Soviet investigation of the development of verbal inhibition of preseverative manual behavior are reviewed. Non-soviet investigations of verbal-manual interaction are considered in relation to the Soviet view of the development of voluntary behavior; and it is argued, on the basis of this evidence, that the Soviet position need not stand or fall…

This paper reports a study which examined the relationships of various facets of sensorimotor performance to abilities measured by a developmental examination of a sample of full-term and pre-term infants nine months after expected term date. This study addressed three questions: (1) Are there differences in the sensorimotor development of term…

The motor planning skills in freehand drawing and in limb, hand, and body positions of deaf (N=45) and hearing (N=45) children were compared. Although younger deaf children were superior to hearing children in drawing and hand positioning, no significant differences were found between the groups in later childhood. (Author/CB)

Reports comparisons of behaviors of nine chimpanzee and nine human newborns on a standardized human neonatal assessment scale at the ages of three days and one month. Human infants scored higher than chimpanzee infants on the orientation cluster at both ages, but were lower than chimpanzee infants in motoric maturity. (RJC)

While motor dominance appears to drive limb selection for reaching movements at the midline and ipsilateral (dominant) side, this study examined the possible determinants associated with what drives the programming of movements in response to stimuli presented in contralateral space. Experiment 1 distinguished between object proximity and a…

The aim of this study was to evaluate neuromotor task training (NTT), a recently developed child-centred and task-oriented treatment programme for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). A treatment and a non-treatment control group of children with DCD were included. Children were selected if they scored below the 15th centile on…

The purpose of this study was to compare measures of body size in two samples of youth baseball players with normative data from the United States National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) growth charts. One sample of youth baseball players participated in a local little league. The second sample of youth baseball players were members of eight…

Comparisons between a group of deaf children and normal-hearing controls on an extensive test battery revealed that the former group was clearly inferior both in general dynamic coordination and in visual-motor coordination. (MP)

When equated on level of maturity, preterm infants were indistinguishable from full-term infants in their rates of response decrement to stimulus repetition and their subsequent response to a novel stimulus. Responsiveness to auditory novelty at four months was a strong predictor of 18-month mental performance for females but not for males. (RH)

This study of single-joint elbow flexion movements by 10 subjects with Down's syndrome (ages 14-19) and 6 control subjects concluded that there are no major qualitative deficits in the motor control mechanisms of individuals with Down's syndrome, but there might be problems with proper modulation of motor commands. (Author/JDD)

Examined whether age-related improvements in children's motor performance result from reduced noise in the output of the sensorimotor system. Found that performance improved with age. The force output signal exhibited increased irregularity and a more broadband frequency profile with increasing age under feedback. There were no age differences in…

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are less likely to enjoy participating in physical education (PE) than children without motor coordination difficulties. However, no studies have attempted to quantify this relationship or examine potentially modifiable mediating variables. Using a large sample (N = 590) of children (aged 9…

This study investigated the gross motor development of children at two day care centers, one with a movement-oriented physical education program and the other with an unstructured free play period. Also studied were the biological factors of age and sex. A total of 146 children were tested during a 3-year period. During the last two years,…