interventions included bouncing with ball, jumping, long step, jump-up, kicking with foot, hopping, catching, running, and over-arm throwing, all done through non-linear method. The control group did the usual activities during the study. The data analyzed through descriptive statistics, covariance analysis and SPSS software. Results: The results indicated that the selected motor interventions in experimental group compared to control group had significant effect on self-esteem (F= 52.3, P=0.00), and motor proficiency (F=9.021, P= 0.008). Conclusion: It seems that interventions with non-linear method affect the elimination of problems of obese hyperactive children. This issue confirms the role of physical activity based on exploratory methods in eliminating the problems of obese and hyperactive people.