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Several recent studies revealed that physical activity programs that focus on fundamental motor skills could enhance both motor and social performance. The purpose of this pilot was to explore whether the social impairment of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) moderated the motor outcomes of a physical activity program. Nine children with ASD attended a 2-week program that adopted the Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching. Significant improvements on motor skills were found in all participants. Furthermore, children with more social impairment demonstrated greater motor improvement in comparison to those with less social problems. Findings suggest the importance of social factors on the outcomes of physical activity programs and the interplays between social and motor domains in ASD interventions., Author(s): Jin Bo [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , YanLi Pang [sup.1] , Liangsan Dong [sup.1] , Yu Xing [sup.1] , Yuan Xiang [sup.1] , Mingting Zhang [sup.1] , Morgan Wright [sup.3] [...]

Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine if there is a specific association between motor delays and receptive and expressive language function, respectively, in prematurely born children. Method: Retrospective data review: 126 premature children < 1,250-g birthweight from English-speaking families were evaluated on motor development (normal, mild delay, and moderate-severe delay) and the cognitive and language scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (Bayley, 2006) at 18 months corrected age. Cognitive scores were categorized as normal, suspect, and abnormal. Gender, demographic, and perinatal variables were recorded and analyzed with respect to motor category. Results: Lower birthweight, chronic need for oxygen, severe intraventricular hemorrhage, and intestinal infection/ inflammation were related to poorer motor development. On receptive language, the normal motor group attained significantly higher scores than the moderate-severe motor group but did not differ significantly from the mild delay motor group. On expressive language, the normal motor group had significantly higher scores than both the mild and moderate-severe groups. Girls performed better than boys on receptive and expressive language, but there was no significant interaction between gender and motor category on any of the Bayley scores. Cognitive, but not motor, category significantly contributed to variance of receptive language scores; cognitive and motor category each independently contributed to the variance in expressive language. Conclusion: Findings suggest that motor control areas of the brain may be implicated in expressive language development of premature children. Further research is needed to determine the underlying factors for the association between motor and expressive language function., Children born prematurely and at very low birth-weight (VLBW) are well known to have both receptive and expressive language delays as compared with children born at full term (deJong, Verhoeven, [...]

Motor and social difficulties are often found in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), to varying degrees. This study investigated the extent of overlap of these problems in children aged 7-10 years who had a diagnosis of either ASD or DCD, compared to typically-developing controls. Children completed motor and face processing assessments. Parents completed questionnaires concerning their child's early motor and current motor and social skills. There was considerable overlap between the ASD and DCD groups on the motor and social assessments, with both groups more impaired than controls. Furthermore, motor skill predicted social functioning for both groups. Future research should consider the relationships between core symptoms and their consequences in other domains., Author(s): Emma Sumner[sup.1] , Hayley C. Leonard[sup.2] , Elisabeth L. Hill[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, SE14 6NW, LondonUK (2) Department of Psychology, [...]

Self-Concept and DCD-China Introduction: Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have been found to experience poor fundamental movement skills (FMS), proficiency and physical self-concept. However, the correlation of FMS proficiency [...]