Femke van Abswoude

Participation with a movement restriction: towards tailor-made training and coaching 

In this project I will study the effectiveness of two paradigms for the learning of motor skills in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) (Work Package 1). On top of the motor restrictions these children often experience difficulties regarding cognition and perception which have a combined effect on motor learning abilities. Particularly working memory capacity seems to play a mediating role. Previous research in healthy participants has indicated that explicit learning methods place a high demand on working memory, while this is considerably lower with implicit methods.

In this Work Package the effectiveness of implicit and explicit motor learning techniques will be examined and related to the personal characteristics of children with CP and DCD. Besides changes in motor performance, we will also examine the effect on the smoothness of the movement and the way in which children perceive their own skills.

The results will be combined with the findings of Work Package 2 regarding the context variables of children that play sports and the expertise of trainers and physical education teachers about the specific needs of these children (see: Sandra van Cappellen). The Valorization and Development Lab will communicate the results to the work field (see: Eralt Boers). The insights obtained by this project will be the base for, among other things, a handbook with guidelines for more personalized training and coaching of the children.

For more information about the project, see “Participation with a movement restriction: towards tailor-made training and coaching” and the website of this project.