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The study of visually-guided reaching has been a meaningful tool to investigate sensory-motor coordination in typical development and different clinical paediatric populations. The aim of this study was to characterize the development of multi-joint reaching behaviour in children and youth, from 5 to 16 years of age, allowing us to capture changes that may occur into adolescence. Participants were 68 able-bodied children and youth, with no history of developmental, educational or social problems. A stratified recruitment strategy was used to adequately represent five age groups: I (5-6 years), II (7-8 years), III (9-10 years), IV (11-13 years) and V (14-16 years). A center-out reaching task was used as it allowed us to measure effects of limb mechanics during reaching. Different patterns of inter-segmental motions at the shoulder and elbow joints were needed to reach the different targets: flexion at both joints, extension at both joints, and a mixed-coordination pattern. Children were asked to reach quickly and accurately to 8 targets located at 45 degree intervals around the perimeter of a circle with a 6 cm radius. The development of reaching was described using non-parametric statistics. The global features of path length and total movement decreased as a function of increasing age, with less variability observed in older participants (p<0.05). This increased accuracy was explained by a significant reduction (p<0.05) in distance and direction error of the first movement component of the reach, indicative of the increasing ability of children to accurately plan movements based on an internal representation of the limb. These older children were also able to respond to the visual target more quickly (p<0.05). In general, initial direction errors and total movement time increased from a minimum for the 2-joint flexion coordination to a maximum for the mixed-coordination pattern. The magnitude of error, however, decreased as a function of age (p<0.05), and in particular for the mixed-coordination pattern (p<0.01). This center-out task is therefore considered to be responsive to observe effects of development and limb mechanics on performance. The established normative data set will provide a reference for the measures of performance in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. / Thesis (Master, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2009-11-30 11:29:28.718

Being hearing impaired does not only affect a child’s academic performance, but can also influence a child’s overall development and ability to succeed academically. Evidence suggests that the outlay in early childhood has a large impact on a child’s readiness to learn. Neurodevelopmental movement programmes are generally not accepted as evidenced-based practice and their effect on academic performance is often underrated. Movement, however, is regarded by many as essential to learning and there seems to be a positive interchange between the brain and the body. This study reports on the influence of a neurodevelopmental movement programme on the development, behaviour and performance on a neurodevelopmental evaluation scale of four to eight year-old children with hearing impairment children. The study furthermore provides a report of the results of the psychometric assessment in the form of a neurodevelopmental profile for this specific sample. Children were selected from a special needs school in the rural QwaQwa Free State area of South Africa. Two groups of children (an experimental and comparison group) were used in this study, with both groups undergoing a pretest and posttest phase using three test batteries (Griffiths Mental Developmental Scales- Extended Revised, Child Behaviour Checklist, and a neurodevelopmental evaluation scale). The experimental group was subjected to a fourteen-week neurodevelopmental movement programme. The comparison group underwent a placebo intervention. The results indicate that the children in the experimental group showed an improvement in some aspects of specific development following the intervention (locomotor functioning, performance related abilities, and practical reasoning skills). General developmental age showed significant improvement in both the experimental group and the comparison group. No behavioural aspects showed significant improvements following the intervention, whereas some neurodevelopmental aspects, such as the vestibular system (Tandem Walk and One Leg Stand) and the reflex system (TLR – reflex) showed significant improvements. The results of this empirical investigation aid in understanding the impact of movement programmes on a child with hearing disability’s general development and neurodevelopmental development. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Being hearing impaired does not only affect a child’s academic performance, but can also influence a child’s overall development and ability to succeed academically. Evidence suggests that the outlay in early childhood has a large impact on a child’s readiness to learn. Neurodevelopmental movement programmes are generally not accepted as evidenced-based practice and their effect on academic performance is often underrated. Movement, however, is regarded by many as essential to learning and there seems to be a positive interchange between the brain and the body. This study reports on the influence of a neurodevelopmental movement programme on the development, behaviour and performance on a neurodevelopmental evaluation scale of four to eight year-old children with hearing impairment children. The study furthermore provides a report of the results of the psychometric assessment in the form of a neurodevelopmental profile for this specific sample. Children were selected from a special needs school in the rural QwaQwa Free State area of South Africa. Two groups of children (an experimental and comparison group) were used in this study, with both groups undergoing a pretest and posttest phase using three test batteries (Griffiths Mental Developmental Scales- Extended Revised, Child Behaviour Checklist, and a neurodevelopmental evaluation scale). The experimental group was subjected to a fourteen-week neurodevelopmental movement programme. The comparison group underwent a placebo intervention. The results indicate that the children in the experimental group showed an improvement in some aspects of specific development following the intervention (locomotor functioning, performance related abilities, and practical reasoning skills). General developmental age showed significant improvement in both the experimental group and the comparison group. No behavioural aspects showed significant improvements following the intervention, whereas some neurodevelopmental aspects, such as the vestibular system (Tandem Walk and One Leg Stand) and the reflex system (TLR – reflex) showed significant improvements. The results of this empirical investigation aid in understanding the impact of movement programmes on a child with hearing disability’s general development and neurodevelopmental development. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

xii, 179 leaves : tables ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.1979) from the Dept. of Psychology, University of Adelaide

xii, 179 leaves : tables ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.1979) from the Dept. of Psychology, University of Adelaide

Elite swimmers can be distinguished from novice swimmers by freestyle stroke technique. Elite swimmers move through multiple coordination modes, increases in stroke lengths, stroke rates, and body roll allowing for a more symmetrical stroke and increased speed compared with novice swimmer during 100m freestyle. Coaches strive to improve swimmers’ performance by providing feedback about stroke technique, mostly from the pool deck where view of the full stroke cycle is obstructed by the water. Tools to assess swimming are often expensive and require extra training, which does not provide a pragmatic solution. A dryland rotational swimbench would provide a means to evaluate freestyle swimming. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the sensory motor system of elite and novice level swimmers by comparing kinematic, coordinative structures and spatial-temporal characteristics of freestyle stroke on a dryland swimbench with a rotational component. Thirty elite and novice collegiate and masters swimmers were instrumented with reflective markers bilaterally on the upper extremity and torso. A series of four ten second trials of freestyle sprint swimming were performed on the swimbench. Repeated measures were used for statistical analysis for comparison between and within groups. Bonferroni corrections were used as post-hoc analysis. Results indicated no significant difference between elite and novice swimmers’ sensory-motor system, kinematics or spatio-temporal systems on a rotational swimbench. Similarities could be accounted for by swimmers perceiving a novel task due to differences in sensory feedback, and mechanical limitations of the bench. It is noteworthy that catch-up/opposition coordination are more common than superposition which provides support for the swimbench providing a more similar representation to in water swimming.

<p>The aim of this study was to explore the use of play with toddlers who are HIV positive to facilitate play, playfulness and sensory-motor development. The objectives were to explore how the therapist facilitated play, to explore how the child responded to the intervention, to explore how playfulness manifested as a facilitatory strategy and to explore how playfulness manifested as a response. A qualitative approach framed the case study research method with three participants between the ages of twelve months and three years. The main source of data was a record of the play-based intervention with the three participants. Additional data was obtained from participant observation of the children&rsquo / s responses to the play-based intervention, and hospital and occupational therapy record notes. A theory analytical strategy was used by coding data using theoretic propositions inductively. Each case was first analyzed individually, and then an analysis was made across the cases. Qualitative analysis of the data was done manually by coding, seeking categories and eliciting emergent themes by using an analytical strategy of theoretical propositions and an analytical technique of explanation building. Coding was done inductively, using theoretical constructs from the occupation by design, namely the elements of appeal, intactness and accuracy. Signs of playfulness were coded according to evidence of the elements of playfulness, namely perception of control, intrinsic motivation, suspension of reality or framing were evident in the data. Findings of the study were reported under two themes: Playful enablement &ndash / the therapist and Engaging, playing and developing &ndash / the child.</p>

We propose a developmental framework that enables the robot to learn affordances through interaction with the environment in an unsupervised way and to use these affordances at different levels of robot control, ranging from reactive response to planning. Inspired from Developmental Psychology, the robot&rsquo / s discovery of action possibilities is realized in two sequential phases. In the first phase, the robot that initially possesses a limited number of basic actions and reflexes discovers new behavior primitives by exercising these actions and by monitoring the changes created in its initially crude perception system. In the second phase, the robot explores a more complicated environment by executing the discovered behavior primitives and using more advanced perception to learn further action possibilities. For this purpose, first, the robot discovers commonalities in action-effect experiences by finding effect categories, and then builds predictors for each behavior to map object features and behavior parameters into effect categories. After learning affordances through self-interaction and self-observation, the robot can make plans to achieve desired goals, emulate end states of demonstrated actions, monitor the plan execution and take corrective actions using the perceptual structures employed or discovered during learning. Mobile and manipulator robots were used to realize the proposed framework. Similar to infants, these robots were able to form behavior repertoires, learn affordances, and gain prediction capabilities. The learned affordances were shown to be relative to the robots, provide perceptual economy and encode general relations. Additionally, the affordance-based planning ability was verified in various tasks such as table cleaning and object transportation.

Maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy can induce a range of behavioral and cognitive deficits in offspring, which are collectively termed Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). There are significant delays in motor development and sensory-motor skills in children with FASD, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of these deficits are poorly understood. The goal of this research project is to test the hypothesis that the Kinesiological Instrument for Normal and Altered Reaching Movements (KINARM) will serve as an effective tool for identifying and measuring specific, neurologically-based motor deficits in children with FASD. These deficits were revealed through investigation of multi-joint upper limb movements during the performance of sensory-motor tasks. Children (31 FASD; 83 controls, aged 5 to 18 years, male and female) performed: (1) a visually-guided reaching task with fingertip feedback only; and children (31 FASD; 49 controls, aged 5 to 18 years, male and female) performed: (2) an arm position-matching task in the absence of visual feedback. Children with FASD differed significantly from controls in many reaching task outcome measures, specifically those related to the initial motor response and corrective responses. In particular, large effect sizes were observed for outcome measures related to the first (initial) movement (corresponding to feedforward control; e.g., direction error; distance error), as well as for those measures related to corrective responses (corresponding to feedback control; e.g., difference between minimum and maximum hand speeds; number of speed peaks during movement). In the position-matching task, children with FASD constricted the spatial workspace of the subject-controlled arm relative to the robot-controlled arm, in the horizontal axis. There was also observed a systematic shift between the subject- and robot-controlled arms in the XY end position, resulting in significant error. Additionally, children with FASD exhibited significantly increased trial-to-trial variability for final hand position of the subject-controlled arm, over all targets, and for which large effect sizes were observed. The results suggest that children with FASD have difficulty integrating sensory information into planned motor movements. The KINARM is a promising research tool that may be used to assess motor control deficits in children affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-02 15:10:25.653