Amir Dana; Saleh Rafiee
Abstract
Reaching and grasping is one of the most basic fundamental skills. The aim of this study was to address the differences of movement variability and movement smoothness in reaching and grasping in children and adults. 60 children (age range: 8-13 years old) were divided into 6 groups. The task used in ...
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Reaching and grasping is one of the most basic fundamental skills. The aim of this study was to address the differences of movement variability and movement smoothness in reaching and grasping in children and adults. 60 children (age range: 8-13 years old) were divided into 6 groups. The task used in the study included reaching and grasping a cube with the dimension of 3.6 cm
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which provided the palmar grasp for all children. Subjects had to grasp the cube with their dominant hands and brought it near their mouth. In addition, a group of adults participated in this study (age range: 24+1.2). Participants performed 10 trials and kinematic variables including mean squared jerk, dimensionless jerk, range of motion of elbow joint, and variability in coordination pattern were calculated. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data in each variable. The results showed that the 13-year-old group was significantly different than adult group in the mean squared jerk and dimensionless jerk. It was observed that 8- and 9-year-old groups had significant differences with other groups in range of motion of elbow joint and variability in coordination pattern; however, there was no differences among other groups. Overall, the results showed that the growth process of reaching and grasping is not limited to the early childhood. These results were interpreted according to the development of motor control and asynchronous acquisition of kinematic variables in the process of movement skill learning.
Ali Kashi; Saleh Rafiee; Misagh Zereshkian
Abstract
The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of perceptual motor training and cognitive games on cognitive development in mentally retarded children. In this experimental study, 45 mentally retarded children aged between 8 and 12 in Kermanshah province were randomly divided into ...
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The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of perceptual motor training and cognitive games on cognitive development in mentally retarded children. In this experimental study, 45 mentally retarded children aged between 8 and 12 in Kermanshah province were randomly divided into 3 groups: perceptual motor training, cognitive training and control. The perceptual motor program included the protocol of Salari et al. (2014) and Kashi et al. (2015) and cognitive games included a collection of cognitive games of my brain that was run as software. The groups participated in the program for 8 weeks, 2 sessions per week and 45 minutes per session. Before and after the training, they participated in London Tower computer test and the Stroop color-word test as pretest and posttest. Data were analyzed with Mancova and Ancova tests.The findings of the study showed a significant difference among perceptual motor training, cognitive games and control in London Tower computer test and Stroop color-word test. Perceptual motor training had a greater effect on the improvement of cognitive functions in mentally retarded children than cognitive games. Therefore, it can be concluded that although both types of games play an effective role in improving cognitive development and can be used to improve children's well-being, perceptual motor training is a better tool to create more development effects than cognitive training.
