children – European Psychomotricity Journal

The convergent validity of four fine motor assessment tools in 5 to12 years old children

By Simons, Johan, Van Damme, Tinne & Franssen Willem

The aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate the convergent validity of four fine motor assessment tools in 5 to 12 year old children. Other research goals were the investigation of age and gender differences concerning fine motor skills in this population. In this longitudinal study, children from the last year of nursery school were followed till their sixth grade. During these 7 years, four fine motor assessment tools were administered: The Movement-ABC, the Punktiertest für Kinder, the Epreuve de pointillage and the Gibson Spiral Maze. Generally, low correlations were found between the four assessment tools. The correlation between the Epreuve de pointillage and the Punktiertest für Kinder was the highest. The lowest correlations were found with the Movement-ABC. Secondly, significant sex differences were observed. Improvements in fine motor skills with age were noted, especially in the lower grades. Finally, girls performed significantly better than boys on the fine motor assessment tools. The results of the Epreuve de pointillage and the Punktiertest für Kinder indicate that they both measure a similar aspect of fine motor skills but different aspects were measured in the other instruments. Overall, more research on this topic is needed.

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Study of auditory and visual perception in relation to spatial orientation in young children

By Michelle De Landtsheer, Els Frett, Henric. Devenyns, Johan Simons

The aim of this longitudinal study is to evaluate spatial orientation in children. The possible relationship between perception (visual and auditory) and spatial orientation will be examined. Other objectives are the investigation of developmental and gender differences concerning spatial orientation. Children were recruited for this study from the last year of nursery school, and were monitored for 7 years. Each year the Piaget test for spatial orientation, the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills for visual perception and the Stambak Rhythm test for auditory perception were administrated. The Piaget test was fairly correlated with the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills and with the Stambak Rhythm test, which indicates that visual and auditory perception are related to spatial orientation. Secondly, a positive evolution of spatial orientation in function of age was found, mainly in the first grades of elementary school. No significant gender differences concerning spatial orientation were noted.

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The relation between basic movement skills and perceptual-motor skills in 5 to 7 years old children

By Park Hyungmin, Simons Johan

The main purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between basic movement skills and perceptual motor skills of children using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) developed by Ulrich (1985) and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) developed by Henderson and Sugden (1992). Therefore we firstly excluded gender effects. Thirdly we looked for differences in results according to the age. A total of 40 children (11 boys and 29 girls), 5 to 7 years of age participated. We found an interaction effect of age on the results of TGMD but the results of the M-ABC showed no interaction effect. The Pearson’s correlation between Gross Motor Developmental Quotient of the Test of Gross Motor Development and Total Impairment Score of the M-ABC was low (r=0.36, p=.000003). In this study it was found that there was no gender effect on the results of TGMD and the results of the M-ABC on the repeated ANOVA results. The correlation between the results of both tests became lower as the age increased.

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Gait characteristics of children with developmental coordination disorders: A case study

By Harriet G. Williams, Lindsey Ashley, Gerhild Ullmann

In this case study, two male children (ages 6 and 7) with and without developmental coordination disorder (DCD) walked across a GaitRITE pathway under four „walk‟ conditions (two single and two dual task conditions; simple and complex); gait variables studied included speed, cadence, step and stride length. Both groups exhibited consistent right-left symmetry in step and stride length across all „walks‟. Typical children adapted to walk conditions by holding stride length constant and varying step length; children with DCD linked stride-step length and modified them in parallel. In contrast to other studies, typical children were more variable in step-stride length than DCD children. Children with DCD linked modification of gait speed and cadence to single vs dual walk conditions; typically developing children modified speed and cadence with each change in “walk” condition. Overall children with DCD walked slower, took fewer steps with shorter strides and steps than typical children. Possible explanations for differences in gait characteristics and underlying motor system processes are discussed.

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Epidemiological study of playground accidents in Greece

By Theano Nikolaidou, Christos Christoforidis, Kyriakos Taxildaris, Georgios Mavromatis and Vassilis Gourgoulis,

The purpose of the present study was to record epidemiological data concerning playground incidents in Greece. ”Student Injury and Incident Report for use in Swedish Schools (SIIR)’’ by Laflamme et al (1998) was utilized for the recording of 1066 incidents occurred in 127 playgrounds throughout Greece. Results showed that significantly more incidents took place in cities than in villages, more boys injured than girls, more accidents happening in the afternoon and most of the activities were organized by adults (p<.001). Most of the incidents occurred on the ground (20.2%). Running (16.6%) seemed to be an activity that causes injuries. Many accidents occurred because of slipping on the surface or the equipment (24.5%). Children got injured mostly at the knees (11.5%). These accidents are caused by misusage of the equipment (13.7%) and wrong technique during the activity (11.1%), while anxiousness in many ways seems to be another important factor (11.9%). Most injured children seemed to need no specific care (42.9%) and most of the injuries would (62.3%) or could (30.5) have been avoided if the conditions were better. The incidents could have been less severe, or even avoided, if the playgrounds were safer designed, maintained and supervised.

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Evaluation of motor coordination in early school aged children

By V. Panagopoulou, I. Nakou, V. Giannakoulia, V. Serbezis

Motor coordination ability development has constituted a popular field of in the last decade, as it provides important information about children’s developmental level. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of motor coordination in early school age children. The sample consisted of 150 students (72 boys and 78 girls) of ages ranging from 69 to 99 months (Μ=83.75, SD=7.43), who attended the organized educational program of their school and did not participate in any exercising program. For the evaluation of motor coordination Koerperkoordinationstest fuer Kindern, KTK, was used. The test is considered to be one of the most reliable (r=.90) and is comprises of four individual tests that measure: a) balance capacity, b) one- leg obstacle surmounting, c) side jump and d) side locomotion and object replacement. The Two-Way Analysis of Variance did not present any statistically significant interaction of age and sex in any of the individual tests.

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Questionnaires Measuring the Physical Self Children: A Review

By Christina Sypsa. Johan Simons

Maintaining a good physical self esteem is a protective factor in children’s development, while negative scores of it indicate different kinds of problems (e.g. depression, eating disorders). In this review several properties of the questionnaires that measure the above notion and its components are discussed. The search of this kind of assessment tools for children’s physical self was limited to the last 15 years. From the literature 15 results were found to adhere to the criteria set in the first place, with 11 of them to measure the different aspects of physical self separately (mainly body image) and 4 of them to evaluate the concept more totally. The paper focuses on a short description and categorization of the tests detected and a narrowing to the instruments that approach physical self in a more integrative way.

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Child injuries in Greek Summer Camps

By Panagiota Papageorgiou, George Mavromatis, George Kosta

The purpose of this study was the description of injuries sustained by campers at summer camps, aged 7-15 years. A sample of 8 camps from the Creek camp population participated in this injury surveillance study. Doctors and camp directors completed reports detailing the number of events sustained and provided specific information about each event. During the period of the study, 726 injury reports completed. A total of 427 (58.8%) males and 299 (41.2%) females reported having an injury. The leading causes of injury in children’s were: falls, slips, crushed by object, hit/bitten and fall of stable extent. The parts of body most often affected were the knee, head, ankle and wrist/hand. The most frequent activities of injuries were sports, free play and walking in camp yard. Data collected via such systems can be used to calculate injury rates, to describe patterns of injury and to identify risk factors for camper – related injury. All this provide the data needed to develop prevention interventions to decrease the number of youth whose camp experiences are negatively affected by injury.

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“GROUP PSYCHOMOTOR THERAPY” IN CHILDREN

By Kambas A., Venetsanou F.

Group Psychomotor Therapy (GPT) is a therapeutic approach that can be implemented autonomously or as a support in children with socialization difficulties and poor selfconcept. Moreover, our 20-year experience in GPT supports its implementation in children with other neurodevemopmental disorders as well. In this paper, the key-features of Psychomotor Therapy are first discussed and then, the principles that the GPT follows are demonstrated; whereas, a roadmap for its implementation isl provided. Moreover, the objectives of eachlGPT session are discussed; the sections of which the GPT session consists (awakening; therapeutic core; relaxation rituals) are described, and the benefits that the use of a group-approach offers are analysed. Finally, taking into account the quite limited research evidence regarding the effects of PMT and GPT, the need for further research is underlined.

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