Por Nerea García[i] y Markel Rico-González[ii]
Palabras clave: REVISTA PUBLICACIONES, primera infancia, programas de intervención, psicomotricidad, competencia social, competencia emocional
La educación física en la etapa preescolar juega un papel esencial en el desarrollo integral de los niños, ya que a través del juego y la diversión se fomentan habilidades básicas que influyen en su aprendizaje futuro. Este estímulo físico no solo mejora la experiencia sensorial y motora, sino que también fortalece aspectos sociales y afectivos. Los educadores físicos, por tanto, se centran en potenciar cuatro competencias clave en los más pequeños: la social, la emocional, la motriz y la cognitiva. De todas ellas, las competencias social y emocional han recibido especial atención, dado que están relacionadas con mejores resultados académicos, habilidades para la vida cotidiana, la creación de amistades y actitudes positivas hacia los demás. Por ello, esta revisión busca presentar una recopilación de programas basados en la educación física que pueden ser útiles para los docentes en la promoción de estas habilidades desde los primeros años de vida.
Métodos y resultados
Se realizó una revisión sistemática siguiendo las directrices PRISMA para garantizar un enfoque transparente y exhaustivo. La información de cada artículo incluido fue cuidadosamente extraída y organizada, y se detalla en la Tabla adjunta. Esta extracción estructurada facilita la comparación y síntesis clara de los resultados entre las intervenciones seleccionadas.
Tabla 1
Efectos de la Educación Física en las Competencias Sociales y Emocionales de Niños en Edad Preescolar
| Reference | Aims | Sample | Results | Conclusions |
| SOCIAL COMPETENCE | ||||
| Boyd et al. (2018)
|
Efficacy of the ASAP Intervention for Preschoolers with ASD | Nº children: 161
Schools: 78
Country: EEUU . Range: 4 years |
Regarding the primary results of the kids’ social communication game, there were no discernible variations between the groups. | Children in the ASAP group participated more actively in class. |
| Caldwell et al.(2023) | To analyze the effects of PLEY intervention | Nº children:
209
Schools: 19
Country: Canada.
Range: 3-5 years |
Playing with loose parts outdoors favored social development | The goal of the intervention program was to improve preschoolers’ perceptions of and progress toward physical literacy.
|
| Diamond et al.(2019) | To analyze the effectiveness of a program for reducing
bullying and peer ostracism |
Nº children: 351
Schools: 18
Country: Canada
Mean age 5.2 years
Range: 5-6 years |
Tools improves self-control and it reduces children being ostracized or excluded. | Kindergarten kids in more conventional classrooms had less bullying and peer ostracism and more compassion and helpful behavior than those in a curriculum that focused on play, fostering relationships, working together, and supporting one another.
|
| Moore et al. (1984) | Determine the
benefits of self-concepts of children taking part in the Capon Perceptual-motor Program. |
Nº children: 85
Schools: 4
Country: EEUU
Range: ND |
Major effects for the group and group interactions were not statistically significant. |
No differences in group interactions were found between the two programs |
| Aboud (2006) | Whether preschoolers’ everyday play experiences with classmates and materials would help them reach increasingly sophisticated social and cognitive play levels. | Nº children:
400
Schools: 6
Country: Bangladesh
Mean age: 4.5 and 6.5 years
|
Preschoolers performed better during play in some areas of social development. | Children performing program improved their social competence |
| Aadland et al. (2020)
|
To explore how the professional development of preschool staff influences child development outcomes | Nº children:
1.2000
Schools: 60
Country: Norway
Range: 3-5 |
The program does not guarantee succeed. | There is no assurance that ACTNOW will be implemented successfully or result in favorable consequences for children’s development. |
| Mulvey et al. (2020) | Tested the hypothesis that gender-integrated friendships among preschool-aged children are fostered by the physical education teacher-led intervention known as Successful Kinematic Instruction for Preschoolers (SKIP). | Nº children: 93
Schools: 1
Country: EEUU
Mean age : 47.38 |
After the intervention, there was a higher likelihood of reporting gender-integrated friendships in the SKIP condition compared to the control free-play condition. | These results highlight how interventions focused on motor competence can also generate benefits in the socio-emotional domain |
| Lee et al. (2020) | Analyze the effectiveness of instructured loose parts and mindfulness against to usual play | Nº children: 42
Schools: 2
Country: Hong Kong
Range: 4-6 years
|
No detailed information about socioemotional outcomes. | Students’ happiness and playfulness are effectively fostered by experimental intervention, which supports their mental health and wellbeing amid stressful events like transition and separation. |
| EMOCIONAL COMPETENCE | ||||
| Lee et al. (2020) | Examine how well organized loose parts and mindfulness compare to typical play. | Nº children: 42
Schools: 2
Country: Hong Kong
Range: 4-6 years |
No detailed information about socioemotional outcomes. | Students’ happiness and playfulness are effectively fostered by experimental intervention, which supports their mental health and wellbeing amid stressful events like transition and separation. |
| Eninger et al. (2021) | To investigate the results of encouraging alternative thinking techniques |
Nº children: 285
Schools: 26
Country: Sweden.
Mean age 4.8 years
Range: 4-5 years |
Experimental group demonstrated gains in prosocial play and hyperactive behaviors. On the other hand, girls in the INT exhibited improved emotional understanding and decreased anxiety | The program is more beneficial than usual activities to improve emotional knowledge and reduced anxiety |
| Lumeng et al. (2017) | To evaluate the effects of an obesity prevention program combined with an intervention aimed at enhancing emotional and behavioral self-regulation on the incidence of obesity and related behaviors in preschoolers. | Nº children: 697
Schools: 6
Country: EEUU
Mean age 4.1 years |
When HS+POPS+IYS was compared to HS+POPS and HS, results showed how the first enhanced teacher-reported self-regulation | HS+POPS+IYS improves teacher-reported self-regulation |
| Solomon et al. (2018) | The purpose of the study was to determine whether the TOOLS program—as opposed to Playing to Learn (YMCA PTL)—leads to more improvements in self-regulation. | Nº children: 260
Schools: 20
Country: Canada
Range: 3-4 years
|
In comparison to their YMCA PTL peers, children who took part in the TOOLS program performed higher on a behavioral exam. But only for the kids whose parents had previously labeled them as hyperactive or inattentive was this distinction noteworthy. | YMCA PTL and TOOLS could be good curriculum options for a preschool classroom with a diverse student body.
TOOLS seems to have no obvious cost to students who are less challenged in this area, making them useful in classes where students are having more difficulty with self-regulation.
|
| Aadland et al. (2020)
|
To examine how preschool staff professional development affects kids’ physical activity levels and developmental outcomes | Nº children:
1.2000
Schools: 60
Country: Norway
Range: 3-5 |
No detailed information about emotional outcomes. | There is no assurance that ACTNOW will be implemented successfully or result in favorable consequences for children’s development. |
| Kaale et al.,
(2012) |
Evaluate the impact of a JA proposal centered in preschools. | Nº children: 61
Schools: 34
Country: Norway
Mean age 26-60 months
|
The results indicated a noteworthy distinction between the control group and the intervention group, with the intervention group demonstrating higher levels of joint attention skill initiation during teacher interactions. With the moms, the impact expanded to a noticeably longer duration of JE. | There have been extensive and positive results of preschool intervention in JA. |
| Moore et al. (1984) | Determine the
benefits of self-concepts of children taking part in the Capon Perceptual-motor Program. |
Nº children: 85
Schools: 4
Country: EEUU
Range: ND |
The self-concept test revealed substantial impacts (= 8.06, p <.01). From the pretest to the posttest, both groups’ results improved. Self-concept received no further gain from the perceptual-motor program. |
No differences in self-concept were found between the two programs |
Conclusiones
Esta revisión sistemática ofrece algunas conclusiones útiles para profesionales que trabajan con niños en la primera infancia, especialmente en edad preescolar. En cuanto a la competencia social, se recomienda considerar diversos programas de intervención que fomenten las relaciones sociales entre los niños, incluyendo aquellos con necesidades educativas especiales. Algunos ejemplos efectivos son TOOLS, Early Childhood Preschool Program, SKIP, ACTNOW, PLEY, el Programa Perceptivo-Motor Capon y ASAP. De manera similar, otros programas como HS+POPS+IYS, TOOLS, JA-intervention, el Programa Perceptivo-Motor Capon, intervenciones basadas en juegos libres no estructurados combinados con mindfulness, y PATHS, pueden potenciar habilidades como la autorregulación, la autoestima, el bienestar emocional, la capacidad lúdica, el conocimiento emocional y reducir la ansiedad.
Fuente de la imagen: Pixabay
Aplicaciones Prácticas
Tras analizar los estudios revisados y los resultados obtenidos, se extrajeron algunas recomendaciones prácticas para profesionales que trabajan con niños en edad preescolar, dado que la competencia social y la autorregulación emocional están relacionadas con la salud mental a lo largo de la vida:
- Fomentar el trabajo en parejas o pequeños grupos, dado que esto tiende a reducir el acoso escolar y la exclusión por parte de los compañeros, en comparación con ambientes poco supervisados.
- Programar clases con una supervisión adecuada es más efectivo que dejar que los niños jueguen libremente todos los días. La combinación de aprendizaje supervisado y juego libre parece ser la mejor estrategia.
- Aunque algunos estudios han encontrado mejoras tanto en intervenciones supervisadas como en el juego libre, se recomienda seguir investigando el potencial del juego libre. Sin embargo, los programas supervisados aseguran actividades grupales que, según otros análisis, son beneficiosas para la competencia social.
- Las habilidades de autorregulación mejoran cuando se utilizan programas que combinan teorías de cognición social con técnicas de observación, aprendizaje y refuerzo, como la retroalimentación detallada, juegos de roles y entrenamientos para modelar comportamientos positivos
- Los ejercicios planificados y dirigidos por un instructor, incluyendo juegos de simulación con estrategias escritas creadas por los propios niños, favorecen el desarrollo del autocontrol.
- La combinación de intervenciones basadas en el ejercicio físico junto con prácticas de mindfulness contribuye a mejorar el bienestar emocional y la disposición lúdica.
- Las lecciones interactivas y el apoyo para aplicar competencias socioemocionales son apropiados para fomentar el conocimiento emocional.
En definitiva, estos hallazgos sugieren estrategias prácticas y respaldadas por la evidencia para potenciar tanto la competencia social como la autorregulación emocional en niños en edad preescolar, contribuyendo así a su desarrollo saludable a corto y largo plazo.
Artículo original
García, N., & Rico-González, M. (2025). El impacto de la educación física en la competencia social y emocional de niñas y niños de edad prescolar: una revisión sistemática de ensayos controlados aleatorios. PUBLICACIONES, 55(1), 13–42. https://doi.org/10.30827/publicaciones.v55i1.34180
LINK: https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/publicaciones/article/view/34180
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Cómo citar esta entrada:
García, Nerea y Rico-González, Markel. (2025). ¿Puede la Educación Física influir en la mejora de las habilidades sociales y la inteligencia emocional de los prescolares? Aula Magna [Blog]. https://cuedespyd.hypotheses.org/20187
[i] Graduada en Educación Infantil.
[ii] Profesor Ayudante en el Departamento de Didáctica de la Expresión Musical, Plástica y Corporal de la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV-EHU), España. Es autor de más de 100 artículos científicos en revistas especializadas y más de 20 capítulos de libros. Además, es editor de los libros The Use of Applied Technology in Team Sport (Routledge, 2021) y Physical Education in Early Childhood: Movement and Development from 3 to 6 Years (Routledge, 2026).
OpenEdition le sugiere que cite este post de la siguiente manera:
Aula Magna 2.0 (21 de noviembre de 2025). ¿Puede la Educación Física influir en la mejora de las habilidades sociales y la inteligencia emocional de los prescolares? Aula Magna 2.0. Recuperado 16 de marzo de 2026 de https://doi.org/10.58079/156nv




