Does roller-skating sport improve motor abilities in pediatric population?

Sports offer a range of physical, psychological, social and cognitive benefits in adults as well as in children. In particular, in the latter, sport activities can foster the development of crucial motor and cognitive abilities such as postural control and concentration. For these reasons, it is growing the idea to exploit the inherent advantages of the sport both in children with typical and atypical development to improve their body functions or treat disabilities. Within the wide plethora of sports suitable for the pediatric population, roller-skating is an interesting complete sport, which involves all body parts and multiple motor abilities, such as coordination, balance, speed, and attention. In light of this, the study aimed to investigate roller-based sports as an enjoyable alternative for children to empower their coordination, balance and postural control. Does roller-skating training have effects on children's motor skills? Twenty-seven children (13 male, mean age: 8.08±3.04 years) with Typical Development or Special Educational Needs were recruited by voluntary participation from an inclusive skating school. Participants were tested with different tests before (T0) and after (T1) roller-skating training to evaluate the changes in their motor abilities. Specifically, the tests were: i) Movement Assessment Battery for Children – 2nd edition (MABC-2) to define the children's motor performance; ii) variables about skating technique, velocity, accuracy and coordination coming from field-test developed ad-hoc to identify the children skating level; iii) parameters related to the Center of Pressure (COP) and its antero-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) components obtained from the stabilometric balance platform of Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System (VRRS, Khymeia, Italy). The training consisted of two sessions per week (lasting 90 minutes each) performed for 24 weeks. The mean value and standard deviation for all test parameters were calculated and the statistical t-test was used to assess their differences at T0 and T1 timing. The t-test reports that significant differences occur between most parameters evaluated before and after roller-based training. Specifically, as regards the MABC-2 test, the standard scores and percentiles scores of both total and all subareas show high significance (p<0.001); as well as velocity (p<0.011), accuracy (p<0.002) and coordination (p<0.001) parameters of the field-test. Likewise, the total excursion and velocity of COP (p<0.001) and its ML component (p<0.004) at the VRRS appear significantly lower after training. Our findings prove considerable improvements in all aspects prompted during the training, by fostering both better postural control and movement dexterity, coordination and velocity. Therefore, roller-skating sports can be a valuable method for acting on children's abilities, also in terms of rehabilitation programmes, taking advantage of high motivation, involvement and a playful environment.