Background: The aims of this small exploratory study were to determine (1) whether adults with intellectual disability who had a recent history of falling had slower motor responses to postural perturbations than a sample of adults without disability when measured with the Motor Control Test (MCT) and (2) to identify any learning effects…

Prior research indicates that synchronized tapping performance is very poor with flashing visual stimuli compared with auditory stimuli. Three finger-tapping experiments compared flashing visual metronomes with visual metronomes containing a spatial component, either compatible, incompatible, or orthogonal to the tapping action. In Experiment 1,…

Representational Momentum (RepMo) refers to the phenomenon that the vanishing position of a moving target is perceived as displaced ahead in the direction of movement. Originally taken to reflect a strict internalization of physical momentum, the finding that the target implied mass did not have an effect led to its subsequent reinterpretation as…

Aim: This study compared the gross motor skills of school-age children (mean age 7y 8mo, range 6-9y) with developmental speech and language disorders (DSLDs; n = 105; 76 males, 29 females) and typically developing children (n = 105; 76 males, 29 females). The relationship between the performance parameters and the children's age was investigated…

Background: There is a relatively small body of research on the motor performance of children with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) and borderline intellectual functioning (BIF). Adequate levels of motor skills may contribute to lifelong enjoyment of physical activity, participation in sports and healthy lifestyles. The present study compares…

Background: This study analyzed the presence of awareness of movement disorders (dyskinesias and hypokinesias) in 25 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and motor fluctuations (dyskinesias, wearing off, on-off fluctuations). Of the few studies that have dealt with this topic, none have analyzed the differences in the awareness of motor deficits…

Current clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of…

Youth and Adolescents with Special Needs (YASN) face many challenges during transition into employment. Although most of their physical challenges are secondary, yet they call for attention since most of them are hired for blue collar jobs. Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) should be adapted to prepare them addressing the physical job-demands,…

Considering the wide use of Serious Games in application fields like cognitive learning, health education and rehabilitation and the recent developments of sensor and interface technology it is surprising that applications to motor learning in sport are rare. The aim of this study is to examine whether a specific learning effect can be elicited by…

Background: Previous research has indicated positive effects of early developmental intervention (EDI) on the development of children in developing countries. Few studies, however, have examined longitudinally when differential treatment effects may be observed and whether differential outcomes are associated with exposure to different risk…

This study investigated the influence of normative feedback on learning a sequential timing task. In addition to feedback about their performance per trial, two groups of participants received bogus normative feedback about a peer group's average block-to-block improvement after each block of 10 trials. Scores indicated either greater (better…

The objective of this study was to analyze the process and product of handwriting among children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) in comparison to those of Typically Developing (TD) children. Children with NF1 are at risk for some cognitive deficits, a wide range of deficits in perceptual skills and, motor and visual-motor integration skills…

Painful stiffening of the shoulder, "frozen shoulder" is a common cause of shoulder pain and disability. Continuous passive motion (CPM) is an established method of preventing joint stiffness and of overcoming it. A randomized, comparative prospective clinical trial was planned to compare the early response with different rehabilitation…

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics. Previous structural MRI studies have identified regional abnormalities in grey matter, especially in the basal ganglia. These findings are consistent with the assumption of alterations in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits and…

Speed-accuracy trade-offs in persons with Down syndrome and typically developing controls were tested with a Fitts' task. Movement time scaled linearly with index of difficulty in both groups, and there were no accuracy differences. Persons with Down syndrome were slower than typically developing individuals. Regression analysis on movement time…