The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the BRAINballs program on second graders’ gross motor skills in a primary school in Vietnam. A total of 55 students (23 boys and 32 girls) aged seven years participated in the study. The research used the method of a pedagogical experiment and parallel group technique (experimental and control group) with pre- and post-testing. The study was conducted in the school year 2019/2020. The gross motor skills performance was assessed by the Test of Gross Motor Development—2nd Edition. The BRAINballs program was conducted twice a week and combined physical activity with subject-related contents by means of a set of 100 balls with painted letters, numbers, and signs. The results showed that the experimental and control groups improved their motor skills after one school year (p < 0.001). However, the analysis of covariance demonstrated that students from the experimental group, compared to students from the control group, showed significantly better scores in both subtests: locomotor (p = 0.0000) and object control skills (p = 0.0000). The findings of this study show that the BRAINballs program had a positive effect on children’s motor performances and may help to better understand the development of basic motor skills of seven-year-old students in Vietnam.

The method of teaching using "BRAINballs" educational balls in physical education classes has been researched and widely applied to children of pre-schools and primary schools in Poland, with the aim of developing motor skills, improve physical development and academic achievement of students. In this article, we present an empirical pedagogical study using BRAINballs in teaching physical education classes to second grade students at primary schools in Vietnam. The purpose of the study was to examine changes in math skills, English and physical fitness in students from the experimental class compared to the control class at two times before and after the experiment. The results of this study will be the premise for further research to prove the effectiveness and suitability of BRAINballs when applied to teaching primary school students in Vietnam.