Apraxic patients are known for deficits in producing and comprehending skilled movements. Two experiments tested their implicit and explicit knowledge about manipulable objects in order to examine whether such deficits accompany impairment in the conceptual representation of manipulation features. An eyetracking method was used to test implicit…

Aim: Children born very preterm are at risk for impaired motor performance ranging from cerebral palsy (CP) to milder abnormalities, such as developmental coordination disorder. White matter abnormalities (WMA) at term have been associated with CP in very preterm children; however, little is known about the impact of WMA on the range of motor…

Objective: In many countries, physical education (PE) is taught by classroom teachers (generalists) during the formative years of elementary school. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical and psychological outcomes of multi-sports PE taught by qualified PE teachers (specialists) and how they contribute to children's physical and…

We tested the hypothesis that a computational overload results when two activities, one motor and the other cognitive that draw on the same neural processing pathways, are performed concurrently. Healthy young adult subjects carried out two seemingly distinct tasks of maintaining standing balance control under conditions of low (eyes closed),…

Grip selection tasks have been used to test "planning" in both autism and developmental coordination disorder (DCD). We differentiate between "motor" and "executive" planning and present a modified motor planning task. Participants grasped a cylinder in 1 of 2 orientations before turning it clockwise or anticlockwise.…

The purpose of the current article is to highlight the potential of self-determination theory (SDT) to inform the teaching practices of physical education (PE) teachers. Such practices may enhance motivational levels for participation in physical activity (PA) for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). First, we review the…

Sport stacking is an activity taught in many physical education programs. The activity, although very popular, has been studied minimally, and the energy expenditure for sport stacking is unknown. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to determine the energy expenditure of sport stacking in elementary school children and to compare that value…

The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) ages 4-12 years using the dichotomous Rasch model. The VMI was administered individually to 454 children with ID. Rasch analysis was applied to investigate…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the behavioral and learning benefit found from the use of therapy balls as classroom seats in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (e.g., Schilling, Washington, Billingsley, & Deitz, 2003) generalizes to children with dyslexia who suffer from similar attention problems…

Background: Researching falls in persons with ID is limited by difficulties in applying standardised balance outcome measures. The modified Gait Abnormality Rating Scale (GARS-M), developed to identify falls risk in older adults, requires only that the participant walks and thus may be a feasible falls research tool to use with people with ID. In…

The present study assessed the functional organization of action semantics by asking subjects to categorize pictures of an actor holding objects with a correct or incorrect grip at either a correct or incorrect goal location. Overall, reaction times were slower if the object was presented with an inappropriate posture, and this effect was stronger…

Recent studies suggest motor skills are not entirely spared in individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous reports demonstrated that young adults with ASD were able to land accurately on a target despite increased temporal and spatial variability during their movement. This study explored how a group of adolescents and young…

This practical resource is brimming with ideas and guidance for using simple ideas from speech and language pathology and occupational therapy to boost communication, sensory integration, and coordination skills in children on the autism spectrum. Suitable for use in the classroom, at home, and in community settings, it is packed with…

Classmates' academic skill level (peer effects) is emerging as an important predictor of individual student achievement, particularly in the early grades. However, less is known about the influence of peer effects with regard to classmates' self-regulation skills and whether they are associated with students' academic gains. Examining this is the…

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a delay in response time (RT) to targets appearing at a previously cued location. The prevailing view is that IOR reflects visual-motor inhibition. The "attentional momentum" account rejects this idea, and instead proposes that IOR reflects an automatic shift of attention away from the cued location…