Using a group game increases preschoolers' step count
A quick chase-tag game can double preschoolers’ recess steps with zero cost.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team turned recess into a chase-tag game called T-Rex.
One child wore a dinosaur vest and tried to tag friends.
Every tag made the kids run more, so steps were the prize.
Researchers counted steps with pedometers across baseline and game days.
What they found
Step counts jumped as soon as the T-Rex game started.
Kids moved more during every game session than during free play.
The increase happened right away and stayed high while the game ran.
How this fits with other research
Parry-Cruwys et al. (2021) saw the same lift when they gamified data entry for grad students.
Points and badges made 93 % of students hit perfect scores, just like tags made kids hit higher steps.
The two studies show the same tool—gamified group contingencies—works for both adults and preschoolers.
BAER (1960) first showed that taking away rewards can shape preschool behavior in a lab.
Mercado Baez et al. (2024) move that idea outside: add fun instead of taking things away, and kids still work harder.
Why it matters
You can boost preschoolers’ physical activity without extra equipment or staff.
Pick a simple rule—tag makes you run—and the group keeps itself moving.
Try the T-Rex game next recess; count steps for five minutes to see if it works for your class.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children should engage in at least 60 min of physical activity daily to develop or maintain healthy habits (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021a). Previous research suggests that contingent attention is a powerful tool for increasing moderate to vigorous physical activity. In this study, the researchers examined the effects of a group game on steps per minute at recess in an inclusive classroom with preschoolers. The researcher taught the game called the T-Rex game in which the game rules (chasing students who were moving) involved contingencies for natural attention to follow moderate to vigorous physical activity. The results showed a functional relation between step count and the group game in which students engaged in higher step counts when the group game was in place than during baseline. These findings extend other work by demonstrating that contingent attention embedded in group games can increase step count.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2024 · doi:10.1002/jaba.1023