Motor Competence and Coordination of Eight and Nine Year-Old Students: One Year Follow Up

• Main Authors: Chiu-Yun Hsieh, 謝秋雲
• Other Authors: Sheng-Kuang Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29516957922804260356

碩士 === 國立體育學院 === 體育研究所 === 91 === ABSTRACT The developed countries usually consider the developmental level of special education for the disabled students as an important index of a country’s progression. Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a popular domain in the field of adapted physical activity in the world. A reliable and valid evaluation tool - the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement ABC) has often been used to assess motor functions and coordination of children. However, this important topic has seldom been concerned in Taiwan. Recently, Taiwan has taken more account of special education for students with disabilities, but it has not paid enough attention on studies of students with DCD. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalent rate of children with DCD in primary schools and the characteristics of motor performance in the Movement ABC through one year follow up. Subjects were from 8 year-old students at beginning of the study until 9 year-old students of Dong Xing Primary School in Taichung City. In this study, 167 children (83 boys and 84 girls) were evaluated and chosen randomly. The findings of this study were as follows: 1. Five children (3 boys and 2 girls) were identified as children with DCD (3%) and 17 children (9 boys and 8 girls) were borderline DCD children (10.2%) at age of 8 years old. Forty-eight children (20 boys and 28 girls) were identified as children with DCD (28.7%) and 53 children (26 boys and 27 girls) were borderline DCD children (31.7%) at 9 years old. 2. Nine year-old children’s relative ability of manual dexterity was better than that of eight year-old children, but their abilities of ball skills and balance were poorer than those of eight year-old children. Eight year-old children’s and nine year-old children’s abilities of dexterity, ball skills and balance had positive correlations. 3. When eight year-old children grew up to nine years old, DCD children were relatively poorer in motor coordination competence. The borderline DCD children had better motor coordination competence when growing up. However, when eight year-old children without DCD grew up to nine years old, their relative motor coordination competence was poorer. 4. Comparing raw scores with and then transforming them into the impairment score, the impairment score of nine year-old children was higher than that of eight year-old children. This showed that children’s motor coordination competence was poorer than foreign children. In addition, the number of DCD children increased when children grew up from eight to nine years old. 5. Comparing raw scores with Taiwanese normative data and then transforming them into z score, the relative ability of dexterity and ball skill of DCD children progressed but their relative ability of balance decreased when they grew up. The overall motor coordination competence made progression. Borderline DCD children’s relative abilities improved when they grew up. The relative ability of manual dexterity of children without DCD increased but their relative abilities of ball skills, balance and overall motor coordination competence decreased. Through the investigation of this study, the changing trend of motor competence between eight and nine year-old children was generally examined. In particular, the motor competence of 8 year-old children in Taiwan was similar to foreign children. However, the motor competence of 9 year-old children in Taiwan was significantly poorer than foreign children. This issue needs further investigation in the future.