Introduction/Background: In 2016, the Adolescent Motor Competence Questionnaire (AMCQ) was developed in Australia. The AMCQ was developed to assess perceived motor competence in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years. The 26 items represent four factors: participation in physical activity and sports, activities of daily living, public…

There is a dearth of research in aquatic motor competency, a key requirement for primary physical education in order to become physically literate. This study proposes a new assessment protocol for aquatic motor competence and sets out to examine the validity of the Aquatic Movement Protocol (AMP) in children between 7 and 9 years of age. Testing…

Aim: To examine the latent structure of the "Test of Gross Motor Development--Third Edition" (TGMD-3) with a bifactor modeling approach. In addition, the study examines the dimensionality and model-based reliability of general and specific contributions of the test's subscales and measurement invariance of the TGMD-3. Methods: A…

Environments where children move about provide affordances that play a significant role in their development. This research presents the Affordances for Motor Behavior of Schoolchildren assessment tool, which aims to assess the interdependent systems, such as home, school, and sports activities, that can influence 6- to 10-year-old children's…

The Test of Gross Motor Development--Second Edition (TGMD-2) is a widely used evaluation tool of children's fundamental motor skills (FMS). This study illustrates how exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) addresses current limitations associated with TGMD-2 factor structure. Using the normative dataset from the TGMD-2 manual, we test…

Impaired motor cognition may underpin empathy problems in autism. The actions and feelings questionnaire (AFQ), designed to examine individual differences in motor cognition, was completed fully by 1391 adults, of whom 326 reported a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition (ASC). A confirmatory factor analysis supported a 3 factor model. The AFQ…

During the first year of life, infants possess some of the key social--cognitive abilities required for success in a social world: Infants interpret others' actions in terms of their intentions and can use this understanding prospectively to generate predictions about others' behavior. Exactly how these foundational abilities develop is currently…

Electrodermal activity was examined as a measure of physiological arousal within a naturalistic play context in 2-year-old toddlers (N = 27) with and without autism spectrum disorder. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorder were found to have greater increases in skin conductance level than their typical peers in response to administered play…

Adaptive behaviour is a crucial area of assessment for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study examined the adaptive behaviour profile of 77 young children with ASD using the Vineland-II, and analysed factors associated with adaptive functioning. Consistent with previous research with the original Vineland a distinct autism…

Joint attention, or the shared focus of attention between objects or events and a social partner, is a crucial milestone in the development of social communication and a notable area of deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder. While valid parent-report screening measures of social communication are available, the majority of these…

Background: Nonverbal communication abilities, including gesture use, are impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about how common gestures may influence or be influenced by other areas of development. Aims: To examine the relationships between gesture, fine motor and language in young children with ASD compared with a…

Children's early motor competence is associated with social development and academic achievement. However, few studies have examined teacher reports of children's motor skills. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Motor Skills Rating Scale (MSRS), a 19-item measure of children's teacher-reported motor skills in the classroom.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying structure of the second edition of the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (Ulrich, 2000) as applied to Chinese children. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 was administered to 626 Hong Kong Chinese children. The outlier test with standard scoring was utilized. After data screening, a total…

Previously, we adapted the Home Situations Questionnaire to measure behavioral non-compliance in everyday settings in children with pervasive developmental disorders. In this study, we further revised this instrument for use in autism spectrum disorder and examined its psychometric properties (referred to as the Home Situations…

How do infants learn to perceive the backs of objects that they see only from a limited viewpoint? Infants' 3-dimensional object completion abilities emerge in conjunction with developing motor skills--independent sitting and visual-manual exploration. Infants at 4.5 to 7.5 months of age (n = 28) were habituated to a limited-view object and tested…