Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have been characterized by greater postural sway in quiet stance and insufficient motor ability. However, there is a lack of studies to explore the properties of dynamic postural sway, especially under conditions of task-oriented movement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between…

Differences in joint attention are prominent for some children with autism and are often used as an indicator of the disorder. This study examined the joint attention competencies of young children with autism who demonstrated joint attention ability and compared them to children with developmental delays. A total of 40 children with autism and…

This study investigated questions adults asked to children with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive pre-kindergarten classrooms, and whether child (e.g. autism severity) and setting (i.e. adult-to-child ratio) characteristics were related to questions asked during center-time. Videos of verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (n?=?42) were…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of the iPod Touch™ as a Speech Generated Device (SGD) for Functional Communication Training (FCT). The evaluation of the effects on problem behavior, the effects on generalization and maintenance of the acquired communication repertoire, and the social initiations of peers between the new SGD (iPod…

Previous research has shown an association between children's development of psychosocial and motor skills. This study evaluated the development of these skills in 301 three-year-old deaf and hard of hearing children (M: 37.8 months) and considered a range of possible predictors including gender, birth weight, age at first fitting with hearing…

Purpose: Improvements in motor performance and coordination may be impacted by the interaction of practice and organismic constraints. It has been proposed that these aspects of motor learning are achieved at a different time rate: first, during placement of the events (performance), and second, segmental spatiotemporal relationships…

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze the possible differences of the physical fitness performance of elementary-aged students with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Little research has been produced in the area of youth with ADHD and motor development; this research paper further investigates the effects of…

This study examined the constructs underlying the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (M-ABC-2), Bruninks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-2 (VABS-2) using the framework of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health--Child Youth version (ICF-CY) and the diagnostic…

The purpose of this study was to assess mastery of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) in 6- to 6.5-year-old Flemish pre-school children. The subjects were 236 6-year-old children (138 boys, 98 girls; mean age 6 years 2.4 months, SD 2.4). Children were individually assessed with the Motoriktest fur Vier- bis Sechsjahrige Kinder (MOT 4-6) in four…

Impaired hand function is among the most functionally disabling symptoms of unilateral cerebral palsy. Evidence-based treatment approaches are generally lacking. However, recent approaches providing intensive upper extremity training appear promising. In this review, we first describe two such approaches, constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT)…

Background: Standard physical education (PE) programs and the team-teaching methodology have rarely been evaluated to investigate their real efficacy in changing children's motor skills. Aims: The aims of this study are two-fold: The first aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a PE program for improving coordinative motor skills in the team…

This study examines the motor skills and executive functioning (EF) of 28 children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS; mean age: 10 years 6 months, range: 7-12 years; 19 boys, 9 girls) in comparison with age- and gender-matched typically developing children. The potential relationship between motor…

The present investigation explored the question of whether walking onset is related to infant language development. Study 1 used a longitudinal design (N = 44) to assess infant locomotor and language development every 2 weeks from 10 to 13.5 months of age. The acquisition of walking was associated with a significant increase in both receptive and…

The aim of the current study was to examine whether parental mental health, parent-infant relationship, infant characteristics and couple's relationship factors were associated with the infant's development. Forty-two families took part at three time points. The first, at 3?months postpartum, involved a video recorded observation (CARE-index) of…

An increasing worldwide concern about a decline in the quality of the motor ability of children was the motivation for this exploratory comparative study. It involves a comparison of the motor ability of children aged 8 and 9 years from Hamburg (n = 774), Melbourne (n = 141) and Cape Town (n = 81). Since each of these global cities represents a…