Objective: Submissions on recovery of post-stroke motor performance vary, especially in relation to increasing time after stroke. This study examined the trajectory of motor performance over the first 12 months after stroke.

Methods: Consecutive first-incidence stroke survivors (N = 83) were recruited within 1 month of onset from a tertiary health institution in Nigeria. Simplified Fugl Meyer scale (S-FM) was used to assess motor performance at monthly intervals. Changes in overall motor performance, and differences between the affected upper and lower extremities, were examined using Friedman's ANOVA and paired t-tests, respectively.

Results: Significant improvement in motor performance was observed across 12 months (p < .001), with the proportion of stroke survivors with severe impairment at onset (53.3%) decreasing to 20% by 12 months. Lower extremity motor performance scores were significantly higher than for the upper extremity from 1 to 12 months (p <.01 at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 12 months; and p < .05 at the remaining months).

Conclusions: The potential for long-term improvement in motor performance after stroke was observed, suggesting that this can be harnessed by long-term rehabilitation efforts. The comparatively poorer outcome in the upper extremity indicates the need for extra rehabilitation strategies to enhance upper-extremity motor recovery in the first year of stroke.

Motor and gestural skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were investigated. A total of 49 children with ASD, 46 children with DCD, 38 children with DCD+ADHD, 27 children with ADHD, and 78 typically developing control children participated. Motor skills were assessed with the Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency Short Form, and gestural skills were assessed using a test that required children to produce meaningful gestures to command and imitation. Children with ASD, DCD, and DCD+ADHD were significantly impaired on motor coordination skills; however, only children with ASD showed a generalized impairment in gestural performance. Examination of types of gestural errors revealed that children with ASD made significantly more incorrect action and orientation errors to command, and significantly more orientation and distortion errors to imitation than children with DCD, DCD+ADHD, ADHD, and typically developing control children. These findings suggest that gestural impairments displayed by the children with ASD were not solely attributable to deficits in motor coordination skills. (JINS, 2007, 13, 246–256.)

Drawing on Plumert’s (1995) findings that children exhibit an optimism bios in their gross motor performance expectations compored with adults, this study tested the hypothesis that younger children are more likely to overestimate their gross motor performance compared with older children. Participants were 6-year-old and 11-year-old children. The accuracy of children’s estimates of their motor performance was assessed using four tasks (horizontal reach, vertical reach, clearance, and stepping), which were adjusted to either well-within, just-within, just-beyond, or well-beyond each child’s individual abilities. Results confirmed that the 6-year-olds significantly overestimated their motor performance compared with 11-year-olds. The discussion focuses upon the ecological validity of these findings, as well as the implications for children’s motor confidence and motor development.

A total of 22 monozygotic (MZ) and 41 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs were given 72 trials on a stabilometer balance task over six days to study the extent of the genetic contribution to learning and performance of a gross motor skill. The expectations that interindividual differences would be less for the MZ than for the DZ twins and that intraindividual variability would not be different between the two groups were supported. Intraclass correlations were used to provide estimates for the proportions of total phenotypic variance accounted for by heritability (h2), systematic environmental variance (E2), and nonsystematic environmental effects (e2). Heritability was found to be low during the early stages of learning, before it increased to stabilize at approximately 65% for the remaining practice. E2 was highest during these early stages (24%), then declined quickly to stabilize at half that level. Error variance (e2) constituted the remaining variance. Learning profiles of the twin pairs were also analyzed, with a greater intrapair resemblance being found for the MZ twins. The present findings indicate that, for gross motor skills, there is considerable potential for influencing both the levels of performance (and learning) and the differences between individuals by judicious use of systematic environmental effects.