Gross Motor Competence and Peak Height Velocity in 10- to 14-Year-Old Canadian Youth: A Longitudinal Study

The objective of this study was to evaluate gross motor competence and growth spurt in Canadian youth. Eighty-two children (38 boys, 44 girls) were assessed over a time period of five years. Growth rate was measured quarterly; motor competence was evaluated once per year using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Peak height velocity (PHV) occurred at a significantly younger age in the girls (11.3 ± 0.4 years) than the boys (13.4 ± 0.3 years; p < .001), and growth rate during PHV was significantly greater in the boys than the girls (2.8 ± 1.3 vs. 2.0 ± 0.7 cm/quarter; p = .003). Gross motor competence outcomes were significantly above the North American normative scores (p < .05) over the measured time period. After the occurrence of PHV, strength, strength/agility, and gross motor skill significantly decreased in girls (p < .01), and running speed/agility significantly decreased in boys (p < .05). This finding emphasizes that motor competence in pre-adolescent children may suddenly decrease after their growth spurt.     

Learning to collaborate in a peer-tutoring situation: Who learns? What is learned?

The issue of “collaborating to learn” is tackled by analysing a peer-tutoring situation aimed at providing help to students with learning difficulties. The corpus consists of a six-lesson cycle between a 15 year-old student and her 14 year-old tutee who has difficulties with German. The analysis shows that the tutor and the tutee interactively construct the asymmetry and complementarity of their roles. As a consequence, what seemed at first sight to be the tutor’s discursive and guidance abilities appears, upon closer examination, to be the result of the students’ interactional work. In this particular case, the mode of collaboration which is achieved results in the tutor taking charge of the major part of the cognitive work.     

Can Children Do Philosophy?

Some philosophers claim that young children cannot do philosophy. This paper examines some of those claims, and puts forward arguments against them. Our beliefs that children cannot do philosophy are based on philosophical assumptions about children, their thinking and about philosophy. Many of those assumptions remain unquestioned by critics of Philosophy with Children. My conclusion is that the idea that very young children can do philosophy has not only significant consequences for how we should educate young children, but also for how adults should do philosophy; and that further research is urgently needed.     

Venture capital and the birth of the local area networking industry

Venture capital has played an important role in funding the development of a number of US high-technology industries. Economists and business scholars utilizing models based in traditional economics have studied venture capital from the perspective of investment decision-making. These models provide significant insights, and yet they do not explain the actual operation of venture capital. This case study of the creation of LAN industry utilizes a synthesis of the dominant design and social constructionist perspectives to create a more nuanced explanation of how the practice of venture capitalists operates to create firms and industries.     

Changes in ankle work,foot work,and tibialis anterior activation throughout a long run

Background:The ankle and foot together contribute to over half of the positive and negative work performed by the lower limbs during running.Yet,little is known about how foot kinetics change throughout a run.The amount of negative foot work may decrease as tibialis anterior(TA)electromyography(EMG) changes throughout longer-duration runs.Therefore,we examined ankle and foot work as well as TA EMG changes throughout a changing-speed run.Methods:Fourteen heel-striking subjects ran on a treadmill ...     

An Examination of Sport Participation Tracking and Adult Physical Activity for Participants of the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study

ABSTRACT

Research tracking sport participation from youth to adulthood is relatively rare, as is research that tracks youth sport participation with regard to adult physical activity (PA) levels, especially in the United States. Aims of this study were: 1) To investigate the degree to which sport participation tracked across youth, adolescence, and early adulthood in a sample of participants from the Michigan State University Motor Performance Study (MPS), and 2) Determine if differences existed in their levels of adult PA relative to prior sport participation. In total, 256 (60.8%) former participants from the MPS completed follow-up surveys regarding routine sport participation and PA across the previous year. Sport participation tracked consistently from youth to college. Further, regardless of the level of youth sport participation, adult leisure time PA was relatively consistent among groups. Although the study did not directly test the influence of the MPS on subsequent adult outcomes, our findings suggest that participants’ past sport participation was not a good predictor of adult PA for those who were involved in a program that emphasized fundamental motor skills in youth. Further investigation of such programs can help to better inform their influence on adult PA.     

Influence of Adiposity and Maturation on the Motor Performance of Girls Aged 8 to 16 Years

ABSTRACT

Excess adipose tissue may impact the motor performance of youth. Therefore, the current study examined (a) if adiposityinfluenced performance in the jump and reach and 30-yard dash and (b) if maturation predicted motor performance. Participants (N = 267) included girls aged 8 to 16 years. Latent growth curves were used to assess changes in motor performance. Sum of skinfolds predicted jump and reach performance from age 8.5 to 10.5 years, 11.5–12.0 years, 13.0 years, and from age 14 to 14.5 years (b = ?0.013 to 0.051, p < 0.05). Sum of skinfolds predicted 30-yard dash performance from age 8.5 to 14.0 years and at age 15.5 years (b = 0.003 to 0.005, p < 0.05). Maturation did not predict performance. Future research should examine determinants that explain the link between adiposity and motor performance.