Background: Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities tend to engage in low levels of physical activity, which puts them at risk for chronic health conditions, poor balance and gait difficulties. Nordic walking could improve gait, balance, strength, endurance and respiratory function while enjoying nature. Method: Thirty-four…

Background: Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a slowly progressive multi-systemic disease with an autosomal-dominant inheritance caused by a mutation on chromosome 19 (19q13.3). Aims: To explore speech characteristics in a group of individuals with the congenital and childhood-onset forms of DM1 in terms of intelligibility, speech-sound…

This randomized controlled trial aimed to investigate the effect of short-term intensive TKD training on the isokinetic knee muscle strength and reactive and static balance control of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Among the 44 children with DCD (mean age: 7.6 plus or minus 1.3 years) recruited, 21 were randomly assigned…

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by poor motor proficiency that interferes with a child's activities of daily living. Activities that most young children engage in such as running, walking, and jumping are important for the proper development of fitness and overall health. However, children…

Health-related physical fitness is an important risk factor of cardiovascular disease. While previous studies have identified children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) to be less physically fit than typically developing (TD) peers, there is limited longitudinal research in this area. This study was undertaken to evaluate concomitant…

The concurrent validity of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) and the McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (MAND) was investigated in an Australian sample of 38 girls and 91 boys aged 9-12 years (M = 11.15, SD = 0.81). The MAND identified 44 children with motor impairment (MI) and 85 children without MI. The…

This book concentrates on activities to meet the needs of children and adults who are deficient in basic physical fitness components, who are handicapped in some respect: posture faults, poor flexibility, weight problems, or other inadequacies which interfere with their effective participation in physical education activities. It stresses…

The effectiveness of an exercise training program for 52 adults with Down syndrome (M age = 39.4 years) was evaluated. The training program consisted of cardiovascular (30 minutes) and strength exercise (15 minutes) for 12 weeks, 3 days a week for 45-minutes per session. Compared to control subjects, the training group improved significantly in…

A variety of topics on human development is covered in this annual report. The 11 articles are: (1) "Young Children's Personifying and Vitalistic Biology" (Kayoko Inagaki and Giyoo Hatano); (2) "Acoustic Analysis of Natural Maternal Speech to Preschool Language Impaired and Normal Children" (Debora L. Scheffel and Murray…

A study focused on developmentally delayed children who participated in a home-based, parent intervention motor development program. The major question considered was: Is there any difference in gross and fine motor mean scores obtained on the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (field test edition), received by children who participated in the…