Fine motor skill proficiency in typically developing children: On or off the maturation track?

Fine motor skill proficiency is an essential component of numerous daily living activities such as dressing, feeding or playing. Poor fine motor skills can lead to difficulties in academic achievement, increased anxiety and poor self-esteem. Recent findings have shown that children’s gross motor skill proficiency tends to fall below established developmental norms. A question remains: do fine motor skill proficiency levels also fall below developmental norms? The aim of this study was to examine the current level of fine motor skill in Irish children. Children (N = 253) from 2nd, 4th and 6th grades (mean age = 7.12, 9.11 and 11.02 respectively) completed the Fine Motor Composite of the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2nd Edition (BOT-2). Analysis revealed that only 2nd grade children met the expected level of fine motor skill proficiency. It was also found that despite children’s raw scores improving with age, children’s fine motor skill proficiency was not progressing at the expected rate given by normative data. This leads us to question the role and impact of modern society on fine motor skills development over the past number of decades.     

Procedural learning and automatization process in children with developmental coordination disorder and/or developmental dyslexia

ObjectiveThere is increasing evidence to suggest that developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) actually form part of a broader disorder. Their frequent association could be justified by a deficit of the procedural memory system, that subtends many of the cognitive, motor and linguistic abilities that are impaired in both DD and DCD. However, studies of procedural learning in these two disorders have yielded divergent results, and in any case no studies have so far addressed the issue of automatization (dual-task paradigm).MethodsWe administered a finger tapping task to participants aged 8–12 years (19 DCD, 18 DD, and 22 with both DD and DCD) to explore procedural learning and automatic movements in these three groups of children, comparing motor performances at the prelearning stage, after 2 weeks of training, and in a post-training dual-task condition.ResultsFirst, results indicated that all the children were able to learn a sequence of movements and even automatize their movements. Second, they revealed between-groups differences in procedural/automatization learning abilities, setting the DCD group apart from the other two. Third, contrary to our expectations concerning comorbidity, they suggested that the DD + DCD association does not have an additional impact on behavioral performances.     

Differences in children’s thinking and learning during attentional focus instruction

Considerable evidence supports the motor learning advantage associated with an external focus of attention; however, very few studies have investigated attentional focus effects with children despite individual functional constraints that have the potential to impact use of instructional content. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of attentional focus instruction on motor learning in children. Participants (n = 42) aged 9–11 years were randomly assigned to one of three gender-stratified groups: (1) control, (2) internal focus, or (3) external focus. Following initial instructions and task demonstration, participants performed 100 modified free throws over two days while receiving additional cues respective to their attentional focus condition and returned approximately 48 h later to perform 20 additional free throws. Results revealed no significant learning differences between groups. However, responses to retrospective verbal reports suggest that the use of external focus content during practice may have contributed to some participants’ superior performance in retention. Future research should continue to examine attentional focus effects across a variety of ages and incorporate retrospective verbal reports in order to examine children’s thoughts during attentional focus instruction.     

The development of abstract syntax: Evidence from structural priming and the lexical boost

Structural priming paradigms have been influential in shaping theories of adult sentence processing and theories of syntactic development. However, until recently there have been few attempts to provide an integrated account that explains both adult and developmental data. The aim of the present paper was to begin the process of integration by taking a developmental approach to structural priming. Using a dialog comprehension-to-production paradigm, we primed participants (3–4 year olds, 5–6 year olds and adults) with double object datives (Wendy gave Bob a dog) and prepositional datives (Wendy gave a dog to Bob). Half the participants heard the same verb in prime and target (e.g. gave–gave) and half heard a different verb (e.g. sent–gave). The results revealed substantial differences in the magnitude of priming across development. First, there was a small but significant abstract structural priming effect across all age groups, but this effect was larger in younger children than in older children and adults. Second, adding verb overlap between prime and target prompted a large, significant increase in the priming effect in adults (a lexical boost), a small, marginally significant increase in the older children and no increase in the youngest children. The results support the idea that abstract syntactic knowledge can develop independently of verb-specific frames. They also support the idea that different mechanisms may be needed to explain abstract structural priming and lexical priming, as predicted by the implicit learning account (Bock, K., & Griffin, Z. M. (2000). The persistence of structural priming: Transient activation or implicit learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology – General, 129(2), 177–192). Finally, the results illustrate the value of an integrative developmental approach to both theories of adult sentence processing and theories of syntax acquisition.     

Sensibilité développementale théorique et empirique des items de la Batterie d’Évaluation Cognitive et Socio-émotionnelle (BECS) pour l’évaluation du développement psychologique de très jeunes enfants au développement typique

The Social and Cognitive Evaluation Battery (SCEB) is an instrument specifically created for the examination of pre-school and school-aged children with autism and intellectual disability and recommended by the French High Health Authority (HAS, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018). The SCEB explores 16 functional abilities, in both cognitive and socio-emotional areas and allows the calculation of domains and areas developmental levels and heterogeneity indices for the global, cognitive and socio-emotional areas. Each of the 16 domains of the SCEB includes behavioral items hierarchized into 4 developmental levels corresponding to 4 age periods (level 1: 4–8 months; level 2: 8–12 months; level 3: 12–18 months; level 4: 18–24 months). The child's assessment provides a profile of the 16 levels of cognitive and socio-emotional development that can be interpreted within the framework of Piaget's (1977) and Fisher's (1980) theory. The study tests the developmental sensitivity of level scores and their adjustment to chronological ages and developmental ages assessed with the Brunet-Lézine Scale for 65 young typical developmental French children aged from 4 months to 24 months. The results show high sensitivity of scores and satisfactory adjustment to chronological and developmental age differences. Normative benchmarks are also given for indices of heterogeneity of development profiles, heterogeneity that decreases with age. Thus, the scores are interpretable in reference to theoretical models and can be used for the study of all developmental characteristics in infant and toddlers’ children with and without neurodevelopmental disorder.     

The effect of a motor skills training program in the improvement of practiced and non-practiced tasks performance in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD)

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of a group-based task oriented skills training program on motor and physical ability for children with DCD. It was also investigated if there was an effect on fine motor and handwriting tasks that were not specifically practiced during the training program. Forty-one children aged 6–10 years took part in this study. Children were assigned to three groups: an experimental training group consisting of 14 children with DCD, a control non-training group consisted of 13 children with DCD and a control non-training group consisting of 14 typically developed children. The measurements included were, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC), the Modified Agility Test (MAT), the Triple Hop Distance (THD), the 5 Jump-test (5JT) and the Handwriting Performance Test. All measures were administered pre and post an 8-week training program. The results showed that 10 children of the DCD training-group improved their performance in MABC test, attaining a score above the 15th percentile after their participation in the training program. DCD training-group showed a significant improvement on all cluster scores (manual dexterity (t (13) = 5.3, p < .001), ball skills (t (13) = 2.73, p < .05) and balance (t (13) = 5.13, p < .001). Significant performance improvements were also found in MAT, THD, 5JT (t (13) = –4.55; p < .01), handwriting quality (t (12) = –2.73; p < .05) and speed (t (12) = –4.2; p < .01) after the training program. In conclusion, improvement in both practiced and non-practiced skills, in the training program, may reflect improvement in motor skill but also transfer to other skills.     

To infinity and beyond: Children generalize the successor function to all possible numbers years after learning to count

Recent accounts of number word learning posit that when children learn to accurately count sets (i.e., become “cardinal principle” or “CP” knowers), they have a conceptual insight about how the count list implements the successor function – i.e., that every natural number n has a successor defined as n + 1 (Carey, 2004, 2009; Sarnecka & Carey, 2008). However, recent studies suggest that knowledge of the successor function emerges sometime after children learn to accurately count, though it remains unknown when this occurs, and what causes this developmental transition. We tested knowledge of the successor function in 100 children aged 4 through 7 and asked how age and counting ability are related to: (1) children’s ability to infer the successors of all numbers in their count list and (2) knowledge that all numbers have a successor. We found that children do not acquire these two facets of the successor function until they are about 5½ or 6 years of age – roughly 2 years after they learn to accurately count sets and become CP-knowers. These findings show that acquisition of the successor function is highly protracted, providing the strongest evidence yet that it cannot drive the cardinal principle induction. We suggest that counting experience, as well as knowledge of recursive counting structures, may instead drive the learning of the successor function.     

Comparison of motor praxis and performance in children with varying levels of developmental coordination disorder

The praxis test is a less well-documented method to determine functional manifestations of childhood dyspraxia. For this study, children aged 6–8 years were recruited as follows: 17 children with DCD, 18 at risk of DCD and 35 without obvious problems in motor coordination. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) was used to measure motor performance and identify the motor incoordination. This study developed a battery of tests to assess limb praxis using a praxis imagery questionnaire, gesture representation, and questions about knowledge of object use. In the comparison of subtests within the praxis test, significant differences were observed across groups on the praxis imagery questionnaire and gesture representation tests but not on knowledge of object use. Similar results were observed in the correlation analyses, in which a weak relationship between MABC-2 and praxis tests was observed. The DCD group had lower scores on the praxis imagery questionnaire, whereas the group at risk of DCD had lower scores on most gesture production tests. Our study provides a better understanding of the nature of the childhood dyspraxia and sheds light on its effect on motor coordination to identify praxis tests with specific clinical meanings in children with movement disorders.     

Development of oral motor behavior related to the skill assisted spoon feeding

Milestones in the typical development of eating skills are considered to be nippling (breast or bottle), eating from a spoon, drinking from a cup, biting and chewing.The purpose of this research was to study the development and consolidation of oral motor behavior related to the skill assisted spoon feeding in young infants. The present study longitudinally investigated the development of this skill in 39 healthy children from the start of spoon feeding until the skill was acquired. The Observation List Spoon Feeding with 7 observation items for oral motor behavior and 6 items for abnormal behavior was used. Results showed that infants between 4 and 8 months of age needed 5.7 weeks (SD 2.1), with a range of 8 weeks (from 2 to 10 weeks) to acquire this skill. No significant correlation (p = .109) between age at start spoon feeding and weeks needed to develop the skill was found. During this period oral motor behavior consolidated and abnormal behavior diminished.With this study it is shown that the period in weeks needed to acquire the oral motor behavior for the skill assisted spoon feeding is important in case of feeding problems.     

Effects of television exposure on developmental skills among young children

BackgroundLiterature addressing the effects of television exposure on developmental skills of young children less than 36 months of age is scarce. This study explored how much time young children spend viewing television and investigated its effects on cognitive, language, and motor developmental skills.MethodsData were collected from the Pediatric Clinics at University Medical Center in Southern Taiwan. The participants comprised 75 children who were frequently exposed to television and 75 children who were not or infrequently exposed to television between 15 and 35 months old. The age and sex were matched in the two groups. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development-second edition and Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-second edition were used to identify developmental skills. Independent t-tests, χ² tests, and logistic regression models were conducted.ResultsAmong 75 children who were frequently exposed to television, young children watched a daily average of 67.4 min of television before age 2, which was excessive according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Viewing television increased the risk of delayed cognitive, language, and motor development in children who were frequently exposed to television. Cognitive, language, and motor delays in young children were significantly associated with how much time they spent viewing television. The type of care providers was critical in determining the television-viewing time of children.ConclusionWe recommend that pediatric practitioners explain the impacts of television exposure to parents and caregivers to ensure cognitive, language, and motor development in young children. Advocacy efforts must address the fact that allowing young children to spend excessive time viewing television can be developmentally detrimental.     

Using assessment to individualize early mathematics instruction

Accumulating evidence suggests that assessment-informed personalized instruction, tailored to students' individual skills and abilities, is more effective than more one-size-fits-all approaches. In this study, we evaluate the efficacy of Individualizing Student Instruction in Mathematics (ISI-Math) compared to Reading (ISI-Reading) where classrooms were randomly assigned to ISI-Math or ISI-Reading. The literature on child characteristics X instruction or skill X treatment interaction effects point to the complexities of tailoring instruction for individual students who present with constellations of skills. Second graders received mathematics instruction in small flexible learning groups based on their assessed learning needs. Results of the study (n = 32 teachers, 370 students) revealed significant treatment effects on standardized mathematics assessments. With effect sizes (d) of 0.41–0.60, we show that we can significantly improve 2nd graders' mathematics achievement, including for children living in poverty, by using assessment data to individualize the mathematics instruction they receive. The instructional regime, ISI-Math, was implemented by regular classroom teachers and it led to about a 4-month achievement advantage on standardized mathematics tests when compared to students in control classrooms. These results were realized within one school year. Moreover, treatment effects were the same regardless of school-level poverty and students' gender, initial mathematics or vocabulary scores.     

Childhood sexual abuse and impulsive personality traits: Mixed evidence for moderation by DRD4 genotype

This project examines associations between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and two dimensions of impulsivity (sensation seeking and premeditation), and tests whether CSA-personality associations are moderated by the DRD4 exon III VNTR polymorphism. Sample 1 is from a longitudinal study of university students measured at 10 waves over ages 18–24 years (n = 500). Sample 2 is from a national sample of young adult sibling pairs, ages 18–24, from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 2559). In both samples, CSA was associated with elevated sensation seeking. In Sample 1, the association between CSA and sensation seeking was moderated by DRD4 genotype; this gene × environment interaction effect, however, was not replicated in Sample 2. Results suggest new avenues for research on CSA in the area of normal-range personality variation.     

Why is number word learning hard? Evidence from bilingual learners

Young children typically take between 18 months and 2 years to learn the meanings of number words. In the present study, we investigated this developmental trajectory in bilingual preschoolers to examine the relative contributions of two factors in number word learning: (1) the construction of numerical concepts, and (2) the mapping of language specific words onto these concepts. We found that children learn the meanings of small number words (i.e., one, two, and three) independently in each language, indicating that observed delays in learning these words are attributable to difficulties in mapping words to concepts. In contrast, children generally learned to accurately count larger sets (i.e., five or greater) simultaneously in their two languages, suggesting that the difficulty in learning to count is not tied to a specific language. We also replicated previous studies that found that children learn the counting procedure before they learn its logic – i.e., that for any natural number, n, the successor of n in the count list denotes the cardinality n + 1. Consistent with past studies, we found that children’s knowledge of successors is first acquired incrementally. In bilinguals, we found that this knowledge exhibits item-specific transfer between languages, suggesting that the logic of the positive integers may not be stored in a language-specific format. We conclude that delays in learning the meanings of small number words are mainly due to language-specific processes of mapping words to concepts, whereas the logic and procedures of counting appear to be learned in a format that is independent of a particular language and thus transfers rapidly from one language to the other in development.     

Graphomotor skills in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD): Handwriting and learning a new letter

The aim of the present study was to analyze handwriting difficulties in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and investigate the hypothesis that a deficit in procedural learning could help to explain them. The experimental set-up was designed to compare the performances of children with DCD with those of a non-DCD group on tasks that rely on motor learning in different ways, namely handwriting and learning a new letter. Ten children with DCD and 10 non-DCD children, aged 8–10 years, were asked to perform handwriting tasks (letter/word/sentence; normal/fast), and a learning task (new letter) on a graphic tablet. The BHK concise assessment scale for children’s handwriting was used to evaluate their handwriting quality. Results showed that both the handwriting and learning tasks differentiated between the groups. Furthermore, when speed or length constraints were added, handwriting was more impaired in children with DCD than in non-DCD children. Greater intra-individual variability was observed in the group of children with DCD, arguing in favor of a deficit in motor pattern stabilization. The results of this study could support both the hypothesis of a deficit in procedural learning and the hypothesis of neuromotor noise in DCD.     

Reprint of “Co-occurring motor,language and emotional–behavioral problems in children 3–6 years of age”

PurposeDevelopmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has been shown to co-occur with behavioral and language problems in school-aged children, but little is known as to when these problems begin to emerge, or if they are inherent in children with DCD. The purpose of this study was to determine if deficits in language and emotional–behavioral problems are apparent in preschool-aged children with movement difficulties.MethodTwo hundred and fourteen children (mean age 4 years 11 months, SD 9.8 months, 103 male) performed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2nd Edition (MABC-2). Children falling at or below the 16th percentile were classified as being at risk for movement difficulties (MD risk). Auditory comprehension and expressive communication were examined using the Preschool Language Scales 4th Edition (PLS-4). Parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).ResultsPreschool children with diminished motor coordination (n = 37) were found to have lower language scores, higher externalizing behaviors in the form of increased aggression, as well as increased withdrawn and other behavior symptoms compared with their typically developing peers.ConclusionsMotor coordination, language and emotional–behavioral difficulties tend to co-occur in young children aged 3–6 years. These results highlight the need for early intervention.     

Co-occurring motor,language and emotional–behavioral problems in children 3–6 years of age

PurposeDevelopmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has been shown to co-occur with behavioral and language problems in school-aged children, but little is known as to when these problems begin to emerge, or if they are inherent in children with DCD. The purpose of this study was to determine if deficits in language and emotional–behavioral problems are apparent in preschool-aged children with movement difficulties.MethodTwo hundred and fourteen children (mean age 4 years 11 months, SD 9.8 months, 103 male) performed the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2nd Edition (MABC-2). Children falling at or below the 16th percentile were classified as being at risk for movement difficulties (MD risk). Auditory comprehension and expressive communication were examined using the Preschool Language Scales 4th Edition (PLS-4). Parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).ResultsPreschool children with diminished motor coordination (n = 37) were found to have lower language scores, higher externalizing behaviors in the form of increased aggression, as well as increased withdrawn and other behavior symptoms compared with their typically developing peers.ConclusionsMotor coordination, language and emotional–behavioral difficulties tend to co-occur in young children aged 3–6 years. These results highlight the need for early intervention.     

Reliability and validity of the Finnish version of the motor observation questionnaire for teachers

ObjectivesObservational screening instruments are often used as an effective, economical first step in the identification of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). The aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Finnish version of the Motor Observation Questionnaire for Teachers (MOQ-T-FI).MethodsThe psychometric properties were tested using two separate samples (S1: age range 6–12, M 9y 5mo, females 101, males 92; S2: age range 6–9, M 7y 7mo, females 404, males 446). Teachers completed the MOQ-T-FI in both samples, and in sample 2 teachers’ ratings were compared to student’s performance on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (MABC-2). Internal consistency was investigated by using Cronbach’s alpha, predictive validity by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, concurrent validity by correlation analysis, and construct validity by factor analysis.ResultsThe MOQ-T-FI behaves consistently with its original Dutch version. The internal consistency was excellent (α = 0.97). The bifactor model, with one general factor and two specific factors, fit the data significantly better than the first-order model. The concurrent validity with the MABC-2 was moderate (r = 0.37 p < 0.001). Sensitivity was 82.5% and specificity 44.5%, respectively.ConclusionNotwithstanding the low specificity the MOQ-T-FI can be considered as a promising screening tool in the school environment for Finnish children at risk of motor learning problems.     

Does the Animal Fun program improve social-emotional and behavioural outcomes in children aged 4–6 years?

Animal Fun was designed to enhance motor and social development in young children. Its efficacy in improving motor skills was presented previously using a randomised controlled trial and a multivariate nested cohort design. Based on the Environmental Stress Hypothesis, it was argued that the program would also result in positive mental health outcomes, investigated in the current study. Pre-intervention scores were recorded for 511 children aged 4.83–6.17 years (M = 5.42, SD = .30). Intervention and control groups were compared 6 months following intervention, and again in their first school year. Changes in teacher-rated prosocial behaviour and total difficulties were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and data analysed using Generalised Linear Mixed Models. There was a significant improvement in prosocial behaviour of children in the intervention group six months after initial testing, which remained at 18-month follow-up. Total difficulties decreased at 6 months for the intervention group, with no change at 18 months. This effect was present only for the hyperactivity/inattention subscale. The only significant change for the control group was an increase in hyperactivity/inattention scores from pre-intervention to 18-month follow-up. The Animal Fun program appears to be effective in improving social and behavioural outcomes.     

Past tense marking in the spontaneous speech of preschool children who do and do not stutter

PurposeThe aim of this study was to identify whether different patterns of errors exist in irregular past-tense verbs in children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS).MethodSpontaneous language samples of thirty-one age- and gender-matched pairs of children (total N = 62) between the ages of 24 months and 59 months were analyzed.ResultsResults indicated that children who do and do not stutter over-regularize irregular past-tense verbs (i.e., saying runned for ran) with comparable frequency. However, two nonsignificant trends which suggest possible intra-group differences were noted. First, irregular past tense verbs represented a greater portion of total verbs for CWS than for CWNS. Second, CWS appeared to double-mark (i.e., say ranned for ran) more often than CWNS. Results are discussed in light of theories about the acquisition of the irregular past-tense and about differences in language skills between CWS and CWNS.Educational objectives: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (a) summarize previous findings about connections between stuttering and language in CWS and CWNS; (b) describe similarities and differences between irregular past-tense verb use and errors in CWS and CWNS; (c) discuss possible connections between the declarative–procedural model and stuttering.     

A crossover randomised and controlled trial of the impact of active video games on motor coordination and perceptions of physical ability in children at risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder

BackgroundImpaired motor development can significantly affect a child’s life and may result in an increased risk of a range of physical and psychological disorders. Active video game (AVG) interventions have been demonstrated to enhance motor skills in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD); however a home-based intervention has not been assessed.ObjectivesThe primary aim of this study was to compare the changes in motor coordination between a 16 week period of AVG use, with 16 weeks of normal activities (NAG). The secondary aim was to compare the child and parent perceptions of their physical performance between the AVG and NAG conditions.MethodsTwenty-one 9–12 year olds (10 males) were confirmed to be at risk of DCD (⩽16th percentile Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2nd edition (MABC-2) and ⩽15th percentile Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ)) and participated in this crossover randomised and controlled trial. Data was collected at study entry, after the first 16 week condition and following the final 16 week condition, including; (1) the MABC-2, (2) three-dimensional motion analysis of single leg balance and finger–nose tasks, and (3) parent perception of physical skills. Participant perception of physical skills was collected only after the first and second conditions.ResultsThere was no significant difference between AVG and NAG for any of the primary variables including the MABC-2, balance centre-of-mass path distance and finger–nose path distance. There was no significant intervention effect for secondary measures of motor coordination; however the children perceived their motor skills to be significantly enhanced as a result of the AVG intervention in comparison to the period of no intervention.ConclusionA 16 week home based AVG intervention did not enhance motor skills in children with DCD, although they perceived their physical skills to be significantly improved.Trial Registration: Australia and New Zealand Clinical trials Registry (ACTRN 12611000400965).