An Ecological Task Analysis Approach for Understanding Motor Development in Mental Retardation: Philosophical and Theoretical Underpinnings

Author(s):  
Walter E. Davis ◽  
Richard E. A. van Emmerik
1971 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gratton

The two master theories of human development, the Freudian and Piagetan, have evolved in parallel fashion without ever meeting. The advent of ‘ego metapsychology’ brought the two systems closer together, to be finally correlated by Anthony, Wolff, et al. The role of the mother is primordial in both cognitive and psychoanalytic systems. As already shown experimentally by Gouin-Décarie the two systems are interconnected in that a failure or fixation in the libidinal development is accompanied by an ‘adherence’ in the cognitive sphere. The aim of this pilot study was to verify the hypothesis that any condition accompanied or caused by a severe disturbance in the mother-child relationship will result in severe mental retardation or arrest in cognitive development within the sensorio-motor stage. The sample was composed of twenty randomly selected children (age range: 3 to 9 years), divided into a psychotic sub-group and a non-psychotic one, the latter serving as control. These children were attending the Pride of Judea Day School in New York City. All had a complete psychiatric and psychological evaluation, plus a detailed developmental history, carried out independently of this research. The Piagetan Test of Sensorio-Motor development elaborated by Gouin-Décarie was administered to both groups. The results showed that an ‘adherence’ of cognitive development to the sensorio motor stage was positively correlated with Early Infantile Autism and Mental Retardation. In order to further clarify this correlation the subjects' early development in their first two years of life was scrutinized using a check list of autistic signs. A statistically highly significant correlation could then be established between the arrest of cognitive development in the sensorio motor stage and an autistic type of development within the first two years of life, irrespective of diagnosis. In view of these findings it seems pointless to apply interpretative psychotherapies to these children or to submit them to standard kindergarten techniques when they lack the very rudiments for abstract thinking.


Pythagoras ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 0 (66) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneshkumar Maharaj

The FET Curriculum Statements for Mathematics advocates that knowledge integrates theory, skills and values. This paper focuses on a guided problem-solving teaching model that provides a framework to do this. A task analysis approach is used within this  framework to illustrate how educators could frame mathematical questions based on the relevant mathematical content.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
G A. Butko ◽  
O. V. Suvorova ◽  
S. N. Sorokoumova

Introduction: the article is devoted to the study of the motor sphere of preschoolers with mental retardation. The issues of complex diagnostics of physical development, motility and psychomotor children of children with mental retardation in comparison with their normally developing peers are considered. Disorders of motor development of preschool children with mental retardation are not clearly expressed, but, to a large extent, are the cause of their lag in cognitive, verbal, and social development. Special motor disorders of these children are most often the result of early intrauterine minimal organic lesions of the central nervous system. In the early stages of development of such children, disorders of muscle tone are observed, pathological tonic reflexes take place, all stages of motor development in infancy are delayed evenly. The combination of these three components results in special disturbances, which are characterized as motor ones. In children with minimal organic pathology, quite often, especially in children with mental retardation, the frontal brain regions are formed very slowly, namely, they are responsible for creating an action program and monitoring it. n this case, the child is not able to build a scheme of the motor act, does not understand what should be the movement. The reason for the difficulties in this case is not a violation of muscle tone, but a disturbance in the cerebral cortex: the child does not understand how to perform the action. In this case, there is a psychomotor disorder. These two groups of motor disorders in children with mental retardation determine the two systems of work to overcome them. There is a third group of disorders - a mixed form, when a child has both motor and psychomotor disorders. The direction of work to overcome motor disorders in children with mental retardation will depend on the nature of the disorders: motor, psychomotor, and mixed. Thus, motor developmental disorders of children with mental retardation may have a different nature, it is necessary to carefully study the characteristics of the motor sphere of these children and implement a differentiated approach to overcoming its disadvantages.Results of the research: the article presents the results of the study of the motor and psychomotor functions of preschoolers with mental retardation, indicators of their health and physical development. A comparative experimental study of the characteristics of the motor sphere of preschoolers with mental retardation and their peers who attend mass groups of the kindergarten allowed to draw some conclusions about the specific shortcomings of the motor development of children with mental retardation. Most children with mental retardation have quite serious impairments in their state of health, are lagging in physical development: they have disproportions in their height and weight, reduced muscle strength in their hands, and insufficient lung capacity. Motor skills do not meet age norms: speed and power characteristics of movements, dexterity and coordination abilities are most reduced. Indicators of psychomotor development, especially the dynamic and spatial organization of movements, are lower than those of peers who attend mass groups in kindergarten. These deficiencies are the result of early organic damage to the central nervous system or its functional immaturity. As a result of studying the state of motor skills of children according to N.I. Ozeretsky revealed some important facts: when performing certain tests (for simultaneity of movements, speed of movements, dynamic coordination of movements) and children with mental retardation, and children from large groups showed equally poor results. This indicates a general trend of deterioration of the motor development of modern children, especially those living in the megalopolis. As part of the neuropsychological research, three groups of children with mental retardation in terms of the development of movements and actions were identified, which can serve as the basis for the implementation of a differentiated approach during remedial work. The application of the method of age cuts allowed to conclude that there is a certain positive age dynamics in the formation of motor and psychomotor children with mental retardation, but there is a difference in the sensitive periods of motor skills formation in children with mental retardation and children with normal development. If in normally developing children, at the age of five, the basic motor skills are practically formed, then in children with mental retardation they are formed only by six to seven years and later.Discussion and conclusions: the article proposed a diagnostic program for studying the characteristics of the motor sphere of preschoolers with mental retardation. Comprehensive diagnostics of the motor development of children with mental retardation is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of children in the organization of physical education and to implement a differentiated approach in physical education and other motor exercises. Based on the characteristics of the contingent of children with mental retardation, the following system for diagnosing motor development was proposed: an individual assessment of the physical development and functional state of the organism of children of preschool age; assessment of children's physical fitness; study of children's motility using metric tests N.I. Ozeretsky; study of the characteristics of the psychomotor development of children using neuropsychological tests for the study of movements and actions adapted for preschool children with mental retardation. Thus, a combination of qualitative and quantitative assessment of psychological and pedagogical data on the level of development of the child’s motility, dynamic observation and comprehensive neuropsychological research allows most accurately and fully assess the overall psychophysical development of the child, the state of his motility and psychomotor system, predict future development and determine the best ways psychological and pedagogical correction.


Author(s):  
Michael G. Wade ◽  
Marc W. Gold

The traditionally low level of expectancy of persons with moderate, severe, or profound mental retardation in industrial work settings is reviewed from a human factors viewpoint. A case is made for interfacing the retarded worker into the human machine system by evaluating performance in terms of information processing ability. Data are reviewed which suggest that there are many industrial tasks at which such a worker can perform well and earn a wage comparable to his nonretarded co-worker. The issue of training workers versus screening workers is discussed as an additional factor in maximizing the role of workers with retardation in industry. The view of the retarded worker as a communication channel and his ability to process information is regarded as a central issue when discussing the optimization of the person-machine interface. The importance of task analysis in breaking down the task into sub-tasks of acceptable information processing demand is also discussed.


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