Strategy to encourage sports initiation from Physical Education in preschool childhood

Revista PODIUM, September-December 2019; 14(3): 337-354

Translated from the original in spanish

Strategy to encourage sports initiation from Physical Education in preschool childhood

Estrategia para fomentar la iniciación deportiva desde la Educación Física, en la infancia prescolar

Rasciel de la Caridad Zayas Acosta

Máster en Educación, Profesora Auxiliar. Universidad de Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca", Pinar del Río, Cuba. E-mail: rasciel.zayas@upr.edu.cu

Received: March 12^th, 2019.
Approved: August 30^th, 2019.

ABSTRACT

Physical Education is an area with potentialities through which the child expresses the level of motor, cognitive, affective, emotional and creative development achieved and plays an important role in the learning of motor actions or behaviors. The study takes into account the identification of needs in the educational process of Physical Education to encourage children in preschool childhood sports initiation with a playful approach, for this purpose, a didactic strategy is designed that contains educational, extracurricular activities and establishes interdisciplinary links among the different areas of the curriculum. The research process is carried out on a dialectical-materialist basis and methods of the theoretical, empirical and statistical-mathematical levels are used, such as: the documentary analysis, the interview, among others. The study involved 40 children from the fourth, fifth and sixth year of life and 10 educators working in preschool childhood in the municipality of Pinar del Río. The inquiries make possible to determine the regularities that distinguish the educational process of Physical Education in preschool childhood, as well as the needs of the educator to encourage sports initiation in said process. The didactic strategy allows the educator, from the educational process of Physical Education, to encourage sports initiation from the ludic and the development of motor and sports skills, from the projection of actions that contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of this process in order to achieve the maximum possible integrated development and preparation for adult life.

Keywords: Physical Education; didactic strategy; sports initiation; preschool childhood; ludic.

RESUMEN

La Educación Física constituye un área con potencialidades a través de la cual el niño expresa el nivel de desarrollo motor, cognitivo, afectivo, emocional y creativo alcanzado y desempeña un importante papel en el aprendizaje de acciones o conductas motrices. El estudio tiene en cuenta la identificación de las necesidades en el proceso educativo de Educación Física para fomentar en los niños de la infancia prescolar la iniciación deportiva con un enfoque lúdico, para lo cual se diseña una estrategia didáctica que contiene acciones de carácter educativo, extradocente y establece nexos interdisciplinarios entre las diferentes áreas del currículo. El proceso investigativo se realiza sobre una base dialéctico-materialista y se emplean métodos del nivel teórico, empírico y estadístico-matemáticos, tales como: el análisis documental, la entrevista, entre otros. Intervienen en el estudio 40 niños del cuarto, quinto y sexto año de vida y diez educadoras que trabajan en la infancia prescolar, en el municipio de Pinar del Río. Las indagaciones permiten determinar las regularidades que distinguen el proceso educativo de Educación Física en la infancia prescolar, así como las necesidades de la educadora para fomentar la iniciación deportiva en dicho proceso. La estrategia didáctica permite que la educadora, desde el proceso educativo de la Educación Física, incentive la iniciación deportiva desde la lúdica y el desarrollo de habilidades motrices y deportivas, a partir de la proyección de acciones que contribuyen al diagnóstico y al tratamiento de este proceso, en función de lograr el máximo desarrollo integral posible y la preparación para la vida adulta.

Palabras clave: Educación Física; estrategia didáctica; iniciación deportiva; infancia prescolar; lúdica.

INTRODUCTION

It is an aspiration of early childhood, in contemporary society, to achieve maximum integral development in children from zero to six years to develop in them freedom of thought, feelings, sensitivity and creative imagination, with a view to their preparation for life. In this sense, the area of Physical Education, in pre-school childhood, has as its premise the motor development, using the expressive, creative possibilities and the experience of the body as a whole for the full formation of the child, from the cognitive, affective, motor and attitudinal spheres; to form an active, independent subject, with flexible thinking and deep convictions, with possibilities of participating in the transformations that take place in Cuba.

The Ministry of Education, on the basis of the transformations and improvements taking place in all its subsystems, has considered physical education as one of the areas of study programmes within the curriculum of the early childhood education level. According to UNESCO (2015), an important part of it is the development of skills, attitudes and knowledge necessary for lifelong physical activity and sport (p.7), which allows education through movement. Its purposes are aimed at the formation of knowledge, skills, abilities, feelings and habits.

Children, in their Physical Education activity, transform their emotions into expressions, where their motor and creative faculties are distinguished, which are exposed in the work with the presport and sports activity throughout their lives in which they pour their spirit and project their individuality through the learning of motor actions or behaviours with a playful approach, as an essential way for the development of sport from an early age, providing them with the edification of motor competition and strengthening motor skills in each one of them.

In the children's context, a diversity of children was found, who must be guaranteed quality educational attention, in accordance with their needs and potentialities, with the aim of educating them in the principle of equality of human beings, in which they are cultivated and develop the desire to overcome obstacles, to know or face themselves and enjoy competition, channel the different motivations they have with respect to the practice of sports activity, which contributes to their overall development.

Within this heterogeneous range of early childhood children, which is divided into early childhood (0 to 3 years) and preschool childhood (3 to 6 years), few papers address sports initiation at this educational level. However, the majority of research on this subject is carried out from the age of seven, when children are already enrolled in school. In this study, it refers, in a punctual way, to preschool children from 3 to 6 years old, where the area of Physical Education becomes the first base of sports initiation, with a playful approach. To use this space, to promote it, is a necessity from the first ages.

These realities place the area of Physical Education before a great challenge, as a fundamental component, which has been part of the pedagogical and cultural development that takes place in the country, aimed at motor development, biological and social structure, the development of skills, capacities, aptitudes, to achieve physical recreation for children, through a playful approach to prepare the new generations of preschool children. All this favors their healthy and harmonious growth, in correspondence with the conditions of society and the transformations imposed by the contemporary world.

The above mentioned elements lead to assume positions that demand new changes in the attention to preschool children, the strengthening of the area of Physical Education as an alternative solution to encourage sports initiation with a ludic approach, where they are integrated to learn and develop, which satisfies their needs and potentialities to contribute to the development of their personality in its entirety, as it becomes an important source to contribute to the personal growth of children, preschool childhood.

Idea that finds its support in the Agenda 2030 and the "Life Project". Within their goals, they dedicate an important space to the practice of sport, from the ludic phase to the programmed actions that make possible the free access to nature, that, from early ages, can and must take the preschool child to a sustainable and human development. For this reason, a pertinent topic is addressed: sports initiation with a ludic approach, from preschool childhood.

As can be inferred from this study, it is important to cultivate as much as possible all the child's motor experiences, from the earliest ages, where the programmed activity of Physical Education becomes the ideal space to achieve this purpose and achieve its integral development.

According to Agrelo, O. et al., (2013):

"To take advantage of the richness of movement of each stage, the motor experience and the imitation of actions carried out by older children to carry out activities more linked to pre-sport skills related to football, pelota, volleyball, athletics and other sport”. (p.57)

At present, the limits in the development of sports initiation, from the area of Physical Education with a ludic focus, are not firmly established, they are going to depend directly on the suitability of early stimulation and educational programs and on the evolutionary development of the child, where according to Luscher, (1992, as quoted in Gomez, (2016),

"The formation of motor functions is related to age (neuromuscular possibilities and functions of the cerebral cortex), to individual particularities and to the motor experience of those who are in the process of exploration". (p.2)

In this sense, Antonione, (2013), states that the objectives of sports initiation among children aged three and four are "to experience sports initiation through play, to provide themselves with the motor autonomy that will allow them to adapt and to create common, organising and transferable principles for any future sport". (p. 49).

For Gómez, (2016), the fear of early sports specialization must give way as the child sportsperson must have adequate sports, psychological, motor and social preparation. The ludics plays a significant role in the appropriation of movements, techniques, and tactics for an athlete. It is convenient to articulate the playfulness to the training of the children and young people. (p.52)
The term sports initiation has been approached by various researchers with different classifications as a more integral and multisport activity and more specific initiation to the practice of chosen sports; as well as, in some cases as an educational sport and, in others, with elitist criteria.

In this sense, the researches of Hernández (2001), Blázquez (1999), Antonione (2013) and Gómez (2016), among others, stand out.

Taking into account the plurality of terms, in function of defining the same process, the term of sports initiation is assumed, as stated by Blázquez, 1986, quoted in Gómez, (2016), when he defines it as "the period in which the child begins to learn in a specific way the practice of one or several sports". (p. 10)

These criteria indicate the variety of elements in motor exercise and learning achieved from an early age. Therefore, in the final result of this process of sports initiation, greater significance should be given to recreational activities and not to sports specialization for discovery and the advances they achieve in order to innovate, in terms of building the child's motor skills and strengthening the motor skills in each of them, the desire to overcome obstacles, to get to know or face oneself and enjoy competition, where levels of help from educators and other educational agents acquire an important place. It is in the playful activity where the preschool child expresses his feelings, emotions, ideas and points of view, related to his experiences.

In line with the above, research of Antonione is highlighted, (2013), he thinks

“…the process of sports initiation in preschool childhood is related to play, to endow with motor autonomy that will allow to adapt and create common, organizing and transferable principles in any future sport. To do so, it must rely on the three stages of play: the sensorimotor, exploratory and symbolic. It also seeks to develop specific skills such as flexibility, strength, speed and endurance and coordination skills, including movement coupling, motor differentiation, movement transformation, rhythm, spatial-temporal orientation, reaction and balance”. (p.45)

It is for this reason that, in early childhood, preschool children are offered, from Physical Education, contents linked to the body and the motor, with a ludic approach that helps their personal and social growth, through the development of basic motor skills and coordination capacities, the creation and enjoyment of diverse games, making them incomparable human beings.

In this sense, sports initiation in preschool childhood is considered as a process that allows the child to acquire a group of skills and presports valences in a conscious and systemic way, from a ludic approach, which stimulates, in an elaborate and effective way, their thinking and imagination, to the practical representation of motor learning, taking advantage of its experiences according to its psychological and biological characteristics, the variability of its development, its levels of learning and degree of individual intellectual functioning, with the help of the affective relationships of the educators and other educational agents.

It is revealed the need to provide pre-school children with the necessary practical tools to enable them to carry out pre-sport activities, this contrasts with the limitations detected in the educational process of Physical Education that hinder its integral development, conditioned by the insufficient didactic-methodological procedure of the educators and other educational agents.
That is why, starting from the mission of early childhood as the first link within the national education system in Cuba, strategies are conceived in the educational process, potentially solid, transforming, oriented to different types of content, with an organization from the didactic-methodological point of view that allows taking into account the particularities of preschool children, integrating them into their training.

In this sense, the studies carried out make it possible to identify limitations in the direction of sports initiation in preschool children, from the educational process of Physical Education, taught by the educators. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance their development as part of the comprehensive educational care provided to these children.

Taking into account what has been proposed and based on the studies carried out, the author seeks to respond to the needs found in the direction of sports initiation in preschool children, from the educational process of Physical Education, for which it is proposed the design of a didactic strategy, which includes educational actions, extracurricular and interdisciplinary links are established between the different areas of the curriculum.

The didactic strategy to promote the development of sports initiation in preschool children, from the educational process of Physical Education, constitutes the path defined to adapt a system of coherently organized sequential actions, which allows the implementation of immediate operations to what it is proposed to achieve in the long term, allows, in addition, the transformation of the process, by taking into account the work with the components of leisure activities, taking advantage of the link with the educational and extracurricular activities, directed by the educator; in addition, it should promote the development of basic motor and pre sport skills.

The developed actions are inserted within the current improvement of the curriculum, where it has been considered opportune and necessary the approach to the different components of the ludic activities, related to the sport initiation and, within them, presport activities, as a way to influence the educational process of the children in the preschool childhood. This constitutes one of the manifestations of Physical Education with which the child is frequently related. All of this has an impact on the achievement of the end of early childhood, by promoting the maximum possible integral development of the child, which allows them to face their social life with levels of independence.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A pedagogical study is carried out, based on the dialectic-materialist method. Methods at the theoretical, empirical and statistical levels are used, as well as two working groups made up of 40 children in the fourth, fifth and sixth years of life and ten educators working in pre-school children in the municipality of Pinar del Río, which constitutes 100 per cent of the declared population.

Among the methods used, they stand out: the historical-logical, which makes it possible to go deeper into the background and current trends of the object being researched; the documentary analysis, which includes the early childhood model; the working strategy of children's institutions; the Physical Education programs, with the purpose of ascertaining how the educational process of Physical Education has been treated in the various normative and didactic documents; the interview to the educators, with the purpose of checking their preparation to insert the contents related to the sports initiation in preschool childhood and to harmonize the didactic components in function of the Physical Education; the observation to the programmed activity of Physical Education that allows to diagnose the object, as well as to verify the results in the practice of the didactic strategy.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Taking into account the results of the methods, techniques and instruments applied in ascertaining the problem, they are identified as main limitations:

Even though the educational work of educators with preschool children is recognized, from the early childhood model, the educator is not mentioned as an important educational agent for the development of sports initiation, from Physical Education.
In the working strategy of children's institutions, there are limitations in the design of actions to develop sports initiation, taking into account the components of recreational activities and evidenced in the projection of pre-sports activities.
The conception of sports initiation, taking into account the components of ludic activities, lacks precision or methodological orientations for the development of this process in preschool childhood from the normative documents, particularly in the Physical Education programme.
Limitations in the theoretical and didactic-methodological in the educators during the educational process of the Physical Education, taking into account the components of the ludic activities for the direction of the sport initiation.
The methodology used does not propitiate a sequence of actions aimed at the development of a work method that guarantees the sports initiation with the use of the components of the ludic activities.
Limitations and insufficiencies in the cognitive as far as presport activities are concerned, as well as in the preparation of these activities in the work carried out.
Affectively, there are difficulties in relation to the experiences and the level of group assimilation that allows the offering of help for the solution of the pre-sport activities because they do not always use the components of leisure activities from Physical Education, related to sports initiation and do not accept the help of others.

A didactic strategy is proposed as a solution to the analyzed problem, assuming the definition of Valle, (2012), who considers it as "the set of sequential and interrelated actions that, starting from an initial state and considering the proposed objectives, allows directing the development of the teaching-learning process in the school". (p.159)

In the particular case, this didactic strategy is aimed at transforming the educational process of Physical Education in pre-school children, by taking into account the work with the components of the play activities for the direction of the sports initiation and taking advantage of the link with the educational and extracurricular activity, which, directed by the educators, promote the development of the presport activities.

The didactic strategy is developed in an ascending sense that starts from the needs as for the educational process of Physical Education and, within it, the development of the sports initiation from the components of the ludic activities in the preschool childhood; it also expresses, in addition, the more general social aims to reach and emphasizes in the main objective of its implementation that is broken down in actions, on the basis of which it is possible to carry out its evaluation.

For the structuring of the proposal, the criteria of Armas y Valle (2011) are taken into account in their work on the results of scientific research, where they state that the strategies have the following aspects: introduction-foundation, diagnosis, general objective statement, strategic planning, instrumentation and evaluation.

Next, the fundamental structural components of the didactic strategy designed are described.

Introduction-fundamentation

To establish the principles that govern the didactic strategy, it is considered pertinent to take into account the didactic principles that have been approached by several authors, where they stand out: Labarrere, and Valdivia, (2009), Zilberstein, & Silvestre (2002), Addine, (2004) and those given by Ruíz, A. (2012), on Physical Education, as well as the principles of the early childhood education plan (2017), elaborated by the Ministry of Education in Cuba.

The system of principles on which the didactic strategy to promote sports initiation is based, from the components of ludic activities in pre-school children, through the use of Physical Education in the educational process, is elaborated on the principles of early childhood. These manifest the areas of development for the improvement of the curriculum and the principles of the methodology of Physical Education and express the bases of physical culture in the direction of the educational process, in addition, they are restructured according to the characteristics of the object being researched.

Principle of the ludic approach to sports initiation

This ludic principle, from the initiation of sports, puts children and their training needs at the centre of the educational process, it serves to relate, collaborate and share; in addition, it provides benefits of a cognitive, affective, motor, social type and the acquisition of habits and attitudes that strengthen their abilities, improve their physical condition; but, above all, that achieve the consolidation and improvement of their basic motor skills, of coordination abilities; it allows for the development of pre-sport activities and the promotion of multiple learning. It is a resource for sports initiation in preschool childhood and that the educator must know, because it develops, in the child, ideas, concepts, supportive and responsible attitudes, as well as respecting and accepting individual differences, way of being, relationships with others, seeking the possibility of having fun, self-realization and encourage creativity.

That is why play constitutes a method that, systematically directed from Physical Education, guarantees, in a more solid way, the social and cultural formation and the development of the child, that promotes the transformation and the behavior of the subject in the knowledge, doing, being, living together and leads to a process of appropriation of culture.

Principle of attention to diversity to encourage sports initiation

The application of this principle means guaranteeing a differentiated and personalized attention to each child, taking into account the biological, psychological and social characteristics, as well as the rhythm of learning, their levels of assimilation and their experiences. For this, it is important to diagnose each child.

Principle of formative character and developing sports initiation

The purpose of sports initiation, pedagogically conceived, structured and organized, is to guarantee the development and integral formation of children, which means that it does not focus on the transmission of basic motor skills, but on the stimulation of different presport activities and games adapted to achieve the development of children. It must be considered in the direction of the process of sports initiation, the unity of the cognitive, the affective, the motor and the social to achieve an integral development of personality.

Diagnosis

Its purpose is to determine the potentialities and limitations in the direction of sports initiation, from the components of ludic activities in preschool childhood, in the educational process of Physical Education.

The diagnosis of the real state, which presents the object of research, allows the verification of the insufficient development of the educational process of Physical Education in preschool childhood, with the purpose of planning tasks or actions for the direction of the sports initiation, from the ludics, taking as a starting point the development of predeportive activities, hierarchizing the analysis of the fulfillment of the dimensions and the indicators determined for its evaluation.

Actions

To characterize children's institutions and pre-school children of fourth, fifth and sixth year of life with the educational context in which the direction of the sports initiation takes place, from the educational process of Physical Education.
To identify the sports facilities of the community and the characteristics of the sports activities that are carried out, as well as the recognition of glories of the sport.
To make instruments for the application of the diagnosis.
Execute the diagnosis through the instruments.
To study the results obtained in the diagnosis.
Identify the needs of preschool children.

The characterization is aimed at the precise knowledge of preschool children, from the cognitive, the affective, the motor and the attitudinal. Knowing their motivations, needs and interests is of great help to channel the proposal.

The diagnosis of preschool children is aimed at knowing the limitations and strengths they have, from the educational process of Physical Education, taking into account the cognitive, affective, motor and attitudinal to develop predeportive activities with a playful approach.

The determining components for the educational process of Physical Education must be taken into consideration, such as: the contents received, the willingness to face them, reflection on a given situation, flexible and open motor skills, the degree of intellectual functioning, participation in the different pre-sport games and activities, the development of basic motor skills and coordination capacities, independence, creativity and behaviour in the group.

These aspects must be taken into account in the planning of educational and extracurricular activities and in the stimulation of the process of sports initiation from ludic. The diagnosis must be permanent in order to see how this process is being perfected in children and, accordingly, to introduce, vary or rearrange the corresponding actions in the strategy.

Activities designed for the diagnostic stage

In the development of planned activities, educators and other educational agents may be asked to participate with them. These activities should be flexible and open, simple and short, so that they can express the emotions they produce and what they liked the most. These activities can be discussed in the group and then, above all, those activities that they liked the most, taking into account the established levels of help.

Them are shown videos of pre-sports and sports activities so that they can observe them carefully for a few minutes, so that later they can carry them out freely, giving them levels of help and taking into account what has been observed. This activity can be done individually or collectively.

This type of activity allows preschool children to express freely, in a creative and ludic way, their points of view and the criteria related to the sensations awakened in them by the pre-sports and sports activities in question. These activities are full of a lot of individuality, which propitiates a diversity of motor expressions, related to the same action, demonstrating the polysemic character of the presports activities; for this reason, it is necessary to propose to the educators and other educational agents, the demonstration as a form of deepening in order to be able to understand these activities.

It is convenient that the preschool child does not feel evaluated, but that the diagnosis is part of the observation of the activity that he carries out.

Responsible: educators and other educational agents.
Execute: educators and other educational agents.
Participants: preschool children from the municipality of Pinar del Río.
Instrumentation moment: first fortnight of September.

Overall objective of the didactic strategy

Encourage the initiation of sports from the components of ludic activities in preschool childhood, through the use in the educational process of Physical Education and other spaces that exist in children's institutions and the community.

Strategic planning

It makes it possible to plan strategic actions that contribute to promoting sports initiation from the components of ludic activities in preschool children, from the educational process of Physical Education in the municipality of Pinar del Río.

At this stage, it is fundamental to define short, medium and long term goals or objectives that allow the transformation of the object, from its real state to the desired state. Planning by stages of the actions, resources, means and methods that correspond to these objectives.

Short-term actions

To study the theoretical presuppositions of the proposed didactic strategy.
To know the dimensions and indicators with which the sports initiation is measured from the components of the ludic activities in the preschool childhood.
To analyze the model of early childhood, determining the end and objectives, the protagonism of the preschool child, in the educational process of Physical Education and in individual, collective, social, family and community activities.
To determine, together with the group of educators, the interdisciplinary relations of Physical Education and the possibilities for the treatment of sports initiation from the components of leisure activities, from the didactic strategy.

Responsible and executor: educators and other educational agents.
Participants: educators and other educational agents.
Instrumentation moment: last week of September.

Medium term actions

To train educators and other educative agents about who act as mediator on the development of planned actions that are part of the didactic strategy. It is wanted to know their criterion about the planned actions in the strategy and inform the diagnosis results obtained in the preparatory stage.

To establish didactic, semantic and operative links from:
The educative process of the Physical Education as rector component.
The objective and contents of the sport initiation from the ludic components through the interdisciplinary activities establishment (it includes the study of curricula, methodological orientations, text books and different articles).
The objectives and contents for the treatment of the sport initiation, from the ludic activities components that are developed from the Physical Education educative process.
To establish the links with the potentialities of the community, from the physical culture integrative perspective to encourage the sport initiation, from the ludic activities. This includes:
Sport institutions: sport areas and complexes, chess academies, community school centers and community projects.
Exchange with sport glories and coaches of the locality.
Responsible and executor: educators and other educative agents.
Participants: children at fourth, fifth and sixth years of life, educators and other educative agents.
Implemetation period: first semester.

Long term actions

To determine limitations and strengths of the didactic strategy.
To propose the necessary adaptations by the educators and other educative agents for the didactic strategy improvement.
Identify other information sources that could complement the didactic strategy.
Responsible y executor: educators and other educative agents.
Participants: children at fourth, fifth and sixth years of life, educators and other educative agents.
Implemetation period: 2018-2019 school year.

Implementation

It is aimed at the realization of different actions designed in the strategy planning.

The didactic strategy implementation is designed for two moment: the first is directed to what the educators and other educative agents should know to encourage the sport initiation, from the ludic activities components, as well as the provision of the necessary resources and means for the implementation. In the second moment, it is emphasized the implementation of the didactic strategy in the educative process.

All this is aimed at knowledge the educators and other educative agents should have to encourage the sport initiation, from the ludic activities components, taking into consideration the actions proposed by the didactic strategy, the provision of necessary resources and means for its implementation, besides the structure for the application in the educative process in the preschool childhood, in order to develop the sport initiation, from the ludic activities and the Physical Education.

Once it is known the main elements to trait the sport initiation, the educators and the other educative agents are prepared to structure the different workshops, having the child of preschool child as a principal axe.

Stage 1. Preparation of the educators, other educative agents and preschool childhood boys and girls. Provision of resources and means

Objective: to prepare the necessary conditions for the strategy application, starting from the diagnosis results.

This stage is essential for the educators and other educative agents to comprehend that the strategy is aimed at promoting, in an integrative and interactive waythe ludic activities components in the preschool childhood. It shoud be developed by educators and other educative agents that work with the children to get an adequate development of the proposed educative and extracurricular activities.

Actions

The actions are carried out as part of the methodological preparation that takes place in children's institutions during the established hours.

Bring together educators and other educational agents who are identified with the research process and were consulted for their views on planned actions.
Inform the educators and other educational agents of the results obtained in the diagnosis during the preparatory stage.
Analyze with the educators and other educational agents the actions to be carried out during the implementation of the strategy.
Prepare the educators and other educational agents regarding the educational process of Physical Education, in particular, about sports initiation, taking into account the components of ludic activities, as well as those related to curricular adaptations in the context of early childhood.
To prepare educational agents in relation to the components of ludic activities, from the beginning of sport, as well as the importance of pre sport activities and their incalculable value in the physical, psychic and emotional development of these children.
Coordinate the exchange with the members of the sports teams. To take advantage of the different spaces characterized within the educational and extracurricular activities.
To use the complementary material elaborated (manual of procedures to foment the sports initiation, from the components of the ludic activities).
Use new technologies to promote sports initiation from the components of leisure activities.
To analyze the objectives and contents established in the Physical Education programs for preschool children.

From the information they provide, they must:

Determine and prioritize objectives and content (knowledge, skills and values)
Determine the ways out of what has been previously extracted, in relation to educational and extracurricular spaces and forms of organization.
To select open motor skills, the dynamics of games, coordination skills and pre-sport activities that suggest actions, on the part of the children, contributed by the didactic strategy proposed in this study.
To research the existence of updated information and materials in the different educational institutions (children's institutions) and sports institutions (Inder and Physical Culture Centre, among others), related to Physical Education in pre-school children and sports initiation, from ludic activities, especially in the locality.

Determine the resources and means to be used:

Complementary material (manual of procedures to promote sports initiation from the components of ludic activities), which is proposed as part of the didactic strategy itself.
Places of interest in the environment (community sports institutions), where pre-school children can carry out their pre sport activities.
Technological means: television, computer and videos.
Other media: voice, human body and sports materials.
Other resources and means to be chosen according to the initiatives of the educators and educational agents and the real possibilities of the child with whom they work.
Coordinate with the people involved (educators and educational agents and others who are necessary for the design of activities through joint methodological preparations).
To guide and control the development of children in pre-school childhood, based on each of the proposed pre sport activities. He/she must be able to change, modify or vary some action of the didactic strategy, in correspondence with the reality of the educational context of these children.
To develop the sports initiation from the ludic activities, having clarity as for the scope of the objective of each planned pre sport activity. In this way, its development can be adequately measured and systematized into new activities.
Responsible and executor: educators and other educational agents.

Stage 2. Implementation of the didactic strategy in the educative process

Objective: to develop the different actions designed in the planning of the strategy.

This stage is carried out by the educators and other educational agents and the children, in order to achieve the development of sports initiation, from ludic activities.

Planning must be conceived on the basis of the integral conception of the educative process that establishes the model of the improvement of the current early childhood. For this requirement, educators and other educational agents must take into account that Physical Education, in the context of early childhood, is considered as one of the essential lines within the curriculum so that, based on their basic knowledge, they can enter the broad world of sports initiation.

All actions are related to some of the explicit and implicit contents of the program of presport activities, with different degrees of difficulty, with the first of the reproductive, applicative and creative levels for the development of sports initiation. In this way, the educator has clarity to conceive the objectives of the presport activities and other activities that she plans.

It is important to emphasize that any process of sports initiation, from the ludic activities in pre-school childhood, must be conceived in correspondence with their capacities, degree of intellectual functioning, variability of their development, needs and potentialities, since these indicate how to select, organize and direct the pre-sport activities.

These actions condition the educators, together with other educational agents, for the coherent determination of diverse resources that make possible the orientation of the child towards the sports initiation, from the demonstration of the activities.

Actions

Take advantage of the information provided by the experiences of the family and community environment, videos, among others, where they are used and recreate behaviors that can generate situations that lead the child to express himself motorly, where the contents treated are linked and they are given continuity in other activities.

To use the potential offered by the Physical Education programs and their relation with the pre-sport activities to promote the sports initiation.

Carry out pre-sports activities designed for preschool children.

The modeling of these activities is organized as part of a manual of procedures to promote sports initiation, from the components of ludic activities.
Instrumentation moment: second fortnight of February.

Each stage of the didactic strategy is evaluated in a systematic way, as well as the fulfillment of its actions based on the established requirements. Finally, the achievement of the objectives is verified in correspondence with the results, according to the dimensions and their indicators.

A group of 26 experts, which lead to the following conclusions, carries out the theoretical validity of the didactic strategy

The 92.3 % (24) of the experts recognize the theoretical aspects underpinning the teaching strategy as very adequate and fairly adequate and 7.6 % (two) as adequate.

As for the aspects and actions developed in the teaching strategy, 96.1 % (25) think that these are very adequate and quite adequate, while 3.8% (one) classifies it as adequate.

The aspect that measures if the practical implementation of the didactic strategy contributes to the educative process Physical Education and promotes the sports initiation from the ludic one, favors the achievement of the social commission in the preschool childhood, 88.4 % (23) of the experts say that it is very adequate; 3.8 % (one) considers it as quite adequate and 7.6 % (two), adequate.

On the other hand, the experts consider that the proposed didactic strategy, in its entirety, is novel and manages to coherently combine the theoretical and methodological aspects in its dialectical unit; these aspects emanate from the interactions that are manifested in the educative process Physical Education and sports initiation, in preschool children.

The suggestions and recommendations made by the experts were taken into consideration. They are addressed to:

The need to make explicit how to operate in practice, with the possible instruments to be used by the educators.
To perfect the scheme of the didactic strategy for its better implementation in practice.

The suggestions mentioned above are taken into account and were included in the final variant of the proposed didactic strategy, which was applied to children in the fourth, fifth and sixth years of life in the municipality of Pinar del Río.

The essential aspects analyzed, in function of theoretically demonstrating the didactic strategy, make it possible to determine that the educative process of Physical Education contributes to promoting and developing sports initiation, to self-realize, to look for the possibility of having fun, of self-discovery and of personal reaffirmation of preschool children, propitiating their creativity; It also respects and accepts the individual differences that typify this process since it guarantees, in a more solid way, the social and cultural formation and the development of the child, which promotes the transformation and the behaviour of the subject in the knowledge, doing, being and living together, and also leads to a process of appropriation of the culture.

The limitations related to the existence of theoretical-methodological insufficiencies in the educative process of Physical Education, to develop the sports initiation, on the part of the educators of the preschool childhood, impact in the learning of the children, because it shows low levels in the use of the basic motor skills, varied games, as well as at the time of expressing their motor experiences, from the programmed activity of Physical Education and the levels in relation to the group assimilation that allows the offering of help for the solution of the actions.

The systemic and dynamic articulation, between the aspects of the strategy, means a basic condition in the educative process of Physical Education, in pre-school childhood, which makes it possible for the educators to act as conductors in the programmed activity of Physical Education by means of varied physical activities, which contribute to promote the initiation of sports to achieve the development of these children.

The validation developed, through the application of empirical methods, demonstrates the effectiveness and feasibility of the strategy applied in educational practice; it is considered viable, as long as the variable to be transformed: the educative process of Physical Education to develop sports initiation, from play, is reflected higher in the final diagnosis in relation to the initial diagnosis. This is evidence of adequate development in preschool children in the municipality of Pinar del Río.

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