Fine motor skills develop in childhood. In this study, we evaluate motor planning in 6- to 11-year-old children using a pegboard and midline crossing task. The results of the pegboard task showed that children modified their strategies of hand use and space use as a function of age, albeit with a transition in the 8- to 9-year-old children. The…

Impairments in postural control affect the development of motor and social skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This review compared the effect of different sensory conditions on static standing postural control between ASD and neurotypical individuals. Results from 19 studies indicated a large difference in postural control…

Research on visual local and global perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is incomplete in young children. We investigated 35 three-year-old siblings of children with ASD, either diagnosed (n = 12) or not diagnosed (n = 23) with ASD as well as 14 controls with typical development and with no family history of ASD. Data from the local tasks…

This study was designed to examine the cultural sensitivity of the PDMS-2 for Portuguese preschool children aged 36-71 months. A total of 540 children (255 males and 285 females) from 15 public preschools of Viana do Castelo, Portugal, were assessed. Age and gender effects in motor performance were examined. Results indicated that PDMS-2 is valid…

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…

The present study focused on the mechanism subserving the production of kinematic patterns in 21 children with 22q11.2DS (mean age=9.6 [plus or minus] 1.9; mean FSIQ=73.05 [plus or minus] 10.2) and 21 age- and IQ-matched control children (mean age=9.6 [plus or minus] 1.9; mean FSIQ=73.38 [plus or minus] 12.0) when performing a visuo-manual…

This study examined and compared the control of posture during bilateral stance in ten boys with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) of 6-8 years old and ten matched typically developing boys in four sensory conditions (with or without vision, on a firm or complaint surface). In all conditions mean postural sway velocity was larger for the…

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…

Evaluation of 54 mentally retarded pupils, aged 10 to 13, in 1979 and comparison with six samples of mentally normal pupils collected during the last two decades confirm that prevalence of additional problems among mentally retarded pupils is greater as compared to mentally normal pupils with respect to nine variables. (NEC)