Structured Motor Play and Preschool Task Performance: An Exploratory Single-Site Randomized Pilot Study in Tunisian Children

Background

Cognitively enriched motor play activities may engage movement, rule following, attention, response inhibition, spatial processing, and early mathematical concepts during early childhood. Experimental evidence from preschool settings remains limited, particularly in North African contexts. This study examined short-term between-group differences associated with a structured motor play program in Stroop interference, response inhibition, intervention-aligned mathematics performance, and immediate affective valence among Tunisian preschool children.