Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is often called a motor learning deficit. The question addressed in this paper is whether improvement of motor skills is just a matter of mere practice. Without any kind of intervention, children with DCD do not improve their motor skills generally, whereas they do improve after task-oriented intervention. Merely offering children the opportunity to pra...

OBJECTIVE To verify if sleep disorders and different starting time to school have impaired motor skills in 5-year-old children. METHOD Cross-sectional design consisting of 132 children with sleep disorders and 136 normal controls of the public school in the city of São Paulo. The group with sleep disorders was identified based on a questionnaire, and motor tests for global motor coordination,...

OBJECTIVE To determine frequency of motor alterations in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHOD We evaluated 19 children aged 7-12 years with ADHD classified in three sub-types: Combined (ADHD-C), with Inattention (ADHD-I), and with Hyperactivity (ADHD-H). Controls were age- and gender matched healthy children. We utilized Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Profi...

The aim of this study was to identify child and school-level characteristics that explained inter-individual differences in gross motor coordination (GMC). Participants (n = 390), recruited from 18 Portuguese primary schools, were aged 6 to 10 years of age. Birth weight, body fat (BF), physical activity (PA), physical fitness (PF) and GMC were assessed. School size, setting, infrastructure and ...

This paper reviews selected pertinent literature on the learning and performance of skilled motor acts. Information on normal motor performance is integrated with that on adult apraxia and related to common problems observed in children with developmental dyspraxia. The process of motor skill acquisition is outlined, and aspects of styles of motor organization, modes of control, premovement org...

In this study, the motor teaching principles taxonomy (MTPT) was developed to investigate which teaching principles physiotherapists use to treat children with developmental coordination disorder during Neuromotor Task Training (NTT). In NTT, special attention is paid to the best ways to instruct and provide feedback. Based on motor learning theory and video observations of NTT treatments, teac...

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of cognitive task analysis to inform the teaching of psychomotor skills and cognitive strategies in clinical tasks in dental education. Methods used were observing and videotaping an expert at one dental school thinking aloud while performing a specific preclinical task (in a simulated environment), interviewing the expert to probe deeper into hi...

An objective cognition of human motor area is strictly related with and dependant upon the performed diagnostic procedures, methods and tools. The need for application of precise solutions in this area seems to be one of the essential conditions, which allow to determine the basis and laws in different aspects of human motor potential. The main goal of this paper was to determine the level of v...

Developmental coordination disorder affects a relatively large proportion (5%-6%) of the childhood population. Severity of the disorder varies but there is a great need for therapeutic intervention. We propose a method for the training of manual actions in children with developmental coordination disorder. Our solution is achieved by applying haptic virtual reality technology to attack the diff...

Mice are increasingly being used in behavioral neuroscience, largely replacing rats as the behaviorist's animal of choice. Before aspects of behavior such as emotionality or cognition can be assessed, however, it is vital to determine whether the motor capabilities of e.g. a mutant or lesioned mouse allow such an assessment. Performance on a maze task requiring strength and coordination, such a...