Music performance requires high levels of motor control. Professional musicians use body movements not only to accomplish and help technical efficiency, but to shape expressive interpretation. Here, we recorded motion and audio data of twenty participants performing four musical fragments varying in the degree of technical difficulty to analyze…

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have been characterized by greater postural sway in quiet stance and insufficient motor ability. However, there is a lack of studies to explore the properties of dynamic postural sway, especially under conditions of task-oriented movement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between…

Aim: The purpose of this study was to characterize handwriting deficits in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) using computerized movement analyses. Method: Seventy-two children (40 females, 32 males; mean age 7y, SD 7mo; range 6y 2mo to 7y 11mo) with handwriting deficits (33 with DCD, 39 without DCD); and 22 age- and…

To determine whether motor difficulties documented in Asperger's Syndrome (AS) are related to compromised visual abilities, this study examined perception and movement in response to dynamic visual environments. Fourteen males with AS and 16 controls aged 7-23 completed measures of motor skills, postural response to optic flow, and visual…

Jaw movement patterns were examined longitudinally in a 3-year-old male with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and compared with a typically developing control group. The child with CAS was followed for 8 months, until he began accurately and consistently producing the bilabial phonemes /p/, /b/, and /m/. A movement tracking system was used to…

This study of single-joint elbow flexion movements by 10 subjects with Down's syndrome (ages 14-19) and 6 control subjects concluded that there are no major qualitative deficits in the motor control mechanisms of individuals with Down's syndrome, but there might be problems with proper modulation of motor commands. (Author/JDD)

Compared the spontaneous leg movements of 10 infants with Down Syndrome to those of nondisabled infants matched for chronological age and motor age. Contrary to expectations, no significant difference was found in the frequency of leg movements between the two groups. However, Down Syndrome subjects demonstrated significantly fewer of the most…

Early intervention approaches for facilitating motor development in infants and children with Down syndrome have traditionally emphasised the acquisition of motor milestones. As increasing evidence suggests that motor milestones have limited predictive power for long-term motor outcomes, researchers have shifted their focus to understanding the…