Spatial and temporal constraints on performance in children with movement co-ordination problems.

Eight 10-year-old children manifesting movement co-ordination problems (MCP), as assessed by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC), and a matched control group of eight children of a similar age without such problems, were required to carry out a laboratory ball-catching task. The task was constrained in such a way as to allow separate kinematic analyses of reaching (Experiment 1) and grasping (Experiment 2) subactions. Significant differences between the groups, in favour of the control group, were found with respect to both spatial and temporal performance in intercepting the moving ball.