Motor differentiation`s and cognitive skill in pre-scholar age

Little research has been produced about literacy readiness in Kindergarten children at risk for  Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), despite this age being one of the most important epoch of motor and cognitive development. In this study we compared pre-literacy skills in Kindergarten children at risk for Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) with Typically Developing (TD) children. Participants were 26 Italian children, who had a mean age of 5.1 years, 13 at risk for DCD and 13 TD attending kindergarten schools. Pre-literacy abilities were measured trough tasks derived by the Italian PRCR-2 battery: Semi-circles (A and B), Letter identification and Object Naming Time. Significant differences were found between children at risk for DCD and TD children on tasks of visual memory of printed signs, visual analysis ability, visual discrimination and attention and sequentiality of eye movements. Findings suggest the need to implement pre-school cognitively challenging motor activities programs to enhance manual dexterity, aiming and catching skills as well as static and dynamic balance at early ag

Effects of a Motivational Climate on Psychological Needs Satisfaction, Motivation and Commitment in Teen Handball Players

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the motivational climate created by the coach and perceived by a group of young high-performance handball players on their sport motivation, self-determination, sport psychological needs and sport commitment. The study participants were 479 young handball players. The age range was 16–17 years old. Players were administered a battery composed of a Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire, Sport Motivation Scale, the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale and Sport Commitment Questionnaire to measure the above-mentioned theoretical constructs. Results showed that the handball players showed high levels of a task-involving climate, of basic psychological needs satisfaction and of self-determined motivation and commitment. Higher levels of basic psychological needs such as autonomy and competence were associated with a higher task-involving climate, self-determined index and sport commitment (task-involving climate–basic psychological needs (β = 0.55; 95% IC 0.387/0.682; p = 0.001); Ego-involving climate–basic psychological needs (β = 0.06; 95% IC −0.069/0.181; p = 0.387); Basic psychological needs–self-determined index (β = 0.48; 95% IC 0.376/0.571; p = 0.001); Self-determined index–commitment (β = 0.58; 95% IC 0.488/0.663; p = 0.001). The obtained model showed that basic psychological needs mediated the association between a task-involving climate and self-determination, and self-determination mediated the association between basic psychological needs satisfaction and commitment

Effects of an adapted physical activity program on psychophysical health in elderly women

Background: Several studies have shown the positive effects of adapted physical activity (APA) on physical and mental health (MH) during the lifetime. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific APA intervention program in the improvement of the health-related quality of life (QOL) and functional condition of spine in elderly women. Methods: Thirty women were recruited from a senior center and randomly assigned to two groups: control group (CG; age: 69.69±7.94 years, height: 1.57±0.06 m, weight: 68.42±8.18 kg, body mass index [BMI]: 27.88±2.81) and trained group (TG; age: 68.35±6.04 years, height: 1.55±0.05 m, weight: 64.78±10.16 kg, BMI: 26.98±3.07). The APA program was conducted for 8 weeks, with two training sessions/week. CG did not perform any physical activity during the study. Spinal angles were evaluated by SpinalMouse® (Idiag, Volkerswill, Switzerland); health-related QOL was evaluated by SF-36 Health Survey, which assesses physical component summary (PCS-36), mental component summary (MCS-36), and eight subscales: physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health perception, role-emotional, social functioning, vitality, and MH. All measures were recorded before and after the experimental period. Results: In TG, compared to CG, the two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures with Bonferroni post hoc test showed a relevant improvement in lumbar spinal angle (°) and in SF-36 outcomes after the intervention period. We showed a significant increase in physical functioning, bodily pain, and MH subscales and in PCS-36 and MCS-36 scores in TG compared to CG. In particular, from baseline to posttest, we found that in TG, the PCS-36 and MCS-36 scores increased by 13.20% and 11.64%, respectively. Conclusion: We believe that an 8-week APA intervention program is able to improve psychophysical heath in elderly people. During the aging process, a dynamic lifestyle, including regular physical activity, is a crucial factor for public and health care systems to improve QOL and physical fitness in aging people

Soccer pactice as an add-on treatment in the management of individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

Abstract: Physical activity is an important aspect of good health for everyone; it is even more important for psychiatric patients who usually live an unhealthy lifestyle. In recent years, there has been growing focus on the use of soccer as a vehicle to improve the health of subjects with severe mental illness. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of soccer practice on the self-reported health quality of life (SRHQL) and sports performance (SP) in psychotic subjects. Eighteen male patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia were randomized into either a trained (TG) or a control group (CG). The TG was trained for 12 weeks using two soccer training sessions per week. The CG did not perform any regular sports activity during the experimental period. Anthropometric measurements, SRHQL, personal time records in a 30 meter sprint test and slalom test running with a ball were evaluated before and after the experimental period. SRHQL was assessed using Short Form-12 questionnaire measuring physical and mental component summary scores. After the training period, the TG showed a relevant decrease by 4.6% in bodyweight (BW) and body mass index compared to baseline. Conversely, the CG showed an increased BW and body mass index by 1.8% from baseline to posttest. Moreover, after 12 weeks we found that control patients increased their BW significantly when compared to trained patients (Δ = 5.4%; P , 0.05). After the training period, comparing the baseline TG’s Short Form-12-scores to posttest results, we found an improvement of 10.5% and 10.8% in physical component summary and mental component summary, respectively. In addition, performances on the 30 meter sprint test and slalom test running with a ball in the TG improved significantly (P , 0.01) from baseline to posttest when compared to CG. Soccer practice appears able to improve psychophysical health in individuals with diagnosis of schizophrenia. Indeed, our study demonstrated that programmed soccer physical activity could reduce antipsychotic medication-related weight gain and improve SRHQL and sports performance in psychotic subjects. Keywords: schizophrenia, mental illness, psychotic subjects, sport, exercise, socce

The sit up test to exhaustion as a test for muscular endurance evaluation

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS The aim of this study was to examine the sit up test to exhaustion as a field test for muscular endurance evaluation in a sample of sedentary people of both sexes. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed. Three-hundred-eighty-one participants volunteered for the study (28.5 \ub1 10.0 years; 168.2 \ub1 8.9 cm; 65.1 \ub1 11.1 kg), of which 194 males (27.5 \ub1 10.2 years; 173.6 \ub1 7.0 cm; 71.2 \ub1 5.2 kg) and 187 females (29.6 \ub1 10.1 years; 162.6 \ub1 7.1 cm; 58.7 \ub1 8.9 kg). Each subject voluntarily and randomly performed: a sit up test (SUT), a push up test (PUT), and a free weight squat test (ST), all till exhaustion. A multiple regression analysis was adopted for data analysis. Subsequently a percentile model for muscle endurance was developed. The 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile were identified as upper limit for low muscular endurance, average muscular endurance, and lower limit for high muscular endurance, respectively. RESULTS: Considering the sit up test as the dependent variable, the coefficients (R(2) = 0.23; r = 0.49; p < 0.001), and (R(2) = 0.31; r = 0.57; p < 0.001) emerged from a multiple regression analysis applied with respect to the push up test and the squat test, respectively. Gender stratification showed regression coefficients of (R(2) = 0.19; r = 0.44; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. PUT, and (R(2) = 0.30; r = 0.56; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. ST in male; and (R(2) = 0.23; r = 0.49; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. PUT, and (R(2) = 0.34; r = 0.59; p < 0.001) for SUT vs. ST in female. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The SUT showed low inter-relation with the other proposed tests indicating that the adoption of a single test for the global evaluation of muscle endurance is not the optimal approach. Moreover, the SUT was found to be inexpensive, safe, and appropriate for core muscle endurance measurement for both male and female

Effects of a ludic-motor program on motor development and early literacy skills in preschool children

There is insufficient evidence in the literature about many correlations between motor and cognitive skills in 3-5 year old children [1]. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the development of the gross motor skills and the prerequisites of reading/writing following a ludic-motor program (LMP) in pre-school children. This study has involved 189 children (age: 4.62 ± 0.97 years; height: 107.83 ± 7.82 cm, body weight: 19.84 ± 4.95 kg) attending 8 kindergartens in Palermo. The children were randomly divided in a control group (C, n= 29), a 1-intervention group (I-1, n= 120) and a 2-intervention group (I-2, n= 40). I-1 and I-2 respectively performed 4 and 10 hours/week of a 16-week LMP carried out by outside experts; while C children do not perform any LMP. This program was planned in 21 learning modules aimed to develop bodily schemes, basic motor skills, fine motor control and coordination abilities. Before and after the LMP, locomotor and object control skills were evaluated with the Test of Gross Motor Development, while early reading/writing skills with the PRCR-2 test. Analyses of covariance were performed to compare outcomes for I1, I2 and C groups at post-test and the covariate was the participants’ measure of cognitive skills at pre-test. Statistical significance was defined at

Effects of Commitment on Fear of Failure and Burnout in Teen Spanish Handball Players

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors if they are requested, and without undue reservation ([email protected]).The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad de Murcia (ID: 1494/2017). Participants and participants’ legal guardian/next of kin provided their written informed consent to participate in the study.Under an observational, transversal, and descriptive design, the study analyze the degree of adjustment of the perceptions of fear of failure as a mediating variable of the estimated relationship between sporting commitment and the appearance of burnout in young handball players in a competitive context. The sample included a total of 479 youth category handball players (250 boys and 229 girls) selected to compete in the Spanish Regional Championships. The age range was 16 (40.1%)-17 (59.9%) years old (M = 16.60; SD = 0.50). With regard to the years of experience variable, 85.4% stated that they have more than 5 years of experience at the federated handball player level. The Spanish version of Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI), Inventory Athletes Burnout Revised (IBD-R), and Sport Commitment Questionnaire (SCQE) were used to assess fear of failure. The correlation patterns evidence that commitment is negative and significantly associated with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and fear of failure and positively associated with reduced sense of personal accomplishment. In the standardized direct effect, negative and significant effects were observed between commitment and fear of failure, fear of failure with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and on the contrary, a negative and significant effect was observed between fear of failure and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. The evaluated athletes reflect a positive psychological disposition, show pride in having been selected by their territorial teams and reflect a high desire to show their sporting qualities. Despite the emergence of cognitive-emotional processes associated with fear of failure (e.g., shame, fear of criticism), this has been observed to protect the sense of self-fulfillment through sport effort, although it also has impacts on further emotional exhaustion and loss of value of sport effort

Social closeness,salivary hormones and physical exercise

Introduction: Saliva collection and analysis is quickly becoming a useful and non-invasive tool for the evaluation of sport biomarkers. The aim of this study is to create a multidisciplinary assessment model, which can help to provide psychological and physiological responses, related to sport performances, social closeness and performance anxiety management in team sports. Materials and methods: We enrolled in our research 26 female volleyball players aged 13 ± 1 years old of three different teams (T1: 12 players; T2: 9 players; T3: 5 players). Saliva collection was carried out before and after the match for every team. Then we analyzed cortisol and progesterone concentrations through Elisa standard kits. Results: The results of the T-test performed on the total results showed a statistically significant relationship (p < 0.05) in cortisol levels pre and post match: in fact, it has been shown a statistical significant decrease (p < 0.001). The analysis performed using just samples post match shows a negative correlation between social closeness, cortisol and progesterone levels, with p < 0.010 for progesterone vs social closeness and p < 0.012 for cortisol vs social closeness, which indicates that increasing of one of the two hormones reduces relationship. About the winner teams and the looser teams, there is a negative correlation between pre match cortisol levels and performance anxiety (p < 0.042)

The Development of Motor and Pre-literacy Skills by a Physical Education Program in Preschool Children: A Non-randomized Pilot Trial

It is known in the literature that fundamental motor skill acquisition is strongly associated with the development of neuromotor, cognitive, social, and emotional aspects in childhood. Unfortunately, in Italy, the physical education teacher is not included in the school’s core personnel, and it is very hard to find a specific physical education program (PEP) that could improve preschool children’s motor and cognitive status. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the quotient of gross motor development (QGMD) and pre-literacy skills concerning visual analysis and spatial orientation abilities changed after 16 weeks of PEP (2 h/week) in preschool children. We conducted a school-based non-randomized pilot trial. It involved 119 preschool children, clustered in a control group [CG, n = 29, body mass index (BMI): 16.90 ± 3.16 Kg/m2] and an intervention group (IG, n = 90, BMI: 16.00 ± 1.75 kg/m2). Participants were assessed for literacy readiness, locomotor and object control skills before and after the experimental period. IG increased the locomotor, object-control skills and QGMD in response to PEP. As concerns the pre-literacy domain, no significant difference was found in visual analysis and spatial orientation skills between IG and CG groups. However, we detected improvements from baseline to post-test in IG children. In conclusion, this study contributes additional evidence suggesting how a PEP could affect not only motor skills, but also cognitive ones. Consistently with the growing research, interventions based on structured ludic-motor activities ensure health benefits for preschool children.Clinical Trial Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT01274117