Abstrait

Effect of focus of attention on motor skills acquisition, retention and transfer in children.

Shweta Pachpute, Yogeshwari Sawant, Seema Saini

Background: The focus of attention has been an on-going area of research in human movement science for the last decade. There is considerable evidence that directing attention externally to the effect of a movement on the environment (e.g., focusing on the flight of a ball in golf) improves performance compared to focusing internally on bodily movements involved in the execution of the motor skill (e.g., focusing on the motion of the arms in a golf swing). The advantage of an external focus of attention over an internal focus has been well documented across a wide variety of skills in adults but results are unclear in children .So the Aim of this study is to study the effect of focus of attention on motor skill Acquisition, Retention and Transfer in children.

Materials and Methods: 40 samples were selected. Subjects were randomly divided in 2 groups Throwing darts toward a static target was the motor skill. Instructions to direct their attention (internal/external) were given prior to the acquisition phase during which participants performed 50 trials. Retention and transfer trials were conducted 24 hours post acquisition phase.

Results: For acquisition and retention phases (unpaired t-test) the results were too significant (p<0.05). While for transfer phase (unpaired t-test) the results were non-significant (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Internal set of instructions was more beneficial in motor skill acquisition and retention phase in children. The study can be useful for the therapists, teachers who are dealing with the children.