Abstract: The task orientated approach in management of clumsiness was focussed on symptom alleviation. The process orientated approach, here described, aims at causal diagnosis and focal therapy. Forty children, attending mainstream Junior schools were chosen by teachers for participation in the study. The selected children were considered by the teachers to have motor difficulties which interfered with their progress at school, i.e. they were clumsy. Kinaesthetic perception, and spatial and temporal programming processes were assessed. Children in the experimental groups were trained in all or some of the processes in which they were found to be deficient. Training time ranged from 1.5 to 3 hours per child, spread over a two-week period. The Control Group received training along the lines of traditional remedial teaching. The results showed that: first, adequate kinaesthetic perceptual ability is necessary in motor behaviour; second, improvement in deficient processes resulted in significant improvement in general motor performance and acquisition of complex skills; third, the emotive label of clumsiness can be eliminated by the diagnostically valid term of perceptual-motor dysfunction; and fourth, traditional training in the Control Group did not result in improved motor performance.
Publication Year: 1988
Publication Date: 1988-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 79
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot