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Impairments in sensory processing in children with cerebral palsy (CP) appear to be a cause of the postural control deficits they present and may affect function and participation in daily activities. Understanding the role of sensory processing in postural control can better inform their rehabilitation. Thus, the authors aimed to systematically review the literature concerning effects of sensory information manipulation on postural control in children with CP. A tailored search strategy in relevant databases identified 11 full-text reports that fulfilled the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sensory information affects postural control in children with CP. These children are less responsive to sensory input, and therefore are less able to perform adjustments during sensory perturbation. They exhibit less postural stability in the presence of sensory conflicts. The most commonly studied sources of sensory data are visual and somatosensory information, particularly when processed under static conditions. There are no studies addressing sensory information manipulation on postural control during the performance of functional activities. Further studies addressing manipulation of new sources of sensory cues on postural control are required.

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The control of head posture and movement play a significant role in the early development of motor skills. However, a detailed kinematic study charting this development is currently lacking. Hence, the authors performed a longitudinal study of 18 infants between birth and 4 months charting changes in head posture and movements when tracking a visual object. The results showed that beyond 2 months, the head was more often held at the body midline and this was accompanied by an increase in the number, extent, and speed of head movement. Further, it was found that head movements were organized into movement units. Movement units initially increased in number, but after 3 months decreased in number and increased in duration, especially after peak velocity. This more symmetrical profile velocity points to more controlled head movements after 3 months of age.

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We aimed to evaluate the functional abilities of persons with Rett syndrome (RTT) in stages III and IV. The group consisted of 60 females who had been diagnosed with RTT: 38 in stage III, mean age (years) of 9.14, with a standard deviation of 5.84 (minimum 2.2/maximum 26.4); and 22 in stage IV, mean age of 12.45, with a standard deviation of 6.17 (minimum 5.3/maximum 26.9). The evaluation was made using the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory, which has 197 items in the areas of self-care, mobility, and social function. The results showed that in the area of self-care, stage III and stage IV RTT persons had a level of 24.12 and 18.36 (P=0.002), respectively. In the area of mobility, stage III had 37.22 and stage IV had 14.64 (P<0.001), while in the area of social function, stage III had 17.72 and stage IV had 12.14 (P=0.016). In conclusion, although persons with stage III RTT have better functional abilities when compared with stage IV, the areas of mobility, self-care, and social function are quite affected, which shows a great functional dependency and need for help in basic activities of daily life.

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During infant development, objects and their functions are learned by means of active exploration. Factors that may influence exploration include reaching and grasping ability, object properties and the presence of developmental disorders. We assessed the development of exploratory actions in 16 typically-developing (TD) infants and 9 infants with Down syndrome (DS) after reaching onset. Infants with DS reached for and explored objects less frequently than TD infants, especially small objects. Over time, the amount of reaches increased in both groups, with no changes in the amount of exploration in the DS group. Pre-grasping actions were different across objects, but less efficient in generating action-relevant information in the DS group. These infants also performed fewer behaviors requiring complex motor skills. The results suggest that perceptual-motor abilities determine different exploratory behaviors in TD and DS infants. The reduced amount and complexity of exploratory actions may impact developmental outcome in DS.

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The authors investigated the effects of postural manipulation on head movement control in infants from birth to 4 months of age. Eighteen full-term infants were presented with a card, which was moved from side to side before their eyes in 3 positions: unsupported supine, supported supine, and supported reclined. The results showed a higher proportion of initial position of head at midline and midline-to-side trajectory, improving the alignment of head and trunk; fewer movement units and movement units after peak velocity; lower mean angular velocity and peak velocity; and a broader rotation of the head in both supported positions. Thus, external support of the head promoted head and trunk alignment, improving stability and enabling the infant to execute better-controlled head movements. These findings may be helpful in early intervention and treatment of at-risk infants.

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The keeper-independent strategy, in which a football penalty kicker selects a target location in advance and ignores the goalkeeper's actions during the run-up, has been suggested to be the preferable strategy for taking a penalty kick. The current in-field experiment investigated the question of whether the goalkeeper can indeed be ignored. Ten intermediate-level football players were instructed to adopt a goalkeeper-independent strategy and to perform penalty kicks directed at one of two targets located in the upper corners of the goal under three conditions: without a goalkeeper, in the presence of a goalkeeper (who tried to save the ball), and in the presence of a goalkeeper who was informed by the penalty kickers where they intended to direct the ball. The mere presence of a goalkeeper impaired shot accuracy. The shots were more centralised, that is, biased toward the goalkeeper. The effects were enhanced for the condition in which the penalty kicker knew the goalkeeper was knowledgeable about ball direction. The findings were consistent with the response activation model that holds that aiming at a target can be biased toward salient visual non-targets. The implications for adopting and practising goalkeeper-independent strategies are discussed.

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Recent theoretical approaches to infant development have highlighted the importance of exploratory actions to motor, perceptual and cognitive development in infancy. However, the performance of infants exposed to risk factors when exploring objects has been frequently overlooked as a variable of interest. The aim of this study was to review scientific publications investigating the role of developmental risk factors on the development of exploratory actions over objects. Electronic databases (Medline and Science Direct) were searched for papers by using for the following key-words in combination: "exploration", "exploratory", "infants". Eighteen papers were included in the review. The performance of infants exposed to various risk conditions such as prematurity, blindness, Down syndrome, autism and low socioeconomic level have been addressed in the literature. Each risk condition has influenced infants' behaviors in particular ways. Considerations for further research were made based on issues raised by the review that still need to be further understood.

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We investigated the effects of high pressure on the point of no return or the minimum time required for a kicker to respond to the goalkeeper's dive in a simulated penalty kick task. The goalkeeper moved to one side with different times available for the participants to direct the ball to the opposite side in low-pressure (acoustically isolated laboratory) and high-pressure situations (with a participative audience). One group of participants showed a significant lengthening of the point of no return under high pressure. With less time available, performance was at chance level. Unexpectedly, in a second group of participants, high pressure caused a qualitative change in which for short times available participants were inclined to aim in the direction of the goalkeeper's move. The distinct effects of high pressure are discussed within attentional control theory to reflect a decreasing efficiency of the goal-driven attentional system, slowing down performance, and a decreasing effectiveness in inhibiting stimulus-driven behavior.

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The aim of this study was to examine the coupling between visual information and body sway and the adaptation in this coupling of individuals with cerebral palsy (CP). Fifteen children with and 15 without CP, 6-15 years old, were required to stand upright inside of a moving room. All children first performed two trials with no movement of the room and eyes open or closed, then four trials in which the room oscillated at 0.2 or 0.5 Hz (peak velocity of 0.6 cm/s), one trial in which the room oscillated at 0.2 Hz (peak velocity of 3.5 cm/s), and finally two other trials in which the room oscillated again at 0.2 Hz (peak velocity of 0.6 cm/s). Participants with CP coupled body sway to visual information provided by the moving room, comparable to the coupling of participants without CP. However, participants with CP exhibited larger body sway in maintaining upright position and more variable sway when body sway was induced by visual manipulation. They showed adaptive sensory motor coupling, e.g. down-weighting visual influence when a larger stimulus was provided, but not with the same magnitude as typically developing participants. This indicates that participants with CP have less capability of adaptation.

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The purpose of the present study was to describe the rate of motor development in infants with Down syndrome in the age range of 3-12 months and identify the difficulties both in performance and acquiring motor skills in prone, supine, sitting and standing positions. Nineteen infants with Down syndrome and 25 healthy full term typical infants were assessed using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) monthly from 3 to 12 months of age. The infants with Down syndrome achieved significant later the level of motor performance of the typical infants. In the supine posture, the performance was significantly lesser for the Down syndrome infants in comparison to the typical infants from the 3rd to 6th month and in the 8th month. In the prone, sitting and standing postures this difference is found for all the months. In conclusion, the sequence of motor development of the Down syndrome is the same as the typical infants. However infants with Down syndrome need more time to acquire skills, mainly antigravitational ones, among them the standing position.

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Reaching and grasping skills have been described to emerge from a dynamic interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interaction between such an intrinsic factor, Down syndrome, and extrinsic factors, such as different object properties. Seven infants with Down syndrome and seven infants with typical development were assessed at the ages of 4, 5 and 6 months. The findings showed that object size influenced the kinematics of reaching for the infants with Down syndrome and the grasping frequency for the typical infants. The object rigidity was shown to have a major influence on grasping frequency.

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The influence of determining factors on sit-to-stand (STS) movement in adults has been extensively described in the literature; however, there is a lack of information about such factors on children. Therefore, the purposes of the present study are to analyze the scientific publications about intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing STS movement in children and to describe methodological procedures used in the studies under review. A bibliographical review was obtained from relevant database (1988-2009) using keywords, such as rising, chair, sit-to-stand, and children. In all, 109 articles were identified and 11 were selected. The literature indicates there is a lack of articles investigating disabilities other than cerebral palsy as well as extrinsic factors such as chair-type characteristics in typical and atypical children.

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Reaching and grasping skills have been described to emerge from a dynamic interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The aims of the study were to investigate the effect of such intrinsic factors as age and Down syndrome on the development of reaching and grasping skills and on overall gross motor skill, and to test the influence of the overall level of gross motor skill on the development of reaching and grasping. Seven infants with Down syndrome (DS) and seven infants with typical development were assessed at the ages of 4, 5 and 6 months. The following variables were analyzed: straightness index, mean velocity, movement units and deceleration time (for reaching movements), grasping frequency and AIMS scores. Intrinsic factors such as age and DS were found to influence the development of reaching, grasping, and of the overall level of gross motor skill. The overall level of gross motor skill was observed to influence grasping.

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Although the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the development of reaching and grasping skills in typical infants has been extensively described in the literature, the effect of such factors on at-risk infants is still poorly understood. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to analyze the scientific publications, from 1980 to 2008, about factors influencing reaching and grasping movements in infants at risk and to describe methodological procedures used in the studies under review. A bibliographical review on empirical studies indexed on Medline, Lilacs and Science Direct data bases was done, using as keywords the terms: "reaching movements", "grasping", "catching", "prehension", "infants", "children", "risk", "deficit", "impairment" and "delay". 127 articles were identified, and 11 were selected. The following risk conditions were assessed in the papers: prematurity, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, intrauterine cocaine exposure and agenesis of corpus callosum. Methodological issues as well as the intrinsic and extrinsic factors manipulated in the experiments are discussed in the light of changes in theoretical approach to motor behavior.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of additional weight load on reaching movement characteristics in 4-6-month-old infants over age. The task-load provided adaptedness on infant reaching movements, especially influencing to optimal interlimb coupling in bimanual reaches.

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