This dissertation describes a program of research encompassing three studies that focused on examining the effects of enhanced expectancies and perceptions of success on motor learning. OPTIMAL theory (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016) proposes that practice manipulations that enhance a learner's expectations for future successful outcomes lead to…

An external focus of attention and autonomy support are identified as key factors to optimize motor learning; however, research in children is limited. Moreover, research has failed to examine these factors in ecologically valid motor learning settings, like physical education. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of external focus of…

Purpose: Research has demonstrated that verbal instructions directing attention externally (i.e., toward the effect of the movement) significantly enhance motor skill performance, and this effect is enhanced when the distance of the external focus relative to the body is increased. However, few studies have investigated this distance-of-focus…

Background: Pre-service teacher education (PSTE) programmes for generalist primary school teachers have limited time allocated to Physical Education, Health and Personal Development. In practice, teachers in schools are required to assess motor skills despite the fact that their training provides minimal preparation. This necessitates creative…

Background: The teaching strategies of modeling and the use of cue words are employed by both experienced and inexperienced teachers. While these strategies have received some attention in the literature, the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of the resultant change in the quality or kinematics of the motor skill performance has been…

The document provides information on the PREP Program for young moderately mentally retarded children, a program which offers individualized instruction in selected play skills, small group activity to facilitate the practice of play skills, and the encouragement of purposeful play within a stimulating free play environment. It is explained that…

The article provides guidelines and examples for developing individualized instructional programs in either concept development or motor skill development for moderately and severely handicapped learners. (DB)

A study tested the feasibility of a task-analytical instructional approach to developing vocational skills for severely and profoundly retarded individuals. During the study, each of 43 severely and profoundly retarded individuals received twelve 15-minute individual training sessions on each of four selected vocational tasks (the Stromberg…

There is an increasing body of literature on the education of retarded adults; yet it appears to lack visibility because of recent origin, limitation mostly to journals and specialized publications, and general content with sparse references to adults. Three broad interest areas appear in the literature -- the rationale for such education,…

Described is a structured, team-teaching, developmental approach for use with multiply handicapped children between the ages of 3 and 7. The program is explained to be child-centered, to involve individualized work and small group lessons, and to use the unit approach. Task analysis and developmental sequencing of skills are performed for each of…

The resource manual, in two parts, provides a compilation of methods for enhancing the development of handicapped children from birth to 5 years in the areas of motor, communication, cognition, self help, and social skills. The manual is intended to aid in (1) assessing and identifying target behaviors to be achieved, (2) identifying methods for…

The manual of alternative procedures for teaching handicapped children focuses on programming, planning, and implementing training in the gross motor (posture, limb control, locomotion) and fine motor (facial, digital) skills. The manual consists of the following sections: specific teaching tactics commonly used in motor training stiuations…

Six speakers consider programs for the retarded. Geraldine K. Fergen describes the challenge of special education; James O. Smith discusses planning appropriate language programs for children with retarded intellectual development; and Bobby Palk outlines the sequential development of skills in the trainable mentally retarded. Also treated are…

The inservice training package for teachers of severely and profoundly handicapped children consists of six field tested modules. Each module consists of the following components: objectives (general and specific), instructional methodology, instructor materials (lecture notes and transparencies), participant materials (worksheets and handouts),…