Investigates in five- to nine-year-old children the visuomanual sinusoidal tracking of target spot on a screen. Proportion of successful performances steadily increases with age, but adult proficiency is never attained even by those who can perform the task. (Author/BE)

This study describes responsibilities and training needs of paraeducators in physical education. Paraeducators (n = 138) employed in 34 midwestern schools received a 27-item questionnaire. Of the 138 paraeducators contacted, 76 responded, resulting in a 55.1% response rate. Only 16% of the total respondents (n = 76) reported receiving specific…

This study examined the accuracy and stability of oral motor control in 20 adults and 20 children. Although the children were less accurate and less stable, adults and children exhibited similar variability in their generalized motor program. Results are discussed within the framework of a schema model of motor control, especially the strategic…

From earliest infancy, a typically developing child imitates or mirrors the facial expressions, postures and gestures, and emotional behavior of others. Where does this capacity come from, and what function does it serve? What happens when imitation is impaired? Synthesizing cutting-edge research emerging from a range of disciplines, this…

Simple observation of dance movement, while very useful, can lead to misconceptions, about the physical realities of dance movement, that make learning difficult. This gap between reality and understanding can be reduced by the application of biomechanical techniques such as cinematography, electromyography, and force-plate analysis. Biomechanical…

A study of children (ages 3-5 and 11-13) with autism (n=35), learning disabilities (n=26), or no disabilities (n=90) found that the nondisabled children were more lateralized than others in degree and consistency of handedness. No evidence was found of a dissociation of hand skill and hand preference in children with autism, compared to others.…

This study found that motor impairment levels of 12 Asperger syndrome children and 9 high functioning autistic children (ages 7-17) did not differ. Intelligence level was negatively correlated with motor impairment. Fifty percent of Asperger children and 67% of children with autism showed a clinically significant level of motor impairment.…

Measures the degree of interdependence in timing between infants' right and left arm movements and between movements of both arms and the onsets of stressed vowels in tape-recorded infant-appropriate speech. (HOD)

This paper describes the implementation of goal attainment scaling at the Scottish Centre for Children with Motor Impairments. Goal attainment scaling was chosen because of its accommodation of the heterogeneity that exists among children with movement difficulties and their variation in rates of progress. Advantages and problems with the…

Subjects with autism (n=36) were assigned a simple "reach, grasp, and place" task. Comparison with nonautistic children who had mental retardation and younger normally developing children found that the autistic subjects had problems in executing goal-directed motor acts even in very simple situations, suggesting an independent and marked…

Tested infants in their second year with a box task to determine whether they would show a hand preference in solutions involving complete differentiation of roles for the two hands. (HOD)

A model and a technique developed by Wing and Kristofferson (1973) decomposes variance of timing into that putatively due to a central timekeeper (a clock) and that due to implementation of movement through the motor system. A patient with unilateral cerebellar damage, when attempting to tap out a regular series of intervals, showed a large…

This study compared the skills performance of 60 children, ages 3 to 5, with speech and language delays on the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS) with that of national norms on the PDMS. It found that the children with speech and language delays performed the PDMS gross motor skills significantly lower than the norm at each age level. The…

Reviewed are 14 studies employing single-subject methodology to investigate the results of interventions to improve developmental functioning in handicapped preschoolers. Interventions included treatments to develop physical responsiveness, increase feeding behavior, and decrease rumination or compulsive vomiting. Knowledge concerning the…

Explores the relation between the infant's ability to negotiate the environment and the quality of the infant-mother attachment relationship. (HOD)