Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions of Children’s Learning: Above and Beyond the Impact of Semi-Structured, Inclusive Motor Play Activities

With intentional adult guidance, all children have opportunities to learn new skills across developmental domains during motor play. We collected and analyzed 501 written responses from 16 preschool teachers regarding their perceptions of intervention outcomes across domains, based on their observations during the CHildren in Action: Motor Program for PreschoolerS (CHAMPPS) intervention. This 21-week class-wide, semi-structured motor program was implemented in eight inclusive preschool classrooms. The findings reveal that teachers noticed many positive changes in children’s social, communication, and pre-academic skills as well as their approaches to learning during the months when they implemented the CHAMPPS program. In addition to sharing data from this qualitative analysis, we discuss (a) the value of motor interventions and purposefully embedding learning opportunities across developmental domains for young children with and without disabilities, and (b) the benefits of gathering end-users’ perspectives as we collaborate with them to implement new interventions.