Psychometric Properties of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence for Young Norwegian Children

The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence (PMSC) for young Norwegian children, a scale that is aligned with skills assessed in the Test of Gross Motor Development- Third Edition. We used convenience sampling to recruit 396 Norwegian-speaking children (7-10-year-olds) who completed the PMSC. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed factorial validity for the proposed three-factor model of the PMSC, encompassing measures of self-perceived ball, locomotor, and active play competence. Internal item consistency coefficients of these sub-scales were acceptable, and subsequent measurement invariant analysis found a gender difference such that boys rated their competence higher than girls in running, jumping forward, hitting a ball (racket), kicking, throwing a ball and rope climbing, while girls rated themselves higher, compared to boys, in galloping and skating/blading. Furthermore, there was a slightly better model fit for boys than for girls. Several items were significantly related to children's age, and the three-factor model exhibited differential age related factor mean differences across older and younger children. Overall, we found the PMSC to have acceptable psychometric properties for confident use in assessing perceived motor competence among 7-10-year-old Norwegian children, though we observed age and gender differences in children's responses that warrant careful interpretation of results and further research investigation.

Psychometric properties of the Adolescent Motor Competence Questionnaire for Norwegian adolescents

The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Motor Competence Questionnaire (AMCQ) for Norwegian adolescents. To this end, a sample of 349 Norwegian-speaking adolescents (13-16 years old) were recruited and completed the AMCQ. Initial results showed that confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) did not indicate statistical support for previous statistical models reported in the literature. Further analysis indicated factorial validity for a novel three-factor model identified through exploratory factor analysis, encompassing measures of fine motor skill (α = 0.65), gross motor skill (α = 0.74), and activities of daily living (ADL; α = 0.79) with acceptable internal consistency coefficients. Subsequent analysis indicated indices of measurement invariance in the study sample, as males rated their competence higher compared to females in 19 of the 27 items, and better model fit was obtained for the female adolescents. Strong invariance was tenable, and no factor mean differences were found across older and younger adolescents or across BMI scores. Overall results thus suggested that the AMCQ has acceptable psychometric properties and can be confidently used in further work with perceived motor competence in Norwegian 13-16 years-old adolescents.

Phoneme Representation and Articulatory Impairment: Insights from Adults with Comorbid Motor Coordination Disorder and Dyslexia

Phonemic processing skills are impaired both in children and adults with dyslexia. Since phoneme representation development is based on articulatory gestures, it is likely that these gestures influence oral reading-related skills as assessed through phonemic awareness tasks. In our study, fifty-two young dyslexic adults, with and without motor impairment, and fifty-nine skilled readers performed reading, phonemic awareness, and articulatory tasks. The two dyslexic groups exhibited slower articulatory rates than skilled readers and the comorbid dyslexic group presenting with an additional difficulty in respiratory control (reduced speech proportion and increased pause duration). Two versions of the phoneme awareness task (PAT) with pseudoword strings were administered: a classical version under time pressure and a delayed version in which access to phonemic representations and articulatory programs was facilitated. The two groups with dyslexia were outperformed by the control group in both versions. Although the two groups with dyslexia performed equally well on the classical PAT, the comorbid group performed significantly less efficiently on the delayed PAT, suggesting an additional contribution of articulatory impairment in the task for this group. Overall, our results suggest that impaired phoneme representations in dyslexia may be explained, at least partially, by articulatory deficits affecting access to them.

High intra-task and low inter-task correlations of motor skills in humans creates an individualized behavioural pattern

Our motor system allows us to generate an enormous breadth of voluntary actions, but it remains unclear whether and how much motor skill translates across tasks. For example, if an individual is good at gross motor control, are they also good at fine motor control? Previous research about the generalization across motor skills has been equivocal. Here, we compare human performance across five different motor skills. High correlation between task measures would suggest a certain level of underlying sensorimotor ability that dictates performance across all task types. Low correlation would suggest specificity in abilities across tasks. Performance on a reaching task, an object-hitting task, a bimanual coordination task, a rapid motion task and a target tracking task, was examined twice in a cohort of 25 healthy individuals. Across the cohort, we found relatively high correlations for different spatial and temporal parameters within a given task (16-53% of possible parameter pairs were significantly correlated, with significant r values ranging from 0.53 to 0.97) but relatively low correlations across different tasks (2.7-4.4% of possible parameter pairs were significantly correlated, with significant r values ranging from 0.53-0.71). We performed a cluster analysis across all individuals using 76 performance measures across all tasks for the two repeat testing sessions and demonstrated that repeat tests were commonly grouped together (16 of 25 pairs were grouped next to each other). These results highlight that individuals have different abilities across motor tasks, and that these patterns are consistent across time points.

A sensorimotor representation impairment in dyslexic adults: A specific profile of comorbidy

Sensorimotor disorders have been frequently reported in children and adults with dyslexia over the past 30 years. The present study aimed to determine the impact of sensorimotor comorbidity risks in dyslexia by investigating the functional links between phonological and sensorimotor representations in young dyslexic adults. Using 52 dyslexic participants and 58 normo-readers, we investigated whether the underlying phonological deficit, which is reported in the literature, was associated with a general impairment of sensorimotor representations of articulatory and bodily actions. Internal action representations were explored through motor imagery tasks, consisting of measuring and comparing the durations of performed or imagined actions chosen from their current repertoire of daily life activities. To detect sensorimotor deficits, all participants completed the extended version of the M-ABC 2, as a reference test. We found sensorimotor impairments in 27% of the young adult dyslexics, then considered as sensorimotor comorbid, as opposed to much less in the normo-reader group (5%). While motor slowdown, reflecting motor difficulty, was present in all dyslexic adults, motor imagery performance was impacted only in the specific dyslexic subgroup with sensorimotor impairments. Moreover, in contrast with slowness, only the comorbid subgroup showed an increased variability in execution durations. The present study highlights the importance of the quality of perception-action coupling, questions the relevance of investigating sensorimotor impairment profiles beyond phonological deficits and provides new arguments supporting the perspective of multiple deficits approaches in dyslexia.

Task-Specific and Latent Relationships Between Motor Skills and Executive Functions in Preschool Children

There has been an increasing interest in the relationship between motor skills and executive functions (EFs) in young children over the years. However, no clear picture on the relationship between both domains has emerged from these studies. We have extended previous findings by conducting a comprehensive examination of task-specific and latent relationships between a range of motor skills and EFs in preschool children. The sample consisted of 198 3- to 5-year-old children (102 boys; 51.5%). Motor skills were assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition. EFs were assessed with the performance-based tasks ‘Day/Night,’ ‘Hand Tapping,’ ‘Forward Corsi Block,’ ‘Forward Digit Recall,’ and ‘Conflict Task,’ and a rating-based EF measure (i.e., the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning - Preschool version). Task-specific relationships were examined using zero-order Pearson correlations. Latent factors of motor skills and EFs were examined using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine latent relationships. The results of the Pearson correlation analyses showed statistically significant albeit weak correlations between specific motor and EF items (r = 0.15 to r = 0.23). SEM showed non-significant weak relationships between a general motor factor (as a unitary latent construct) on the one hand, and performance-based EFs and rating-based EFs (as latent EF components) on the other hand. In conclusion, this study suggested only weak relationships between motor skills and EFs in preschool children with no clear differences between their task-specific and latent relationships.

What is Trained Develops! Theoretical Perspective on Skill Learning

Knowledge about developmental theories is important for experts or specialists working with children following normal development and children who have various kinds of dysfunction, in order to better understand what happens with processes associated with motor behavior. In this article, we have explored how theories of development and learning can be used to understand processes associated with motor behavior. A probabilistic perspective emphasizes that the changes taking place in the development is a result of interaction: structural changes in the nervous system leading to changes in function and behavior and opposite, functional changes resulting in changes in structure. This bidirectional interaction between biological and experiential aspects is a continuous process which cannot be reduced to either organism or environment. Dynamical systems theory (DST) emphasizes that it is the interaction between the person, the environment, and the task that changes how our movements are, also in terms of how we develop and learn new movements. The interplay between these factors will, over time, lead to changes in motor development. The importance of experience is central to Edelman's theory of neuronal group selection (NGST). Activation of the nervous system increases the connections between certain areas of the brain, and the selection processes in the brain are a result of enhancement of neural connections involved in a "successful" motion. The central nervous system adapts its structure and function in response to internal and external influences, and hence neural plasticity is a prerequisite for learning and development. We argue that Edelman´s approach supports the theory of specificity of learning. From the perspectives of probabilistic epigenesis, DST, and NGST, we can see that being physically active and having the opportunity to get different movement experiences are of great significance for promoting motor development and learning. A variation of purposeful or rewarding physical activity in a variety of contexts will provide individual opportunities for changes of behavior in terms of both quantitative and qualitative changes in motor development.