Browse

Little is known about adults’ experiences with developmental coordination disorder (DCD; sometimes also referred to as dyspraxia). Social media is an accessible opportunity for those who identify as dyspraxic or as having DCD to provide valuable insight into the lifespan impact of this condition on functional ability, participation, compensatory strategies, and well-being. We used the Twitter research application programming interface to identify users who self-identified with the keywords Developmental Coordination Disorder, #DCD, #dyspraxic (or # dyspraxia), or clumsy in their profile descriptions between October 10 and November 10, 2021. During that period, 818 tweets were harvested with 524 remaining after removing duplicates (e.g., multiple promotions of a single resource) and unrelated tweets. They were labeled according to motor differences (general motor, coordination, fine motor skills, oral motor skills, manual dexterity, driving, gross motor skills, movement pain and fatigue, posture and balance, and lower extremity); functional impact (advocacy/awareness, support for others, resources, information, and education, intervention, accommodation, and work); or other related topics (stimming and sensory, co-occurrence and diagnostic overlap, cognitive, social and communication speech, and emotional and mental health). The DCD/dyspraxic community has clearly identified a lifelong impact of motor differences across multiple contexts. DCD/dyspraxic Twitter users shared compensatory strategies that could help others, and offered insight into their experience of co-occurring conditions and cognitive/emotional sequelae of motor challenges.

Despite a growing awareness of the prevalence of motor differences in the autistic community, their functional impact is poorly understood. Social media offers the ideal setting to observe this discourse in a less-contrived setting than lab-based structured interviews. The aims of the present study were (a) to determine the proportion of Twitter users who self-identify as autistic and dyspraxic/having developmental coordination disorder, relative to autistic alone, and (b) to identify common themes emerging from two moderated chat threads with motor-related prompts. Using the Twitter research application programming interface, we harvested data from users’ public profiles and tweets containing terms related to autism and developmental coordination disorder within a 1-month time period. We also harvested data from two #AutChat threads related to motor skills, which included 151 tweets from 31 unique autistic users (two with co-occurring developmental coordination disorder). Of these tweets, 44 were explicitly about motor differences, while the remainder consisted of discussion topics more loosely associated with motor skills. The following common themes were quantified: manual dexterity, lower extremity, oral motor, gross motor, posture, balance, stimming, movement pain, and coordination. Together, these findings indicate that motor differences are highly recognized and discussed among autistic individuals but are not overtly integrated into their identities at the same rate.

Social media platforms are rich and dynamic spaces where individuals communicate on a person-to-person level and to broader audiences. These platforms provide a wealth of publicly available data that can shed light on the lived experiences of people from numerous clinical populations. Twitter can be used to examine individual expressions and community discussions about specific characteristics (e.g., motor skills, burnout) associated with a diagnostic group. These data are useful for understanding the perspectives of a diverse, international group of self-advocates representing a wide range of clinical populations. Here, we provide a framework for how to harvest data from Twitter through their free, academic researcher application programming interface access using Python, a free, open-source programming language. We also provide a sample data set harvested using this framework and a set of analyses on these data specifically related to motor differences in neurodevelopmental conditions. This framework offers a cost-effective and flexible means of harvesting and analyzing Twitter data. Researchers should utilize these resources to advance our understanding of the lived experiences of clinical populations through social media platforms and to determine the critical questions that are of most importance to improving quality of life.

This study assessed whether trunk flexor and extensor strength were predictors of time to stability (TTS) and center of pressure (CoP) during hop and hold tasks in children. Seventeen boys (age, 10.1 ± 1.6 years; height, 1.45 ± 0.11 m; mass, 26.7 ± 7.83 kg) undertook isokinetic strength assessments of concentric and eccentric trunk flexors/extensors at 60°/s, and anterior/medial hop tasks. Hierarchical multiple regressions determined whether concentric and eccentric trunk flexor/extensor peak torques predict TTS using a composite score (Comp_X Comp_Y Comp_Z) and CoP_X and CoP_Y. Concentric trunk flexors were the strongest predictor for TTS Comp_XY, with concentric flexion and eccentric extension predicting TTS Comp_Y. All muscle actions were also strong predictors for CoP_Y during hop tasks. These findings have implications for the assessment of trunk musculature strength and measures of postural control within a young healthy population. The development of trunk musculature strength may aid improvements in dynamic balance tasks in children, with implications for fall and injury risk. To improve trunk musculature strength and the potential to maintain postural control, a combination of concentric and eccentric exercises with other training modalities appears relevant due to the increased relevance to the demands of balance maintenance.

Previous research has shown practice within an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment improves performance in a physical environment. Increased user motivation is one possible advantage of practicing in VR. One recent study showed that an enriched gaming environment led to higher levels of engagement, resulting in a direct learning benefit. The purpose of this study was to compare the intrinsic motivation, engagement, and transfer of learning between VR practice and physical practice of the same motor skill. Participants (n = 61) were randomly assigned to a physical (n = 30) or a VR practice group (n = 31) in which they performed a golf putting task. Analyses showed VR practice led to a significantly greater increase in average intrinsic motivation inventory score than physical practice. Analyses for performance showed there was a significant (p < .001) improvement in accuracy (i.e., radial error) from pre- to posttest, but the two groups did not differ. Overall, these results partially support our hypotheses suggesting that VR practice led to a greater increase in motivation compared with physical practice. Additionally, these results suggest that VR practice was similarly effective at improving accuracy compared with physical practice. Future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine the associations of device-based assessments of physical activity (PA) and health-related fitness (HRF) with gross motor skills (GMS) in preschool-aged children. Participants were 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 316; 49.6% female) who participated in the 2012 National Youth Fitness Survey. GMS was assessed using the gross motor quotient calculated from the Test for Gross Motor Development—Second Edition. PA was assessed using wrist-worn ActiGraph GT3X accelerometers with raw triaxial acceleration data summarized using monitor-independent movement summary units (MIMS). Analyzed metrics included average MIMS per day and peak 30-min MIMS. HRF assessment consisted of a plank score and a sum of skinfold assessment. Weighted hierarchical regressions tested the associations between PA, HRF, and GMS variables with a secondary weighted mediation analysis that examined whether HRF mediated the association between PA and GMS. Peak 30-min MIMS significantly correlated with GMS (b = 0.17, p = .005). Plank scores had the strongest correlation with GMS (b = 0.23, p = .004), and weighted mediation analyses revealed that plank scores partially mediated the association between peak 30-min MIMS and GMS (indirect effect = 0.03, p = .01, 23.1% mediation). Peak 30-min MIMS significantly associated with GMS in preschool children, an association partially mediated by core muscular endurance.

Effectiveness of motor interventions depends not only on learning content but also on the used teaching strategies. However, little is known regarding the application of teaching strategies in clinical practice. This study aimed to develop and assess psychometric properties of a new Dutch observational instrument to document teaching strategies: the Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning (OPTIMAL) Strategies Observational Tool (OSOT). Based on the OPTIMAL theory for motor learning from Wulf and Lewthwaite, the OSOT includes three variables: (a) expectancies, (b) autonomy, and (c) attention. The OSOT’s content was created by extracting relevant items from literature and existing instruments. To assess its psychometric properties, a convenience sample of 18 physiotherapy sessions for children with developmental coordination disorder was employed. Video recordings of these sessions were analyzed using Noldus The Observer XT. Relative duration (percentage of session time) was calculated for each item. Intraclass correlations were calculated to examine interrater and intrarater reliability. The design process resulted in 43 items in total. Interrater and intrarater intraclass correlations ranged from .48 to .99, with 81% (interrater), respectively, 95% (intrarater) of the items scoring above .75, indicating excellent agreement. The OSOT enables systematic and reliable observation of Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning teaching strategies used by therapists in Dutch clinical settings.

The present study explored the effects of gender stereotype threat and conceptions of ability on motor learning and working memory in novice female learners. Sixty participants (M _age = 21.92 years, SD _age = 1.74) were randomly assigned into a gender stereotype threat and a control group (neutral; without stereotype threat). Each group was, in turn, randomly divided into two subgroups: inherent ability and acquired skill. The tasks assigned to the participants included soccer dribbling and the n-back test. In the pretest, the individuals only performed one dribbling trial, whereas in the practice phase, the individuals performed 12 blocks of five trials based on their respective test conditions. During retention and transfer under pressure (48 hr after practice for both tests), the participants carried out one block of five trials. The participants also completed the n-back test in the pretest, posttest, and retention phases. In both motor performance and learning, the findings suggested that both gender stereotype threat and inherent ability variables can negatively influence the soccer dribbling skill (p < .05). However, regarding working memory, the results could not show any significant difference between the groups (p > .05). How these variables affect or do not affect motor learning as well as working memory and how the results are applied in the motor domain are discussed.

Action observation, where a learner observes a model demonstrating a skill, has long been established in the literature as an effective means to acquire motor skills. Developments in virtual reality technology have made it possible for a 3D action observation viewing perspective, theoretically providing a viewing experience similar to observing a live performer. However, very little work has compared these two media and their effects on motor learning outcomes. In this current study, healthy novice participants to Olympic lifting (specifically the clean and jerk; n = 36) learned the exercise through observing a model demonstration in virtual reality (3D group) or on a computer screen (2D group). A third group (control) did not engage in action observation. Results indicate that following training, the 2D group more frequently used a three-step lifting pattern, and the 2D and 3D groups lifted with a significantly greater horizontal displacement compared with the control group. Also, the 2D group was more likely to use a proximal-to-distal joint coordination strategy during the second pull of the exercise. These results further the idea that only small parts of pertinent visual information are needed for action observation, and that virtual reality may provide too much information to novice learners.