Measure of Rhythmic Ability in High School Students Who Are Involved in Motor Activities Accompanied or Not By Music

Abstract

Rhythmic ability is considered an important factor in the perceptual-motor development of children and
it plays a crucial role in the performance of motor skills. The purpose of the present study was to investigate
the rhythmic ability of High School students who are involved in motor activities accompanied or not by
music. The sample of the research consisted of 125 children (62 boys and 63 girls) 13 ± 2 years old. For the
evaluation of rhythmic ability, High/ Scope Beat Competence Analysis Test (Weikart & Carlton, 1995) was
used. A 2-way ANOVA analysis of two independent factors was applied. According to the results, there was
a statistically significant effect of the factor sport-motor activities in the children’s performance during their
rhythmic ability test (p<.05). The performance scores of students that were involved in volleyball, basketball and handball (motor activities not accompanied by music) were much lower (M=8.55, 7.77, 7.38 respectively)
than the performance score of the students that were involved in folk dance (a motor activity accompanied
by music - M=10.46). The performance differences in rhythmic ability between two sexes was statistically
significant (p<.05, girls scored better than boys in 124 beats/min) but not their interaction with sports-motor
activities. It was concluded that music accompaniment contributes in the development of rhythmic ability.