Purpose: There is a relationship between motor and language skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but little work addresses the ramifications of this relationship for professionals who teach motor skills to this population. Within a motor skills intervention, this study probed the importance of language skills for motor…

Purpose: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is characterized by poor coordination and clumsiness in children. Subjects often show unsteady gait, frequent tripping, and difficulty holding objects. Here we evaluated the implicit and explicit motor learning capabilities of children with DCD. Method: We assessed a total of 80 children…

Purpose: Variability in the timing of infant developmental milestones is poorly understood. We used a twin analysis to estimate genetic and environmental influences on motor development and activity levels in infancy. Method: Data were from the Gemini Study, a twin birth cohort of 2,402 families with twins born in the United Kingdom in 2007.…

Purpose: A signature characteristic of positive youth development (PYD) programs is the opportunity to develop life skills, such as social, behavioral, and moral competencies, that can be generalized to domains beyond the immediate activity. Although context-specific instruments are available to assess developmental outcomes, a measure of…

Being asked to give the Charles H. McCloy research lecture is one of the highlights of the author's academic career. Although McCloy's primary area of expertise was measurement and the analysis of motor skills, he also shared an avid interest in youth development through sport and physical activity. In this article, the author features youth sport…

Students' proficiency in three object control and three locomotor skills were assessed in 2000 (M age = 10.06 years, SD = 0.63) in New South Wales, Australia and in 2006-07 (M age = 16.44 years, SD = 0.64). In 2006-07, 266 students, 138 girls (51.9%) and 128 boys (48.1%), had at least one skill reassessed. Boys were more object control proficient…

Little is known about parental socialization processes for youth participants from different cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to examine parental influence on self-perceptions, task values, and achievement behaviors among female adolescents from two cultures using Eccles' expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1983). Twelve…

This paper explores parental concern about children's activity levels and whether parents who are concerned about their child's activity provide a supportive environment. A sample of 615 parents of 5-6-year-old children and 947 parents of 10-12-year-old children completed a questionnaire. Just over 50% of parents reported they were concerned their…

A contemporary view of early childhood motor development considers environmental influences as critical factors in optimal growth and behavior, with the home being the primary agent. However, there has been minimal research examining the relationship between motor development and the home. The present study addresses this gap with the goal of…

Youth development research has found that children become more engaged and benefit more from being incorporated as decision makers. Thus participation helps promote development and encourages engagement. Based in theories of engagement and free-choice learning, the current research focused on a program combining sport/physical activity, life…

The objectives of this study were to: (a) determine if very young children will wear an accelerometer for relatively long periods of time and comply with the protocol for its use; (b) evaluate how well a caregiver can estimate the activity level of his/her infant or toddler when completing an exposure-oriented time activity diary; and (c) compare…

This study considered the interrelationships among biological maturation and its physical correlates, social physique anxiety, and appearance-related physical self-perceptions in 113 adolescent female figure skaters participating in solo (n = 73) or partner contexts (n = 40). Participants were interviewed about their menarcheal status, underwent a…