The analysis of the arch of the foot in three-year-old children – a case of ljubljana

Movement activities in the preschool period represent an important factor in children’s development process and should therefore be given as much attention as possible. At the same time, attention must be paid to each individual child; the fact that is forcing us to continuously observe and consequently adapt the physical education process. Appropriate planning and a professional approach in the educational process can help us to recognize and solve children’s problems on time. One of the more frequent problems children have is flat arch of the foot. By means of plantogram evaluation, this research investigates the frequency of a fallen arch of the foot among three-year-old boys and girls. Flat feet have been evaluated using the Clark’s method. The sample of subjects included 127 children from 18 kindergartens in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It has been ascertained that 8% children had healthy, normal feet, 20% represented the flat foot borderline cases, and 72% children had flat feet. The results of the analysis of variance indicated that there was no statisti-cally significant difference between three-year-old boys and girls in the incidence of flat feet. We are of the opinion that one of the main reasons for such a high percentage of flat feet is that the development of the arch of the foot in some three-year-old children has not yet been completed. Despite that, it is important to note that we must enable children to perform a variety of movement activities on a daily basis since the development of motor skills is an important contributor in the locomotor system development, a part of which the feet are.