The Effect of Focus Instructions on Dart Throwing Performance in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Background. Adults benefit more from external focus than internal focus when performing motor skills. Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of internal and external focus of attention on dart throwing performance in children with and without developmental coordination disorder. Methods. Twenty men, 20 normal boys and 20 boys with developmental coordination disorder were selected by Motor Observation Questionnaire for Teachers. The task was to throw the darts to the target which was performed in two experimental conditions including internal (related to the movements of the fingers and arm) and external (related to target and dart's course) focus of attention. Results. The results of ANOVA with repeated measures indicated that along with Constrained Action Hypothesis, adults performed better in condition of external focus of attention. However, for normal children, the use of internal focus of attention was more effective and in children with developmental coordination disorder, no significant difference between two conditions was found. Conclusion. According to results of this study, therapists and coaches should adjust their methods and instructions based on age, experience and developmental conditions of individuals.

A systematic review of motivational and attentional variables on children’s fundamental movement skill development: the OPTIMAL theory

“…Yet, visual information did not mediate EF benefits in adults and adolescents with severe visual impairment in discrete, locomotion and maximal velocity tasks respectively (Abdollahipour et al, 2019;McNamara, et al, 2019 2 ). These findings further suggest that age, motor experience, task type and focus preference/familiarity may have a more profound influence on children's motor learning in comparison to the role of acquiring key visual information (Fathi Khatab et al, 2018;McNamara et al, 2017;McNamara et al, 2019;Maurer & Munzert, 2013;Wulf et al, 2001). Additionally, task difficulty may moderate effort perceptions and the benefits of an EF in children with cerebral palsy, but an EF is generally effective under constant practice conditions (Pourazar et al, 2017).…”

“…Buszard et al, (2017) stated that complex and detailed instructions negatively impact children's motor performance by overloading their relatively limited working memory capacity. In contrast, concise EF instructions have enhanced motor performance and learning across the full FMS range, presumably due to their limited impact on attentional resources in comparison to an IF (e.g., Bodasinska, Zielinski, & Makaruk, 2019;Chiviacowsky, Wulf, & Ávila, 2013;Fathi Khatab et al, 2018;Kal, van der Kamp, & Houdijk, 2013;Marchant, Griffiths, Partridge, Belsley, & Porter, 2018;Wulf, 2013). However, Patranek, Bolter andBell (2019) found that concise IF feedback (e.g., arms out wide), when delivered intermittently, enhanced movement form when learning an overhand throw in comparison to EF feedback (e.g., make a "T"; table 4).…”

“…Whilst some studies with children supported predictions of the constrained action hypothesis (table 1), Patranek et al (2019) argues that the constrained action hypothesis does not make predictions regarding age or developmental status making it difficult to extend the hypothesis to young children (aged 6-7 yrs). Additionally, Shin, Kim and Lee (2012) explain that children aged 8-12-years old are in a critical development phase of the kinaesthetic system and therefore an IF may be more effective until the motor system becomes more automatic (Fathi Khatab et al, 2018). The exploration of the attentional focus effect is further limited by a lack of consideration for the high variability of children's motor skills throughout this critical period of motor development driven by gender, experimental and developmental variables (Becker & Smith, 2013;Flores, Menezes, & Katzer 2016;Patranek et al, 2019;Thomas, 2000).…”

“…Therefore, the difference in movement mechanics (e.g., gross vs fine motor skills) may moderate the EF advantage. For example, whilst an IF improved dart throwing performance (fine motor skill) (Fathi Khatab et al, 2018), Kranjenbrink et al (2018) found that an EF improved performance of a slingerball throwing task (gross motor skill) (Gallahue et al, 2012). Furthermore, the target size may have further influenced movement mechanics and the EF effect.…”

“…The comparison of attentional focus studies is complicated by the framing and conceptualisation of attentional focus instructions in children's research (table 4). For example, some studies provide detailed and lengthy instructions which sometimes promote different task information (e.g., Fathi Khatab et al, 2018;Li, Li, Chu, Pan, & Chen, 2019;Schwab, Rein, & Memmert, 2019) whilst others provide short instruction sets which focus attention to a single aspect of the task (e.g., McNamara et al, 2017). Given children's limited comprehension in comparison to adults, such differences in instructional sets could have dramatic impacts on the effectiveness of attentional focus manipulations (Buszard et al, 2017).…”