title: Gross motor skills and sports participation of children with visual impairments.
abstract: Gross motor skill performance of children with visual impairments and its association with the degree of visual impairment and sports participation was examined. Twenty children with visual impairments (M age = 9.2 years, SD = 1.5) and 100 sighted children (M age = 9.1 years, SD = 1.5) from mainstream schools participated. The results showed that children with visual impairments had significantly lower object control but not locomotor skill scores than the sighted children. No significant differences were found between children with a moderate and severe visual impairment. Children with visual impairments who participated in sports had significantly higher object control skill scores than those who did not. No significant associations between motor skills and sports participation were found in the sighted children.
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Movement Sciences and the University Center for Sport Exercise, and Health at the University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. s.houwen@rug.nl
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Houwen
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Visscher
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.forename: Koen A P M
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Lemmink
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009426:Netherlands; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013177:Sports; D015354:Vision, Low