Awareness about developmental coordination disorder.

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.

Insights on action observation and imitation abilities in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder and typically developing children.

Background: Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) face difficulties in motor learning. Action observation and imitation are strategies frequently used to teach motor skills.

Aims: (1) To study action observation and imitation abilities in children with DCD compared with typically developing peers with a new protocol.

Intensive training programme improves handwriting in a community cohort of people with Parkinson's disease.

Background: People with Parkinson's disease (PwP) often report problems with their handwriting before they receive a formal diagnosis. Many PwP suffer from deteriorating handwriting throughout their illness, which has detrimental effects on many aspects of their quality of life.

Aims: To assess a 6-week online training programme aimed at improving handwriting of PwP.

Efficacy of a Task-Oriented Intervention for Children with a Dual Diagnosis of Specific Learning Disabilities and Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Background: Task-oriented approaches are recommended for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) to address deficits in motor performance and reduce activity limitations. Although this approach is used in several settings, the efficacy of these approaches in children with in dual-diagnosis of specific learning disabilities (SLD) and DCD is less widely known. This study aims to determine the effect of a group-based intervention based on neuromotor task training (NTT) principles on the motor performance of children aged 6-10 years with SLD/DCD.

Injuries in Physical Education Teacher Students: Differences between Sex, Curriculum Year, Setting, and Sports.

Background: Injury risk is high in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students. Insights into specific injury locations per sex, setting, sports, and curriculum year are needed to develop preventive measures.

Purpose: To compare injury distributions by body locations in PETE students and how these distributions differ by sex, type, onset, curriculum year, settings, or sports.

The effects of a visuo-motor and cognitive dual task on walking adaptability in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder.

Background: Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD-C) have motor coordination deficits which lead to difficulties in sports and play activities that require adaptations of the walking pattern. Sports and play often involve performing dual tasks, which affects performance in DCD-C more than in typically developing children (TD-C). So far, testing the impact of dual tasking on walking adaptability in DCD-C has received little scientific attention.

Walking adaptability improves after treadmill training in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A proof-of-concept study.

Background: Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have motor coordination deficits leading to difficulties in sports and play that require adaptations of the walking pattern. Children with DCD indeed demonstrate poorer walking adaptability (WA) compared to typically developing children, but it remains elusive whether WA can be improved by training.

Research Question: Does augmented-reality treadmill training lead to improvements in WA in children with DCD?

Methods: Seventeen children with DCD were included in this proof-of-concept intervention study.

Children with Poor Motor Skills Have Lower Health-Related Fitness Compared to Typically Developing Children.

Most of the current empirical evidence regarding the relationship between health-related fitness and level of motor performance is based on children from high-income countries. Yet, children from low-resource areas may have fewer opportunities to develop their fitness skills. The aim of the study was to determine if South African children from both low- and middle-income areas scoring below the 16th percentile on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (probable-Developmental Coordination Disorder (p-DCD)) have lower health-related fitness levels than typically developing (TD) children.

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

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.

Inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability of the Performance and Fitness (PERF-FIT) test battery for children: a test for motor skill related fitness.

Background: The Performance and Fitness (PERF-FIT) test battery for children is a recently developed, valid assessment tool for measuring motor skill-related physical fitness in 5 to 12-year-old children living in low-income settings. The aim of this study was to determine: (1) inter-rater reliability and (2) test-retest reliability of the PERF-FIT in children from 3 different countries (Ghana, South Africa and the Netherlands).

Method: For inter-rater reliability 29 children, (16 boys and 13 girls, 6-10 years) were scored by 2 raters simultaneously.

Reliability and construct validity of the Walking Adaptability Ladder Test for Kids (WAL-K): a new clinical test for measuring walking adaptability in children.

Purpose: Walking adaptability is essential for children to participate in daily life, but no objective measurement tools exist. We determined psychometric properties of the Walking Adaptability Ladder test for Kids (WAL-K) in 6-12 year old children.

Materials And Methods: In total, 122 typically developing (TD) children and 26 children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) completed the single and double run conditions of the WAL-K.

Feasibility and content validity of the PERF-FIT test battery to assess movement skills, agility and power among children in low-resource settings.

Background: Numerous movement skills and physical fitness tests have been developed for children in high-income countries. However, adaptation of these tests to low-resource settings has been slow and norms are still unavailable for children living in low-income communities. The aim of this paper was to describe the development and validation of the Performance and Fitness (PERF-FIT) test battery, a new test to assess motor skill-related physical fitness in children in low-resource settings.

Anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific game skills of schoolboy players of different age categories and playing standards.

Background: Rugby is increasingly gaining popularity among school-aged male junior players in countries hardly known for dominating international rugby, such as Zimbabwe. Given rugby combativeness, participating adolescents should possess qualities or skills commensurate with the physical demands of the sport for effective participation. This study investigated the independent and interactive effects of age category and playing standard on anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific game skills among Zimbabwean athletes.

Anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific game skills discriminating Zimbabwean under-16 male adolescent rugby players by level of competition.

Objectives: Despite growing popularity of adolescent rugby in Zimbabwean schools, little is known about qualities or skills of schoolboy rugby players and how they differ by competitive level. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to identify anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific game skills capable of discriminating under-16 (U16) RU players across three proficiency levels.

Methods: Following development of School Clinical Rugby Measure test battery, elite rugby players (n=41), subelite rugby players (n=30) and non-rugby players (n=29) were enrolled and tested for height, sitting height, body mass, skinfolds, speed, agility, upper and lower muscular strength and power, prolonged high-intensity intermittent running ability, tackling, passing and catching in a cross-sectional study.

Children's Repetitive and Intermittent Sprinting Performance (CRISP) Test: A new field-based test for assessing anaerobic power and repeated sprint performance in children with developmental coordination disorder.

Background: Evidence on anaerobic power and sprinting performance of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is limited.

Aims: The primary aim of this study was to investigate if the Children's Repetitive and Intermittent Sprinting Performance (CRISP) test could induce fatigue among participants. Secondly, the study examined the construct validity of the test in children with probable DCD (p-DCD) and typically developing (TD) peers.

Logical validation and evaluation of practical feasibility for the SCRuM (School Clinical Rugby Measure) test battery developed for young adolescent rugby players in a resource-constrained environment.

There is a growing impetus towards usage of test batteries in talent identification (TID) programmes in rugby. Consequently, there are many test batteries in existence profiling anthropometric, physiological characteristics and rugby-specific skills. There is no consensus in the literature on the constituent variables and corresponding tests required to inform TID programs.

Training for Micrographia Alters Neural Connectivity in Parkinson's Disease.

Despite recent advances in clarifying the neural networks underlying rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease (PD), the impact of prolonged motor learning interventions on brain connectivity in people with PD is currently unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare cortical network changes after 6 weeks of visually cued handwriting training (= experimental) with a placebo intervention to address micrographia, a common problem in PD. Twenty seven early Parkinson's patients on dopaminergic medication performed a pre-writing task in both the presence and absence of visual cues during behavioral tests and during fMRI.

A systematic review investigating measurement properties of physiological tests in rugby.

Background: This systematic review was conducted with the first objective aimed at providing an overview of the physiological characteristics commonly evaluated in rugby and the corresponding tests used to measure each construct. Secondly, the measurement properties of all identified tests per physiological construct were evaluated with the ultimate purpose of identifying tests with strongest level of evidence per construct.

Methods: The review was conducted in two stages.

Manual therapy compared with physical therapy in patients with non-specific neck pain: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Manual therapy according to the School of Manual Therapy Utrecht (MTU) is a specific type of passive manual joint mobilization. MTU has not yet been systematically compared to other manual therapies and physical therapy. In this study the effectiveness of MTU is compared to physical therapy, particularly active exercise therapy (PT) in patients with non-specific neck pain.

How reliable and valid is the teacher version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in primary school children?

Introduction: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is validated for parents, but not yet for teachers in a broad age range of children. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 4-10 years old school children to investigate if the SDQ-T can be used instead of the validated but lengthy Teacher's Report Form (TRF) to acquire information about emotional and behavioral problems in the school community.

Methods: Teachers of 453 children from primary schools were approached.

Improved Learning a Coincident Timing Task With a Predictable Resisting Force.

The present study analyzes the learning in a coincident timing task with force perturbation. We aimed to verify whether a predictable load (constant spring) applied to hand movements could facilitate learning and, thus, performance improvement with respect to movements without any external load and an unpredictable load to perform a coincident timing task with a few number of repetitions (n = 28) under acquisition and transfer phases. The results showed that the group with a predictable load had a significant better performance with lower percentage of errors and smaller time variance in the acquisition and transfer phase.

Learning better by repetition or variation? Is transfer at odds with task specific training?

Objective: Transfer of motor skills is the ultimate goal of motor training in rehabilitation practice. In children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), very little is known about how skills are transferred from training situations to real life contexts. In this study we examined the influence of two types of practice on transfer of motor skills acquired in a virtual reality (VR) environment.

Validity and reliability of a new tool to evaluate handwriting difficulties in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Handwriting in Parkinson's disease (PD) features specific abnormalities which are difficult to assess in clinical practice since no specific tool for evaluation of spontaneous movement is currently available.

Objective: This study aims to validate the 'Systematic Screening of Handwriting Difficulties' (SOS-test) in patients with PD.

Methods: Handwriting performance of 87 patients and 26 healthy age-matched controls was examined using the SOS-test.

Performance on Functional Strength Measurement and Muscle Power Sprint Test confirm poor anaerobic capacity in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder.

Background: There is little and conflicting information about anaerobic performance and functional strength in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).

Aims: To investigate anaerobic capacity and functional strength in children with a clinical diagnosis of DCD (clin-DCD) and if differences were larger in older (age 7-10 years) compared to younger children (age 4-6 years). Furthermore to determine the percentage of children with clin-DCD that scored <15th percentile on the norm-referenced Functional Strength Measurement.