Inchon Park, M.S.Well-coordinated behavior between the limbs is one of the remarkable abilities of human beings. Walking, running, and cycling are forms of highly coordinated simple cyclical motion. These kinds of movements require synchronized or alternated motion of the limbs. Bimanual movement is another good example of movements that are highly coordinated. Bimanual movements account for a substantial proportion of our daily life activities such as tying shoelaces, opening bottles, sending a...

Priya Patel, M.S.Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a delay in the development of motor skills, or difficulty in coordinating movements, which results in problems performing in sports and everyday tasks (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Around 4- to 10% of school aged children in United States are affected by DCD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). DCD prevalence rates range from about 2% in the United Kingdom to 19% in Greece, with a worldwide average of 6%. Owing t...

Deanna Kennedy, M.S.Coordinating movements between the limbs is important for many activities of daily living and sport specific skills. Buttoning your shirt, opening a bottle, driving your car, and serving a tennis ball are tasks that involve some type of coordination between the limbs. Although these examples of bimanual movements are relatively easy for most individuals to produce, other more complex coordination patterns have proved to be quite difficult. Bimanual tasks like playing the pian...

Jason Boyle, Ph.DOur nervous system is highly adaptable in perceiving, analyzing and executing movements in relation to an ever-changing perceptual environment. We use vision, knowledge of limb location, and anticipation of force production while simultaneously recognizing variability in our judgment to execute movements through the world around us. Whether it is simple (reaching for a door knob) or complex (threading a needle), goal directed movement has been repeatedly shown to follow a speed/...

Deanna Kennedy, M.S. The ability to coordinate movements between the limbs is important for many activities of daily living and sport specific skills. For example, tying your shoes, slicing bread, driving your car, and serving a tennis ball are tasks that involve some type of coordination between the limbs. However, the role of each limb may vary with different task requirements. Some tasks, such as clapping your hands, require the limbs to produce mirror movements in both time and space. O...

Priscila Caçola, Ph.DHave you ever wondered why a child learning to strike with a tennis racquet has trouble “finding” the ball? For adults, research shows that holding a racket or any tool that increases the ability of the body to reach further makes the brain recognize that tool as part of the “body schema.” The “body schema” is how we represent our body dimensions in our minds, so we can calculate distances and how we fit in the space surrounding us....