BACKGROUND: Approximately 5%-10% of elementary school children show delayed development of fine motor skills. To address these problems, detection is required. Current assessment tools are time-consuming, require a trained supervisor, and are not motivating for children. Sensor-augmented toys and machine learning have been presented as possible solutions to address this problem.OBJECTIVE: This study examines whether sensor-augmented toys can be used to assess children's fine motor skills. The objectives were to (1) predict the outcome of the fine motor skill part of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition (fine MABC-2) and (2) study the influence of the classification model, game, type of data, and level of difficulty of the game on the prediction.METHODS: Children in elementary school (n=95, age 7.8 [SD 0.7] years) performed the fine MABC-2 and played 2 games with a sensor-augmented toy called "Futuro Cube." The game "roadrunner" focused on speed while the game "maze" focused on precision. Each game had several levels of difficulty. While playing, both sensor and game data were collected. Four supervised machine learning classifiers were trained with these data to predict the fine MABC-2 outcome: k-nearest neighbor (KNN), logistic regression (LR), decision tree (DT), and support vector machine (SVM). First, we compared the performances of the games and classifiers. Subsequently, we compared the levels of difficulty and types of data for the classifier and game that performed best on accuracy and F1 score. For all statistical tests, we used α=.05.RESULTS: The highest achieved mean accuracy (0.76) was achieved with the DT classifier that was trained on both sensor and game data obtained from playing the easiest and the hardest level of the roadrunner game. Significant differences in performance were found in the accuracy scores between data obtained from the roadrunner and maze games (DT, P=.03; KNN, P=.01; LR, P=.02; SVM, P=.04). No significant differences in performance were found in the accuracy scores between the best performing classifier and the other 3 classifiers for both the roadrunner game (DT vs KNN, P=.42; DT vs LR, P=.35; DT vs SVM, P=.08) and the maze game (DT vs KNN, P=.15; DT vs LR, P=.62; DT vs SVM, P=.26). The accuracy of only the best performing level of difficulty (combination of the easiest and hardest level) achieved with the DT classifier trained with sensor and game data obtained from the roadrunner game was significantly better than the combination of the easiest and middle level (P=.046).CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study show that sensor-augmented toys can efficiently predict the fine MABC-2 scores for children in elementary school. Selecting the game type (focusing on speed or precision) and data type (sensor or game data) is more important for determining the performance than selecting the machine learning classifier or level of difficulty.
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Starting with finger foods is recommended from 7 months in typically developing children. However, information on which finger foods are appropriate and accepted for which age is largely lacking. The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether chewing skills, hand motor skills, and other personal and food characteristics influence the intake of finger foods in early life. Thirty children aged 12 to 18 months participated in this study. All children were offered four finger foods in a fixed order on four consecutive days at their home. Two finger foods varied mainly in texture (fresh banana vs. freeze-dried banana) and two other finger foods mainly in shape (stick vs. heart shaped cracker). The intake was measured after ten minutes of exposure to the product. Chewing skills were measured with the Mastication Observation and Evaluation instrument and fine motor skills with selected items of the Bayley-III-NL scales. The results suggest that texture but not shape was found to affect intake, as fresh banana was eaten more than freeze-dried banana and the consumed quantity of the two crackers was not significantly different. Hand motor skills affected the intake of fresh banana only and chewing skills did not affect intake of any of the finger foods. Age and experience with chewable foods were associated with an increased intake of some of the finger foods. In conclusion, the intake of the four finger foods in this study was found to be mainly affected by texture, hand motor skills, age and experience.
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BackgroundFundamental Motor Skills (FMS) are important building blocks for children’s sport-participation and lifelong physical activity. In the last decade, several international studies have reported delays in the development of FMS. To get better insight into the Dutch situation and to provide future directions, this study examined the development of FMS in Dutch primary school children.MethodThe main goal of this study is to compare FMS of 11–12-year-old Dutch children in 2016 with scores of similarly-aged-children in 2006. In addition, gender, age, BMI were taken into account, to see whether changes in motor performance are related to these child characteristics. FMS-test scores on seven motor competence tests (balance, swing, jump, roll, shoot, throwing and catching, and tennis) from 1939 children in 2016 were set side by side with those of 1648 children in 2006. Temporal changes in motor competence scores were analyzed using regression-analysis.ResultsThis cross-sectional study shows better results for the children in 2006 compared to similarly-aged-children in 2016. Lower scores were found on six out of seven tested FMS, with the largest declines on the object control skills tennis and throwing and catching. Only vaulting jump skills remained on the same level. Overall, children with a higher BMI scored lower on all tests, except for throwing and catching via the wall. On the balancing, jumping and tennis test, the gap with children with a lower BMI widened over the last decade. Girls showed a lower competence level on rolling, shooting and throwing and catching compared to boys. During the last decade, their performance on the tennis test decreased more than for boys.ConclusionsResults of this study are alarming as diminishing motor skills are related to lower sport participation and poorer health outcomes. For the future generation, new interventions are needed to help children reach a sufficient proficiency level in FMS, to prevent or overcome the negative effects of lowered motor skills. Targeting FMS components during physical education and outside of school hours may potentially be a valuable strategy in reverting the lowering FMS levels amongst children.
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expressiveness, performance, musicians, skills, educationUsing the genre of Improvisational theatre as a basis, my research aims to design and develop instructional strategies that would help students enhance their expressive skills and achieve the flexibility to adapt their motor behavior to the musical piece. Embodying diverse characters and physicalities, as well as affective states or fictional realities through improv theatre exercises should enable them to expand their expressive range and, therefore, better convey their interpretation to their audience. Through this process, this study also seeks to gain an understanding of the effect this type of training may have on musicians' performance experience, as well as its implications in other areas of their development.
Onderzoekende vaardigheden (OZV) van mbo-studenten in gezondheidszorg- opleidingen zijn essentieel voor het omgaan met problemen, veranderingen en innovaties in het (toekomstige) beroep. Maar hoe kunnen we hun OZV precies opvatten?Doel Met dit PhD-onderzoek willen we: OZV van mbo-studenten conceptualiseren vanuit de onderzoeksliteratuur en de beroepspraktijk. Interventies (het denken en doen) van mbo-school- en praktijkopleiders beschrijven als zij tijdens interacties met studenten OZV van studenten willen bevorderen. Resultaten Verwachte resultaten: Wetenschappelijk: vier artikelen, presentaties op conferenties en een proefschrift Praktijkgericht: publicaties, workshops en presentaties voor betrokkenen uit het mbo Gerealiseerde resultaten: Onderzoeksplan ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry‘ Posterpresentatie ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry’ tijdens Onderwijs Research Dagen (online) in Utrecht, juli 2021 Round Table presentatie ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry’ tijdens EAPRIL (European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning) Conference (online), november 2021 Looptijd 15 november 2021 - 14 november 2026 Aanpak We beginnen met een scoping review naar OZV, gevolgd door een interviewstudie onder mbo-professionals en -opleiders. Met een multiple case study en een vignette studie brengen we interventies van mbo-opleiders om OZV bij studenten te stimuleren in beeld. De promovenda is Erica Wijnands-Pot (mboRijnland). De promotor vanuit de OU is prof. dr. Elly de Bruijn (ook lector Beroepsonderwijs), en de co-promotor vanuit het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs is dr. Annoesjka Boersma. Cofinanciering Erica heeft voor haar onderzoeksvoorstel de NWO Promotiebeurs voor leraren ontvangen.
The clubfoot deformity is one of the most common congenital orthopaedic “conditions”. Worldwide approximately 100,000 children are born with unilateral or bilateral clubfoot every year. In the Netherlands the incidence is approximately 175 every year. This three dimensional deformity of the foot involves, equinus, varus, adductus, and cavus . Left untreated the clubfoot leads to deformity, functional disability and pain. Physical impairments of children with clubfoot might lead to limitations in activities and therefore impede a child’s participation. In clinical practice, the orthopaedic surgeon and physiotherapists are regularly consulted by (parents of) clubfoot patients for functional problems such as impaired walking and other daily activities. This does not only affect long-term and physical health of a child, it will also affect the development of social relationships and skills as well. Since walking is a main activity in children to be able to participate in daily life, our previous study (financially supported by SIA Raak Publiek) focussed on gait differences between children with clubfoot and controls. However, differences in gait characteristics do not necessarily lead to functional limitations and restricted participation. Therefore, providing insight in participation and a child’s performance in other activities than walking is necessary. Insight in a child’s participation will also indicate the functional outcome of the treatment, which on its turn could provide essential information concerning a possible relapse.. Early identification of a relapse is important since it could prevent the need for major surgical interventions. The occurrence of a relapse clubfoot will probably also lead to functional differences in the foot as well as problems during activity and participation. Therefore, the main focus of this study is the functional outcomes of physical activities and the characterisation of participation of children with clubfeet in daily activities of childhood.
