Effects of attentional focus strategies on motor learning in children

Abstract

Providing instructions is an important technique to facilitate motor learning. Instructions can guide a learner to focus attention on body movements (an internal focus of attention), or on the effects of a movement on the environment (an external focus of attention). Despite the extensive literature on the beneficial effects of adopting external focus of attention instructions in adults, evidence in children is still under-presented. Due to the limited and mixed findings in children, it is expected that individual factors contribute to this effect as well. Motivational factors (self-efficacy and task-value) play an important role in mastering new motor tasks and therefore might have the capacity to moderate the effect of different instructions on the motor learning process. Aim This study aimed to investigate the effect of attentional focus instructions (internal versus external) on motor learning in children aged 8-12 years. Furthermore we investigated if self-efficacy and task-values moderated the effect of attentional focus instructions on motor learning. Methods One hundred and twenty-nine typically developing children aged 8.2-12.8 years participated in this study. They received instructions that focussed attention internally or externally for learning a novel slinger-ball task. Each motor learning phase; acquisition, retention (after a one-week interval) and transfer of skill (under a dual task condition) was explored. Results: External focus instructions did lead to more accurate throws during practice. However, these performance benefits did not last during retention and transfer. In addition, motor performance in both groups was not disrupted by secondary task loading. None of the motivational factors moderated the relationship between the type of focus and motor learning but self-efficacy emerged as a significant positive predictor for accuracy improvement. Conclusion: Motor learning in children did not depend on the attentional focus instructions they induced. The relation between attentional focus instructions and motor learning was not moderated by motivational factors. However, self-efficacy positively predicted motor learning. Clinical Relevance Clinicians should know that the well-established external focus benefits in adults might not be generalizable to typically developing children. Children’s’ self-efficacy might play an even greater role in promoting motor learning than providing attentional focus instructions.