Difficulty performing age-appropriate motor skills affects up to 83% of children with autism spectrum disorder. This systematic review examined the effect of motor and physical activity intervention on motor outcomes of children with autism spectrum disorder and the effect of motor learning strategies on motor skill acquisition, retention, and…

Purpose: Despite the strong belief in sports programs as a setting in which socially vulnerable youth can develop life skills, no overview exists of life skill development in sports programs serving this youth group. Therefore, the present systematic review provides an overview of the evidence on life skill development in sports programs serving…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative has placed an increased focus on mathematics and English language arts. A relationship between physical activity and academic achievement is evident, but research on integration of academic subjects with physical education is still unclear. This literature review examined databases for the years…

Background: This article draws on the literature relating to game-centred approaches (GCAs), such as Teaching Games for Understanding, and dynamical systems views of motor learning to demonstrate a convergence of ideas around games as complex adaptive learning systems. This convergence is organized under the title "complexity thinking"…

Purpose: Since Sallis and McKenzie's seminal article in 1991 outlining physical education's role in public health, increased attention has been given to promoting youth physical activity in schools. The present study systematically reviewed the literature from 1991 to 2013 to identify recommendations for the preparation of physical…

This review of literature focuses on health issues for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ID), Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), and Multiple Impairments (MI). This population has two to three times higher overweight and obesity prevalence than typically developing individuals. Furthermore, they have higher risk for…

Purpose: This study examined the impact of published national physical activity (PA) and health guidelines, documents, and initiatives on the evolution of research on teaching K-12 physical education (PE) in U.S.A. from 1996 to October 2013. Methods: A total of 262 peer-reviewed, data-based journal articles meeting our inclusion and exclusion…

The purpose of this study was to document the top journals classified in the area of kinesiology in three bibliometric databases and the associations between the main bibliometric indicators reported through them. The Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports was searched for journals indexed (n = 85) in the sport sciences category for 2011.…

Background: Many critical curriculum theorists in physical education have advocated a model- or models-based approach to teaching in the subject. This paper explores the literature base around models-based practice (MBP) and asks if this multi-models approach to curriculum planning has the potential to be the great white hope of pedagogical change…

Purpose: Much of the information physical educators learn about children with disabilities occurs in an introduction to adapted physical education course. Because disabilities often have concomitant medical conditions, it is critical that PE teachers are knowledgeable about risks and safety measures for children with special needs. The purpose of…

This literature review examines curricular space allocated to activity based/movement content courses in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) pre-service programs, specifically focusing on how dance content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge are addressed within those programs. This review includes original empirical research…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine what trends exist in the identification and description of participants with disabilities used in school-based physical education research. A total of 60 research articles published in the "Journal of Teaching in Physical Education" from 2010-2014 which included school-aged individuals…

SHAPE America -- Society of Health and Physical Educators has targeted youth physical activity (PA) as 1 of its 4 goals within the 50 Million Strong[TM] campaign. Only 27.1% of youth met the target of all students (preK-12) participating in at least 60 min of PA that increases their heart rate enough to breathe hard at least some of the time for…

This article provides an introduction to the literature on interdisciplinary research. It then draws lessons from that literature for the field of adapted physical activity. It is argued that adapted physical activity should be a self-consciously interdisciplinary field. It should insist that research be performed according to recognized…

Quality inclusive physical activity (PA) programmes have demonstrated vast benefits for individuals with (e.g.) and without disabilities. For example, among people with disabilities, PA participation is related to enhanced social inclusion, reduced risk for secondary health conditions, optimised physical functioning, and improved overall…