Communication and Teaching Strategies

Brian Simmerman ©1997

This section consists of a brief overview of communication and teaching strategies used when coaching athletes with a disability, followed by abstracts related to this topic.

Topic Overview

Teachers as coaches, or coaches as teachers, what is the comparison? Even though all teachers may not be coaches I think it is safe to say that all coaches are teachers. Therefore to be a good coach it is quite helpful to be a good teacher. With this idea in mind, to improve your coaching, wouldn’t it be pertinent to learn more about teaching and good teaching styles?

At first glimpse of these research articles it may seem as though most of these articles are geared toward either the adapted physical education teacher or the able-bodied coach. But if you look closer you will notice that all of these concepts can be used when coaching athletes with disabilities. For example in the article about behaviors of youth sport coaches, the researchers learned that more experienced coaches gave more corrective feedback after a mistake and fewer silent observations. Also the coaches with the less impressive win-loss records ignored mistakes more often, while coaches with higher winning percentages used more positive and corrective feedback. Even though this study was conducted among coaches of able-bodied youths, couldn’t the results be easily transferred to disability sports? All athletes no matter what level of experience or ability need to be encouraged and taught how to perform better.

In the article that studied the gymnastics club, the researchers observed that for that practice the athletes were more successful while using the reciprocal style of teaching than when using the command or practice styles. These were experienced athletes with knowledge of the skills being practiced and the ability to explain and demonstrate to their partners. The reciprocal style of coaching may be too complex for athletes with cognitive disabilities, but it could be used successfully with any number of other sports and disability groups. Wheelchair basketball players, for example, could use this style of teaching to help each other practice shooting or other skills. Another important aspect of this article is that it mentions other styles of teaching. To be an effective teacher or coach it is very helpful to know of different styles and when those styles could best be used.

Organizing limited practice time to be most efficient is a concern of every coach and teacher, how do you get the most practice out of your allotted time. The article on practice behavior of elite athletes demonstrates how it is important for the coach to organize the environment to maximize practice efficiency. When the environment is properly organized, the athletes are able to use their time more efficiently and maximize their practice and minimize their waiting and transition times. Every sport will be different (i.e., a goalball team won’t necessarily be able to organize their practice like a volleyball team), but knowing the importance of organization can get the coach to thinking of ways to improve practice time.

Goal setting is a common technique used by coaches and teachers. In a study using adolescents with behavior disorders researchers observed that students achieved their long-term goals better if those goals were divided into smaller segments, meeting consecutive short-term goals to reach the long-term goals. This can allow the athlete to better monitor their improvement as well as having a sense of accomplishment even if the final goal is not met, they may have achieved all the previous goals and the season is not a total failure.

Finding the age and skill level of students or athletes that a teacher or coach best works with is very important. Schempp (1984) observed an elementary physical education teacher and studied the interaction changes between the teacher and his students. Schempp observed that the interactions changed with grade level. This may have been due to the different curriculum items taught or the style of teaching needed for these different items being taught. It may have also been due to the teacher feeling more comfortable with different grade levels. Coaches and teachers need to know what age level they work best with. Some coaches are better at skill development and prefer younger more novice athletes while others prefer teaching strategies and preparing for competition and prefer to coach older, more skilled and competitive athletes. Finding the age and skill level the coach works with best will benefit both the coach and the athletes.

Coaches and teachers both need to teach skill development. The physical educator teaches movement skills and the basics from which the coach builds upon and teaches more specific skills that are needed for sport participation. Teachers and coaches need to know the best methods to teach these skills for maximum learning from their athletes and students. What styles, cues, and reinforcement work best for each type of athlete?

In one study of students with profound mental retardation (PMR), researchers learned that the students spent more time-on-task practicing good posture when they were given a preferred selection of music as long as they kept their good posture. The preferred music technique was significantly better than using an aversive tone every time they stopped using good posture or no feedback at all.

Another study involving PMR students showed that verbal praise and music were positive reinforcers in teaching ball kicking skills. Though the researchers could not find a significant difference between the verbal praise and music reinforcement both were significantly better than using no feedback at all.

While studying men dually diagnosed with mental impairments and emotional disturbance, researchers observed that daily physical activity with positive social reinforcement positively affected physical fitness levels.

The use of prompts was another subject that was studied regarding skill acquisition. Even though previous research stated that verbal/physical prompting would be more effective than verbal/visual prompting, Reid, Collier and Cauchon (1991) were unable to provide overwhelming support that verbal/physical prompting was more effective with children with autism. The age and number of subjects observed may have effected these results.

Researchers studying students with learning disabilities (LD) tried to find a significant difference between motor skill learning using a visual/verbal model compared to a visual/silent model. Researchers were unable to find a significant difference but did observe that students using verbal rehearsal (i.e., talking themselves through the movement before performing it) performed higher than those that didn’t.

These are only a few of the possible teaching techniques that can be used while coaching. Further research on teaching techniques and styles for disabled athletes is still needed. Every situation and every athlete is different and some of these techniques may or may not be transferable to other situations.

Parental perception is very important to the success of both a physical education program and to a sports program. If the parents perceive their children are learning, growing, and improving because of physical education or sports they are more likely to encourage future involvement and support that program. Megginson, Nakamura, and Furst (1997) interviewed parents of special education athletes to learn what the parents perceived that their children were receiving from Special Olympics.

Research on coaching disabled sports is limited; therefore, coaches of disability sports need to adapt the findings from research on nondisabled athletes. Research on able-bodied athletes and coaches may not be directly pertinent to the disabled coach, but coaches of disability sports should be able to find aspects that they can be transferred into their sports programs. Also, since coaching has many similarities to teaching, research on teaching students with disabilities can be very helpful to coaches of disabled sports.

Abstracts

Sherman, M. A., & Hassan, J. S. (1984). Behavioral studies of youth sport coaches. In M. Pieron & G. Graham (Eds.), Sport pedagogy (pp. 103-108). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

The objectives of this study were to describe coaching behavior in various sports; determine the stability of the Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) measures; and discover whether CBAS differentiates coaches on the basis of experience and success.

The subjects were 102 coaches in baseball (n = 24), soccer (n = 66), and tennis (n = 12). The typical United States coach was a 33 year old white male with 5.6 years of experience. The typical Iraqi coach was 25 years old with 5.0 years of experience. Data was collected in youth sport programs for players aged 5 to 19 years. Baseball coaches were observed during games. Soccer A and B coaches were observed at team practice. Soccer C and tennis coaches were observed at summer camps. On the average 16 players were present per observation. Decoders were trained in three ways. They studied the CBAS manual, viewed videotapes, and practiced extensively in field settings. Criterion related agreement on video and written tests was 80% or better for all observers.

The occurrence data indicated that the coaches spent 85% of their time in sport related behaviors such as instructing (33%), monitoring (18%), and offering feedback (30%). Most feedback messages were positive (12%), or corrective (12%). Encouraging or punitive statements were rarely made after mistakes. Sport irrelevant behaviors consumed 15% of the time. They were relatively low in discipline (1%), but somewhat higher in the general communication (6%) and organization (8%) categories. Coaches were the primary communicators. They were verbally active four times more than they were silent. Coach-player interactions were six times more positive (18%) than punitive (3%).

Repeated observations by Hassan (1981) and Rapone (1981) produced no significant differences over occasions. Intraclass correlations revealed that most CBAS measures had moderate to high stability, especially in the high occurrence categories of instructing, observing, rewarding, and corrective feedback. Mean R-values were .69 for baseball and .64 for soccer. In baseball, the most stable measures were social interactions, general encouragement, and corrective feedback. The highest soccer coefficients were instructing, observing, rewarding and corrective feedback.

Relationships between CBAS and team win-loss records were examined in baseball. Results were only significant in the silent observation category, where losing coaches ignored mistakes more than did winning coaches, 14.3% to 12.6%.

With respect to experience three studies found significance in various categories. The combined high experience sample gave more corrective feedback in general and after a mistake, and less silent observation. Though consistent over all the studies silent observation and corrective feedback after a mistake differences were only significant in soccer. Low experience soccer coaches ignored mistakes more often than high experience coaches, 11.3% to 6.4%. Five significant findings appeared in tennis. High experience coaches gave more general corrective feedback. Low experience coaches were higher in general communication, encouragement after a mistake, corrective and punitive feedback after a mistake and keeping control, however, these categories had rather low frequency counts.

This test suggests that youth sport coaches rely almost exclusively on direct styles of teaching. Most of their interaction was positive corrective.

Cox, R. L. (1984). A systematic approach to teaching sport. In M. Pieron & G. Graham (Eds.), Sport pedagogy (pp. 109-115). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate four behaviors by means of comparing teaching styles in an Olympic gymnastics club. The three styles tested were Mosston’s reciprocal style, command style, and practice style.

Ten gymnasts, 6 male and 4 female, took part in this investigation, none of whom was familiar with its purpose beforehand. Their ages ranged from 9 to 12 years and each was competent at the four gymnastic moves they were asked to perform in each episode. The roles required of the gymnasts in both command and practice styles were familiar to them from previous experience. They were unfamiliar with the reciprocal style and needed two hours of training before this particular experimental episode.

The four behaviors studied were: (a) number of attempts of a gymnastics move within the time allowed; (b) number of feedback statements made to performers in each episode; (c) nature of the feedback given, whether positive or negative; and (d) number of antisocial behaviors exhibited. The three coaching episodes, one in each of three consecutive weeks, were recorded by a video camera and four microphones, which were strategically positioned so that each of the four types of behavior could be investigated objectively.

The major differences in the results are in the number and nature of feedback statements given and the number of related antisocial behaviors exhibited. The reciprocal style resulted in almost three times more feedback statements (n=411) than either the command (n=146) or practice (n=132) styles, and 10 times more positive feedback statements (n=374) than in either the command (n=38) or practice (n=21) syles. Antisocial behavior in reciprocal style (n-=1) was nearly nonexistent compared to command (n=55) and practice (n=39) styles.

One observation was made only after the video recordings were analyzed. The quality of movement performed in the reciprocal style episode was judged to be markedly superior to that in either of the two other episodes. The author sited one possible explanation for this observation. Despite only one member of each pair practicing at any one time, the other is observing, comparing, contrasting, analyzing, and evaluating the performance in accordance with the prescribed criteria for high level performance. Thus, when it is his or her turn to practice the task he or she is acutely aware of its requirements.

In this situation Mosston’s reciprocal style has definite advantages over his command and practice styles. These results may not be as definitive in all situations. Other skill levels, type of skill being learned and student learning styles may require another of Mosston’s eight teaching styles. Coaches and teachers should use a mixture of teaching styles to effectively maximize their success with a wider range of athletes and students.

McKenzie, T. L. (1984). Analysis of the practice behavior of elite athletes. In M. Pieron & G. Graham (Eds.). Sport pedagogy (pp. 117-121). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

The purpose of this study was to present descriptive analytic data on how elite amateur athletes used time during practice sessions. This research was conducted, not only out of academic curiosity, but also because of the concerns of the team coaches who were preparing for the Olympic Games.

Three members of the USA Men’s Volleyball team were selected for the study. These men all played the same position (middle blocker), had high attendance rates at practice and were expected to remain on the team throughout the 1984 Olympic Games.

The Practice Learning Time-Volleyball (PLT) system was used. The PLT system is similar to the Academic Learning Time-Physical Education (ALT-PE) system but has category definitions and examples specific to volleyball. The PLT system is a hierarchic decision system used by trained observers to code a player’s behavior in predetermined motor and nonmotor categories. The motor categories are appropriate, inappropriate, and supporting. The nonmotor categories are attending, interim, waiting, maintenance, and off-task.

Two observers were trained to use the PLT system. Observer training consisted of studying the coding manual and decision log, coding sample videotapes, and practicing coding in the actual setting. Observers used a fixed rotational order to monitor the players in 6-second intervals. Agreement between the two observers was checked by having both observers code the same player at the same time during approximately one fourth of the practice sessions. Interobserver agreement scores for he different player behavior categories, computed using he Scored-Interval agreement method ranged from 88.2 to 96.0%.

Data was collected during regularly scheduled practice sessions and only during on-court time allocated for skill practice.

More than half of their time was spent in motor activities (55.7)%. Most of that time was motor appropriate (54.2%). Little movement time was coded as supporting (1.0%) or not appropriate (0.5%). Of the nonmotor categories (44.3%), waiting constituted the largest amount of time (21.1%) with interim (10.3%) being the next highest. Attending (7.1%) and maintenance (5.3%) were considerably lower. Off-task behavior rarely occurred at 0.5%.

These results are highly attributable to the manner in which the coach plans and leads the team in practice. The coaches used large numbers of volleyballs, systematic ball retrieval procedures and small groups at multiple task stations. Little attending time was recorded because the coaches used brief demonstrations and precise verbal cues to let the athletes know what to do and how to do it. Lengthy discussions were done at team meetings off the courts and not during practice times. Low rates of supporting were found because the coaches arranged drills in a manner that players in supporting roles practiced together. Interim and waiting time totaled more than 31% of the observed time, allowing the athletes time to rest without taking long breaks.

Comparisons of this study to similar studies of elite athletes in other sports may not produce similar results do to the differences between the two sports and practice styles and objectives. This research could help volleyball coaches at other levels to plan their practices more efficiently to get maximum skill practice out of their allotted practice time.

Schempp, P. G. (1984). Interaction change as a function of grade level in physical education. In M. Pieron & G. Graham (Eds.). Sport Pedagogy (pp. 85-89). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the type of interaction and relationship between a teacher and his or her students changes as a function of grade level in physical education.

The teacher in this study held both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Arts degree in physical education and had 12 years of teaching experience, 6 years in the same school as the study. A total of 52 classes were observed. The classes were kindergarten through sixth grade. Each grade level was represented by at least two classes, each being observed at least 6 times. All observations were done in the same academic school year.

Observations were made using the Cheffer’s Adaptation of Flander’s Interaction Analysis System (CAFIAS). The CAFIAS was specifically designed to systematically record the verbal and nonverbal student-teacher interactions in human movement settings. Using "blind-live" techniques, CAFIAS was determined to be a significantly (p< .05) reliable indicator of classroom interaction.

Observations were done at random points throughout the year. The first observation for each grade was made within the first 4 weeks of school and the last observation was made within the last 4 weeks of school. No grade was observed more than once per week and no more than 30 school days lapsed between observations.

The hypothesis of this study was tested by applying the CAFIAS codings of 52 observed classes into a stepwise multiple regression analysis. Examination of the regression model revealed the following variables significantly contributed to the model: teacher information giving (verbal), praise (verbal), acceptance (nonverbal), silence, confusion, and predictable student responses (verbal). A mean score analysis by grade level indicated corresponding increases between grade level and teacher information giving (verbal), praise (verbal), acceptance (nonverbal), and confusion. Corresponding decreases were noted between grade level and student predictable responses (verbal) and silence. Both the intraobserver (r = 0.77) and interobserver (r = 0.78) reliability estimates were found to be significant at the 0.05 level.

The results of this study led to the conclusion that the interactional relationship between the teacher and the students changed as a function of grade level. It would therefore seem that grade level may serve as an influencer of teaching behavior.

Further studies of interest may be to test a coach, coaching the same sport to teams of different age, experience and/or skill level to see if there is any change in the interactional relationship between the coach and his or her athletes. If there is a change could it be due to a comfort level or preference by the coach to a certain age, experience and/or skill level?

Reid, G., Collier, D., & Cauchon, M. (1991). Skill acquisition by children with autism: Influence of prompts. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 8, 357-365.

The purpose of this study was to contrast the relative effectiveness of visual and physical prompting with persons with autism.

The subjects were two boys age 15 and two girls ages 11 and 15 years. The skill was to roll a softball toward 10 plastic bowling pins and knock down as many as possible. Two separate models were used one stressed verbal and physical prompts and the other stressed verbal and visual prompts. The verbal/physical instruction included verbal descriptions of the task as well as manual guidance. The verbal/visual instruction included verbal descriptions of the task as well as complete and partial demonstrations.

The four subjects each performed 120 trials of each instructional model in a counterbalance fashion. Each trial consisted of eliciting attention, verbal direction, the appropriate prompts, performance of the task, and reinforcements. Sessions were videotaped to facilitate frequency recording of visual, verbal and physical prompts as well as reinforcements. Twenty-five trials, including all subjects, were viewed by three trained coders to determine interrater agreement. After each trial the frequencies of prompts and reinforcements were recorded. The three coders agreed completely 70% of the time, when a more liberal agreement of acceptance was allowed, two coders agree and one disagrees, the percentage was 92%.

Previous research led to the hypothesis that physical prompting would be more effective than visual prompting in acquiring a movement skill.

The two subjects that started with the verbal/physical prompting showed steady progress over the 120 trials. When they switched to the verbal/visual prompting one subject leveled off almost immediately while the other subject continued to show improvement.

Of the two subjects that started with the verbal/visual prompting one showed some modest improvements under the visual condition with a dramatic increase under physical prompting. The other subject showed continuous improvement in both conditions, in fact more with visual prompting.

This study does not provide overwhelming support for physical prompting over visual prompting. Results may have been more conclusive if the researchers had used a larger study sample. Results may also vary depending on the age and level of function of the subjects.

Bar-Eli, M., Hartman, I., & Levy-Kolker, N. (19914). Using goal setting to improve physical performance of adolescents with behavior disorders: The effect of goal proximity. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 11, 86-95.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether using short-term goals plus long-term goals would lead to better physical performance than using short-term goals alone in adolescents with behavior disorders.

The subjects for this study were 42 male and 38 female Israeli adolescents with behavior disorders, age approximately 15 years, and residing for at least 3 years in two "special education" boarding schools. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a long-term goal condition or a short-term goal condition; each condition had 21 males and 19 females.

The study lasted 10 weeks and consisted of a baseline sit-ups test and five sit-up trials, making a 2 x 6 (Goal Condition x Trials) design with repeated measures on the Trial Factor. Goal setting was randomized between the two schools and each school only had one condition.

The long-term goal condition was to increase their sit-ups 40% above the baseline. The short-term goal condition was to each week improve 8% over the previous weeks score so that by the end of five weeks they would have improved 40% over their baseline.

Subjects practiced sit-ups once a week for 3 weeks prior to the experiment. During the experiment subjects practiced sit-ups twice a week for 10 weeks with a test being performed every two weeks.

A one-way analysis of variance was conducted on baseline and indicated no significant differences among the groups. Also a 2 x 2 x 6 (Goal Condition x Gender x Trials) revealed no significant effects related to gender. So a 2 x 6 (Goal Condition x Trials) ANOVA was performed.

The analysis revealed a significant interaction, Goal Conditions x Trials, F(5, 74) = 4.38, p<.002, and two significant main effects, of Goal Condition, F(1, 78) = 5.46, p<.022, and Trials, F(5, 74) = 37.35, p<.00l.

Not only did this study help clarify the difference between the use of short-term and long-term goal setting compared to long-term goal setting it also showed it is effective with adolescents with behavior disorders in a physical education setting. Further studies may want to test this hypothesis with other subject groups, for example; the mentally handicapped.

Decker, J., & Jansma, P. (1995). Physical education least restrictive environment continua used in the United States. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 12, 127-138.

The purpose of this study was to learn what types of physical education least restrictive environment (LRE) continua are currently in use throughout the United States.

A stratified random sample of 976 schools was chosen from a possible 70,100. The original 70,100 was partitioned according to school type (regular and special), grade range, and enrollment.

A questionnaire was addressed to the head of physical education in each building. The questionnaire contained 17 questions regarding LRE placement in physical education. Respondents were encouraged to provide any narrative comments regarding LRE mandates in physical education. The questionnaire underwent extensive content and format reviews and randomly selected respondents were resurveyed to ascertain test-retest reliability.

A total of 493 responses were received with 470 considered usable.

Respondents were to indicate which of the eight LRE placement options were currently used in their school. The options ranged from full-time in regular class in a regular school to full-time adapted physical education in a hospital school.

Resulting data revealed that 26 physical education LRE continua were used in school buildings during the 1988-89 school year. The most widely used physical education placement system was no on the continuum at all, but a single placement option: full-time regular class in a regular school. This was used in 50.7% of the schools and surpassed the next most frequently used continuum by 43.2%.

The second most frequently used was a combination of full-time regular class in a regular school and part-time adapted physical education (7.5%). The third most commonly used was a combination of full-time regular physical education in a regular school and full-time adapted physical education in a regular school. These three most frequently used continua comprised 64.2% of the local education agency school buildings surveyed. The remaining schools used 1 of 23 other continua, none of which was used by more than 5.8% of the sample.

The first question that needs to be asked is do these students in the full-time regular class in a regular school get the special support they need with no access to adapted physical education.

It would also be interesting to see this study replicated with the addition of the other 18 LRE continua to see if that would change any of the current results.

Elliot, D., Gray, S., & Weeks, D. J. (1991). Verbal cueing and motor skill acquisition for adults with Down syndrome. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 8, 210-219.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the verbal motor performance deficits exhibited by Down syndrome (DS) persons generalize to motor skill learning.

The subjects for this study were 7 mentally handicapped adults with DS (3 men, 4 women), 6 undifferentiated mentally handicapped adults without DS (2 men, 4 women), and 8 nonhandicapped adults (2 men, 6 women). The mentally handicapped adults were recruited from sheltered workshops/training centers and were all functioning in the low mild and moderate range. The nonhandicapped adults were all volunteers from the university community.

The primary piece of equipment was a specially constructed sequencing apparatus consisting of a home switch and three vertically arranged movement tasks. The movement tasks were 30cm from the homeswitch and were 10cm apart. From top to bottom the movement tasks were a lever that the subject had to move from right to left, then a headlight switch the subject had to pull, and finally a dial the subject had to rotate ¼ turn to the left. The entire apparatus is connected to two timers.

The subject would hear a verbal "ready" followed by three commands (i.e., "top, middle, bottom") spoken by the researcher, the verbal cue was followed by an auditory signal which was the movement imperative. The interval between the completion of the last word and the movement imperative was 0, .5 or 1 second. The subjects’ task was to move their preferred hand and complete the three movements, in order, as quickly as possible. The first timer was started by the auditory signal and then stopped as soon as the subject moved their hand from the home switch, giving a measure of reaction time. The second timer was started as soon as the subject’s hand left the home switch and stopped when the last task was completed, giving a measure of the time it took to complete the sequence.

Training involved five blocks of nine trials each. Within each block, each movement imperative interval was used three times with a separate random order for each subject. After each trial the subjects were told whether the task had been performed correctly. If the subject performed the movements in the wrong order the experimenter explained the error and instructed the subject to listen carefully on the next trial, the instructor never demonstrated the movement task.

Two blocks of nine retention trials were conducted. For these trials a verbal "ready" signal was followed 3, 3.5 or 4 seconds later by the movement cue tone. The retention trials were identical to the acquisition trials without the verbal cue to identify sequence order. The purpose of the retention trials was to give an indication of learning. Another two blocks of nine trials each were then conducted with the nonpreferred hand in order to assess transfer or the generalizability of learning.

 This study was designed to determine whether the verbal-motor performance difficulties exhibited by DS persons limit their ability to learn a novel motor task from verbal instruction. The DS subjects were able to complete the task as well and as rapidly as the other mentally handicapped group, but it took the DS group more time to organize and initiate their movements when the verbal cues were terminated. The researchers listed two reasons why this may have occurred. The first is that DS persons have difficulty remembering the verbal cues or their specific order. The other explanation of the reaction time effect is that DS subjects have difficulty internalizing the verbal instructions so that they can be translated into a sequence of movements.

Silliman-French, L., French, R., Sherrill, C., & Gench, B. (1998). Auditory feedback and time-on-task of postural alignment of individuals with profound mental retardation. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 15, 51-63.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of three feedback conditions (aversive tone, preferred music, and no feedback) on time-on-task of correct upper body postural alignment in adults with profound mental retardation (PMR).

The participants of this study were seven adults (3 males and 4 females) with PMR and upper body postural malalignment, ages 25 to 34. All participants were tested for postural malalignment by three instruments: the Stoker Walking Profile, the New York Posture Rating Chart, and an Inclinometer.

The participants were evaluated to determine if they understood the relationship between cause and effect. Then it was determined which aversive tone the participants disliked and which musical artists they preferred. Next the participants were screened to determine whether they perceived the aversive tones as a negative reinforcer and the music as a positive reinforcer.

The postural feedback device used comprised of two parts: a time meter that was used to generate data and a Walkman tape recorder with a head receiver set. The time meter device was wired to the tape recorder and clipped to the back of participant’s pants. The postural feedback device gave different feedback in each of the three conditions. In the no feedback condition, the participant received no feedback regardless of whether his or her posture was upright or slouched. In the tone condition, when the participant slouched, the time meter activated the tape recorder to play the aversive tone, which was intended to make the participant return to an upright position. In the music condition, when the participant assumed an upright posture, the time meter activated the tape recorder to play a preferred music selection.

The effectiveness of the feedback conditions varied, with all participants improving performance to some degree. Music was more effective in improving upper body postural alignment when statistically compared to the tone and no feedback conditions. Unexpectedly, all participants improved their time-on-task performance in the no feedback condition. Their time-on-task in the no feedback condition was comparable or slightly lower than in the aversive tone condition but not as good as during the music condition.

This study showed the effectiveness of three different conditions on time-on-task. It would be interesting to see what the results would be using the same three conditions but studying learning and learning retention.

Combs, C. S., & Jansma, P. (1990). The effects of reinforcement-based fitness training on adults who are institutionalized and dually diagnosed. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 7, 156-169.

This study examined the effects of physical fitness training and reinforcement on adults who were institutionalized and diagnosed as mentally impaired and emotionally disturbed.

The subjects of this study were five males ranging from age 24 to 43 years. All subjects were diagnosed as both mentally impaired and emotionally disturbed. The mental impairment classification included one subject was diagnosed as mildly impaired, one as moderately impaired, two as severally impaired and one as profoundly impaired. All the subjects were being monitored for specific behaviors that were described as maladaptive and inappropriate. These behaviors were grouped in categories that included aggression, disruption, stereotypical behaviors, property destruction, self-injury and noncompliance. Four of the subjects were ambulatory and had no impaired motor patterns. One of the subjects was on seizure medication and displayed awkward ambulation when running.

The training sessions lasted 1 hour a day, 5 days a week for a total of 6 weeks. After 3 weeks, the training was intentionally stopped for 1 week and therefore was discontinuous in nature.

Each training session included a 10 minute warm-up devoted to flexibility activities followed by 20 minutes of muscular endurance training which encompassed leg curls/leg extensions, preacher curls, bench presses, and bent leg sit-ups. Then 20 minutes of cardiovascular training by alternating 5 minutes of run/walk activity with 5 minutes of stationary bicycle riding; each activity done twice. The last 10 minutes of the training session was used for a cool down period with stretching activities.

Social reinforcement was provided after each activity by marking an exercise chart that was personalized for each subject. If an individual completed the entire training session, he was allowed to mark his personalized chart and receive a reinforcer. If the subject failed to comply during the fitness session, he did not receive any reinforcement.

The results of this study indicated that daily, reinforcement based, physical fitness activities positively affected fitness levels after three weeks of training. Physical fitness levels of all subjects improved after 6 weeks of fitness training with 1 week of rest in between and physical fitness levels were maintained for 2 weeks after training with the exception of sit-and-reach scores for one subject.

Further research in this area could include replication using a larger and more diverse subject group to see if these results would be the same with other populations. Another possible study would be to see if you could gradually minimize and eliminate the reward system to see if the subjects would continue with their training without the extra rewards.

Crocker, P. R., & Bouffard, M. (1992). Perceived challenge in physical activity by individuals with physical disabilities: The relationship between appraisal and affect. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 9, 130-140.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between cognitive appraisal and affect during challenging physical activity situations by individuals with physical disabilities.

The subjects for this study were 16 female and 39 male (median age = 26) volunteers. Disabilities included amputations (n=7), spinal cord injuries (n=25), spina bifida (n=4), cerebral palsy (n=7), classified as other (n=9) and multiple disabilities (n=3). Severity of disabilities was scored using self-ratings with 18 subjects classified as mild, 24 as moderate, and 13 as major. Seven subjects stated having no mobility problems, 21 had some mobility problems, 22 had moderate mobility problems, and 5 had severe mobility problems.

Four variables were related to motivation and reasons for involvement in a particular physical activity. These variables were developing health and fitness, skill learning, demonstrating confidence, and gaining social approval.

Each subject was interviewed for approximately 1 hour. The interviewer gave two examples of possible challenging activities. The subject was then asked to recall the most challenging physical activity outside of normal daily living that had occurred during the last 2 weeks then complete a questionnaire containing appraisals and emotion items based on their experience.

The results indicated that appraisals related to reasons for engaging in physical activity are significantly related to pleasurable engagement in challenging situations. The importance of the task and the amount of effort required are strongly related to positive affect.

It would be interesting to see the effects of this experiment if instead of having the subjects recall a challenging physical activity they actually had to perform one. Would their answers and therefore the results be different if they were actually engaging in the activity rather than relying on the memory of an activity.

Maeland, A. F. (1992). Identification of children with motor coordination problems. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 9, 330-342.

The purpose of this study was to test agreement between two motor tests, the Test of Motor Proficiency (TMP) and the Test of Motor Impairment (TOMI) also to test the prevalence of motor control problems between Norway and other countries.

Eight schools were randomly chosen in Trondheim, Norway. Seventeen classes (10-year-old children) were selected from the eight schools. The total sample consisted of 360 students: 183 boys and 177 girls.

Three assessment methods were used; the Test of Motor Proficiency (TMP), the Test of Motor Impairment-Henderson Revision (TOMI) and Teacher’s Judgment (TJ), using a checklist of 13 items to observe and record possible motor impairments.

Administration and scoring of the two motor tests were done according to the directions given in the test manuals. The TMP was administered to all the students in the sample. Due to timeliness the TOMI was only administered to all the students in 5 classes: 55 boys and 44 girls. The procedure was that the TMP was administered to all the children in the classroom. The TOMI was administered to the children identified by the TMP as clumsy or so judged by the teachers. If the test administrator observed a child having motor difficulties in spite of passing the TMP the TOMI was given to that student. Any child thought to have slight motor problems by the teacher was also given the TOMI. The TMP was administered to all 360 students and the TOMI was administered to 223 students, including the small sample of 99 students in the five classes.

One part of this experiment was to determine the prevalence of students with motor impairments and compare that to other countries. The three tests used in this study identified an incidence of about 5-6% of the children had motor impairments in the typical school setting. This seems to be consistent with other studies on motor impairments, one other study estimated it to be 5%or greater. This study also seemed to be 1% lower than a similar study done in Australia.

The other objective of this experiment was to test the agreement between the TMP and the TOMI. It was decided that the two tests consisted of different items and may have been too limited in scope to make comparisons across tests. It was also stated that it can be useful to use different measurements in identifying children with motor problems because each assessment procedure can be helpful in identifying children with motor problems not identified by the other test procedure.

Some of the discrepancies between the two tests included. Most of the students identified by the TMP, but not by the TOMI, were borderline by the TOMI and identified as mildly impaired by the TOMI. The 3 students identified by the TMP as having severe motor problems were also identified by the TOMI. Only 53.6% of the children identified by the TOMI were also identified by the TMP, the TMP also did not always detect students who scored high on the TOMI.

Further studies that included a wider variety of motor skill tests would be useful to identify which test is the most consistent. It would also be helpful to study which tests are better with different populations and/or disability groups, which test is better for a student with cerebral palsy as compared to a student with a mental impairment. Another study of interest would be to test a cross section of America to see if there is any section of the country with a higher prevalence for motor behavior than another, for example, the Midwest compared to the East Coast, or large cities compared to rural areas.

Kowalski, E. M., & Sherrill, C. (1992). Motor sequencing of boys with learning disabilities: Modeling and verbal rehearsal strategies. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 9, 261-272.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of model type and verbal rehearsal strategy in relation to motor sequencing of boys with learning disabilities (LD).

The subjects used were 80 boys with LD all were 7 or 8 years of age. The subjects were tested on their ability to model a seven part motor sequence as measured by the Motor Sequencing Test (MST), developed specifically for this study by Kowalski and Sherrill. The goal of the MST was to measure the ability of the subject to perform the seven locomotor tasks in the correct order.

The subjects were randomly assigned to two model conditions: a visual-silent model (VSM) and a visual-verbal model (VVM). Then they were once again randomly assigned to one of two verbal rehearsal conditions: verbal rehearsal (VR) and no verbal rehearsal (NVR). The subjects in the VSM condition watched a video of a male graduate student perform the task sequence with no verbal cues. The subjects in the VVM condition watched a video of the same male graduate student perform the task sequence while stating the name of each task while performing it. The subjects in the VR condition were taught to state aloud the name of each task in the motor sequence while they performed it. The subjects in the NVR condition were merely exposed to not trained in the use of verbal rehearsal strategy.

This study did not support the hypothesis that LD boys would perform better under the VVM condition than the VSM condition. This may be due to the age of the subjects and to ineffective information processing strategies in children with LD. It was observed that the verbal rehearsal was an effective strategy in aiding children with LD in remembering a total body action motor sequence.

Further studies in this area could include using other populations and/or disabilities, mixed groups of boys and girls, and different age ranges to see if these results can be generalized to a wider population group than LD boys age 7 and 8.

Megginson, N. L., & Nakamura, A. (1997). Parental perception of Special Olympics benefits and outcomes. Palaestra, 13(1), 12-13.

The purpose of this study was to address parental perception on the benefits and outcomes of SO participation on their child as it relates to the development of sport skill, self-confidence, independence, and community involvement.

The subjects of this study were forty parents of Special Olympics (SO) athletes. The subjects were approached while at a Special Olympics sanctioned track and field event and asked to participate in the study. All subjects were volunteers; therefore, there was no random selection of subjects. All subjects were asked to answer a short questionnaire that consisted of four demographic data items concerning the SO athletes, with four Likert-type and four open-ended items addressing parental perceptions regarding the overall benefits of participation in SO on their children with special interest in gains of sport skill, confidence, independence and involvement with other community/school activities.

The demographic data revealed input on 40 SO athletes (23 female and 17 male) ranging in age from 4 to 36 years, average age 17.9 years.

In regard to their children’s acquisition of sport skills, 33 of the parents (82.5%) said they saw improvements, 3 parents (7.5%) said they saw no improvements and 4 (10%) said it was unknown.

18 parents (46%) said their child’s self-confidence improved greatly, 15 parents (38.5%) noticed some improvements, and only 1 (2.5%) said no improvement had occurred.

When asked if their child showed increased confidence when adjusting to new situations as a result of SO participation 9 (22.5%) said always, 23 (57.5%) said sometimes, 6 (25%) remained neutral and 2 (5%) reported seldom.

When asked whether SO participation had given the parent more confidence in his/her child’s capabilities/ability, 35 parents (87%) said yes, 2 (5%) said no, and 3 (8%) said this was unknown.

When asked if their child participated in other activities because of SO involvement, 14 parents (35%) said this was always the case, 19 (47.5%) said some interest was demonstrated, 4 (10%) stated no or neutral beliefs, 2 (5%%) stated this seldom occurred and only 1 (2.5%) cited it never happened.

When asked if more participation in outside the home activities was encouraged by parents as a result of SO involvement, 25 (62.5%) of the parents responded yes, 7 (19.5%) said no, and 8 (20%) felt it was unknown.

For Special Olympics or any other youth and/or disabled sport program to be successful we need to have parental support and the best way to get parental support is for them to see the benefits their children can receive from participation. These benefits can be the ones previously stated in this study or any number of the other positive outcomes received from physical activity.

To enhance this study it would be interesting to see testing and data collection done on these athletes to see if they really are improving in they areas their parents think they are.

Also due to the wide age range of the SO athletes (ages 4 to 36) some of the questions may not have necessarily seemed pertinent to all the parents, for example did their child participate in other activities and was participation in outside of the home encouraged by parents. These questions would hold much more pertinence to the parent of the 36 year old athlete but seem far down the road to parents of the younger athletes. Further studies may wish to use a larger sample that is divided into these different age ranges to get more exact data.

Silliman, L. M., & French, R. (1993). Use of selected reinforcers to improve the ball kicking of youths with profound mental retardation. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 10, 54-67.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of preferred verbal praise and music reinforcement on improving the soccer kick performances of youths with profound mental retardation (PMR).

The subjects consisted of 15 ambulatory youths ages 10 to 17 years (M=13 years), 8 females and 7 males. All subjects were randomly assigned to either a control group (n=5), a verbal praise group (n=5), or a music reinforcer group (n=5). During the study one subject scored a 32 on an IQ test in their annual psychological evaluation and no longer met the criteria for inclusion in this investigation and was eliminated from the verbal praise group.

The subjects were involved in individualized training three times a day for approximately 15 minutes each time. They were trained on a kicking task similar to that of soccer accuracy. All subjects were given a demonstration of the kicking task prior to each kicking attempt. Throughout the study the subjects who were in specific reinforcement groups, verbal praise or music reinforcement, were immediately reinforced after they kicked the ball through the cones.

The type of verbal praise used for each subject was individualized. The researchers interviewed the subjects’ classroom teachers to see what types of verbal praise worked best for each subject. To determine the type of musical reinforcement eight staff members were asked to select four of six musical pieces that elicited the most positive responses then each of the four music selections was then played during the recreation period to determine which song each subject responded to most positively.

Subjects in all three groups showed increases in kicking performance throughout the experimental period. It was suggested by the author that this could be do to some combination of the following: (a) practicing the same skill over a period of time with inherent knowledge of results; (b) learning a skill taught in a new environment, which can be intrinsically motivating; and (c) receiving continual and individualized attention by the investigator.

Five of the nine subjects in the two reinforcement groups did improve more in their kicking performances compared to the five subjects in the control group. This result could be attributed to the use of reinforcers into the treatment phase of the study. Four of the nine subjects in the two experimental groups did not demonstrate improved kicking performance scores. The authors listed three possible reasons why these subjects did not improve as expected. First, even though the reinforcers were individualized to each subject, they may not have been as effective on some subjects as others may. Second, these subjects may not have understood the concept of cause and effect; for example, if they kick the ball through the cones they will receive reinforcement. Third, There is a possibility that the performance levels of these subjects reached a plateau during the intervention phase.

The authors concluded that verbal praise and music reinforcement can increase gross motor performances and that there is no meaningful difference between verbal praise and music reinforcement when gross motor performance is increased with a soccer kicking task.

One aspect of this study that may need to be researched further is retention. The author stated that two weeks after the end of the intervention phase of the study two of the three groups demonstrated consistent levels of performance. These two groups were the control group and the verbal praise group. It is important to note that the skill was retained because what good is it to learn a skill if you forget it and have to learn it all over every time you want to use it. The question that may need further investigation is why was the skill retained by the control and verbal groups and why not the music reinforcement group. Could the type of reinforcement used to learn a skill also be related to how well the skill is retained?