Ecological validity of the PERF-FIT: correlates of active play, motor performance and motor skill-related physical fitness

Data availability statement: Data will be made available on request.Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Background: Active games are important health enhancing physical activities in children with and without developmental disorders and will help children to develop fundamental motor skills, while inactivity exacerbates coordination difficulties and increases the risk of obesity. Regular engagement in active play promotes physical, social and cognitive development. It is therefore important to know if children have the capabilities for healthy behavior. Motor skills and muscular fitness are both important components to participate in play, sport and leisure. The Performance and Fitness (PERF-FIT) test battery integrates motor skills (running, jumping, hopping, catching, bouncing, throwing, balance) and muscular fitness (explosive power and muscular endurance) needed in many forms of active play. Aim: To test the ecological validity of the PERF-FIT test battery; a field-based test integrating motor skill proficiency and muscular fitness. Methods: Seventy-five children were assessed on the PERF-FIT, Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC)-2 and performance in 6 active games was scored. Of these children, 52 children scored in the normal range and 23 (or 30.3%) below the 16th percentile of the MABC-2. Association between the outcomes of the two tests and the 6 games was calculated. Results: High to moderate associations were found between game scores and PERF-FIT items; moderate to low associations between game scores and MABC-2 items. Principle axes factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed communalities between the explosive power and agility items of the PERF-FIT and the running and ball catching games but not between the games and the balance items. Conclusions and implications: Scores on the PERF-FIT are significantly related to performance in active play. The tool is able to measure aspects of motor skills, muscle endurance and explosive power needed in children's active games and could be used as an additional tool to measure requirements for participation in everyday physical activity in children with and without developmental disorders.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Awareness about developmental coordination disorder

Data availability statement: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.The present paper is designed to promote awareness of DCD outside the academic world. With a prevalence of 5–6% it is one of the most common disorders of child development. It is therefore surprising that so little is known about it among professionals in child healthcare and education. Parents have expressed frustration about this lack of awareness, including the general public. The general aim of this paper was to describe those critical aspects of DCD that will promote awareness.Research Foundation Flanders (FWO: 1232221N). This research of PW is supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR EXPRO scheme: 21-15728X). The authors are part of the “DCD Big Ideas Group” consisting of 25 key researchers in the field of DCD (from early-career to established) working to develop a clear vision for the future of research on DCD. BS and HB were supported by a grant (TRIAL) from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), grant number NWA.1160.18.249

Prenatal Exposure to Organohalogens, Including Brominated Flame Retardants, Influences Motor, Cognitive, and Behavioral Performance at School Age

BACKGROUND: Organohalogen compounds (OHCs) are known to have neurotoxic effects on the developing brain. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the influence of prenatal exposure to OHCs, including brominated flame retardants, on motor, cognitive, and behavioral outcome in healthy children of school age. METHODS: This study was part of the prospective Groningen infant COMPARE (Comparison of Exposure-Effect Pathways to Improve the Assessment of Human Health Risks of Complex Environmental Mixtures of Organohalogens) study. It included 62 children in whose mothers the following compounds had been determined in the 35th week of pregnancy: 2,2'-bis-(4 chlorophenyl)1,1'-dichloroethene, pentachlorophenol (PCP), polychlorinated biphenyl congener 153 (PCB-153), 4-hydroxy-2,3,3',4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl (4OH-CB-107),4OH-CB-146,4OH-CB-187,2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodipheryl ether (BDE-47), BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-153, BDE-154, and hexabromocy-clododecane. Thyroid hormones were determined in umbilical cord blood. When the children were 5-6 years of age, we assessed their neuropsychological functioning: motor performance (coordination, fine motor skills), cognition (intelligence, visual perception, visuomotor integration, inhibitory control, verbal memory, and attention), and behavior. RESULTS: Brominated flame retardants correlated with worse fine manipulative abilities, worse attention, better coordination, better visual perception, and better behavior. Chlorinated OHCs correlated with less choreiform, dyskinesia. Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls correlated with worse fine manipulative abilities, better attention, and better visual perception. The wood protective agent (PCP) correlated with worse coordination, less sensory integrity, worse attention, and worse visuomotor integration. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate for the first time that transplacental transfer of polybrominated flame retardants is associated with the development of children at school age. Because of the widespread use of these compounds, especially in the United States, where concentrations in the environment are four times higher than in Europe, these results cause serious concern

Behavioral and Neuroimaging Research on Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): A Combined Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Recent Findings

Data Availability Statement: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s. Supplementary Material: The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809455/full#supplementary-materialAim: The neurocognitive basis of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD; or motor clumsiness) remains an issue of continued debate. This combined systematic review and meta-analysis provides a synthesis of recent experimental studies on the motor control, cognitive, and neural underpinnings of DCD. Methods: The review included all published work conducted since September 2016 and up to April 2021. One-hundred papers with a DCD-Control comparison were included, with 1,374 effect sizes entered into a multi-level meta-analysis. Results: The most profound deficits were shown in: voluntary gaze control during movement; cognitive-motor integration; practice-/context-dependent motor learning; internal modeling; more variable movement kinematics/kinetics; larger safety margins when locomoting, and atypical neural structure and function across sensori-motor and prefrontal regions. Interpretation: Taken together, these results on DCD suggest fundamental deficits in visual-motor mapping and cognitive-motor integration, and abnormal maturation of motor networks, but also areas of pragmatic compensation for motor control deficits. Implications for current theory, future research, and evidence-based practice are discussed. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO, identifier: CRD42020185444.Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship; Research Centre scheme, Australian Catholic University; Czech Science Foundation (GACR EXPRO scheme: 21-15728X); Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW 2020.0200).https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809455/full#supplementary-materia

Motor ability in children treated for idiopathic clubfoot. A controlled pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To study motor ability at seven years of age in children treated for idiopathic clubfoot and its relation to clubfoot laterality, foot status and the amount of surgery performed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty children (mean age 7.5 years, SD 3.2 months) from a consecutive birth cohort from our hospital catchments area (300.000 inhabitants from southern Sweden) were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and the Clubfoot Assessment Protocol (CAP).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to typically developing children an increased prevalence of motor impairment was found regarding both the total score for MABC (p < 0.05) and the subtest ABC-Ball skills (p < 0.05). No relationship was found between the child's actual foot status, laterality or the extent of foot surgery with the motor ability as measured with MABC. Only the CAP item "one-leg stand" correlated significantly with the MABC (rs = -0.53, p = 0.02).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Children with idiopathic clubfoot appear to have an increased risk of motor activity limitations and it is possible that other factors, independent of the clinical status, might be involved. The ability to keep balance on one leg may be a sufficient tool for determining which children in the orthopedic setting should be more thoroughly evaluated regarding their neuromotor functioning.</p