Lack of movement or immobility is considered one of the main causes of depression and decrease in quality of life and anxiety in children, by designing targeted movement programs, children's movement and mental health can be helped. In this regard, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Spark movement program on reducing children's anxiety. The current research strategy was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population consisted of female students in one district of Tehran, with an age range of 8 to 12 years, 24 of whom were selected using the available sampling method and after completing the pre-test (completion of the Spence anxiety questionnaire by parents) randomly in Two experimental and control groups were replaced. The experimental group participated in the Spark movement program for 16 sessions, the control group did not do any activity. Finally, the post-test was performed and the results were recorded, and multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data using SPSS version 24 software. The results showed that the level of anxiety of children in the experimental group, compared to the control group, significantly decreased in all 6 scales (obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic / agora phobia, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety and fear of physical injuries). According to the findings of the present study, it seems that Spark movement program as a method of controlling and improving performance can have a significant effect in reducing children's anxiety symptoms.

Purpose: Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by social and communicative problems as well as movement skills. Anxiety is one of the widespread problems among the people affected by autism. The aim of the present research was to survey the effect of one period of selected spark motor program on the anxiety of children with autism.Methods: Twenty autistic children (Asperger symptom) participated in this study. They were divided into experimental and control groups. Experimental group participated in selected spark motor program for 4 weeks. The anxiety level was measured by using Spence children’s anxiety scale questionnaire before and after the exercise program. Data were analyzed by using the dependent and independent t test with SPSS 21 and the α value was considered 0.05.Results: The results showed that after the exercise program, the level of obsessive-compulsive disorder (P<0.001), separation anxiety (P<0.001), social phobia (P<0.001), general anxiety (P=0.02), physical injury fears (P=0.01), and agoraphobia (P=0.01) decreased significantly in the experimental group. While the control group showed no significant difference.Conclusion: Training and exercise not only reduce anxiety in autistic children but also can be used as useful nonpharmaceutical method to reduce anxiety.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of exercise intervention on some Event Related Potential and motor performance variables in children with developmental coordination disorder.Method: In this Quasi-experimental study were selected 28 schoolboys -the first to the fourth grade elementary level- from the district 22 of municipality in Tehran. They were screened for study according to the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorder. First, all the subjects took Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) as the pre-test and then they were divided into homogeneous groups and  randomly set into the experimental (14 subjects with 8.6±1.39 mean age) and the control groups (14 subjects with 8.11±1.15 mean age).The experimental group performed the selective movements for 16 sessions; three sessions per week. At the end of the period, both groups participated in the post test. The analysis of the covariance was used for data analysis.Results: The analysis of the covariance the posttest ERP showed that latency of N200 component in Fz, F4, C3, P4 regions improved significantly after exercise training. Likewise, the results showed that the experimental group improved significantly in manual dexterity, aiming and catching, balance, but there was no significant change in Threading Lace item.Conclusions: According to the results of this study, it seems that Physical training interventions has a signification effect on some neuropsychological variables and motor performance indices of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder.

Background and objectives: Different types of practises are known for improving motor skills in intellectually disabled boys. The purpose of this study was to compare the impact of spark motor program and basketball on improving of gross motor skills in this people.Methods: In this semi-experimental study, from 98 educable intellectually disabled students who studied in special school in Urmia, 30 children (age range of 9 to 13 years and IQ mean 64.4) were selected objectively and divided in three groups (2 experimental and 1 control) based on pre-test. BOTMP was used as a measurement of motor ability. Selected motor program (Spark motor program) including strengthening training, games, sports and basketball techniques was performed for 24 sessions. T-tests (dependent) and co-variance were used to comparison of results.Results: In Spark group after 24 sessions, there were significant effects on balance (p= 0.000), bilateral coordination (p=0.000) and strength (p=0.001). There was no significant effect in agility and speed (p=0.343) in basketball techniques group after 24 sessions, there were significant effects in agility and speed (p=0.001), balance (p=0.000), bilateral coordination (p=0.013) and strength (p=0.007).Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it can be claimed that the Spark program and basketball techniques improve gross motor skills in educable intellectually disabled students.We also found a significant difference between the Spark program and basketball techniques efficacy on the improved skills. Furthermore, the efficacy of Spark program was significantly higher than basketball techniques (p<0.05).

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of the selected motor program of SPARK on self-concept and motor skills in children with learning disabilities. Thirty students were selected by cluster sampling method among all second-grade elementary school students in learning disorders centers of Mashhad. The participates were randomly divided into two equal control and experimental groups. Experimental group practiced in the exercise program for 12 sessions, three times per week and 45 minutes per session. The control group performed their usual activities. Piers-Harris Children’ s Self-Concept Scale and Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency were used in order to evaluate the subjects. The results of covariance analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the total score of self-concept, motor proficiency and fine and gross motor skills (p<0. 05). The tests of running speed and agility, balance, bilateral coordination, response speed, visual-motor control and upper-limb coordination (p<0. 05) and also in the subscales of academic and intellectual, physical appearance and attitude, anxiety, happiness and satisfaction significantly increased in the experimental group compared to the control group (p<0. 05). The results indicate that the Spark program can be considered in addition to other educational programs at schools and centers of learning disabilities in order to reduce the problems of these children.

Fundamental motor skills are the bases of special motor skills. In addition to maturation, environmental promotion can influence these skills. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the effect of developmental gymnastic instructional program and Spark motor program as motor experiences on fundamental motor skills development in children aged between 6 and 8. For this purpose, 120 children (6-8 years old) were selected from Tehran primary schools by cluster random sampling method. After the pretest (test of gross motor development, second edition, Ulrich), the subjects were divided into three groups of Spark motor program, developmental gymnastic instructional program and control. The programs were performed for one year (36 weeks, one session per week, 30 minutes per session). In the 37th week, the posttest was performed. Data were analyzed by paired sample t test and one-way ANOVA. The results showed that Spark program and gymnastic program outperformed the control group in fundamental motor skills and locomotion (P<0.05) and the difference between the two experimental groups was not significant. Spark program was more effective than gymnastic program and control group in the development of manipulation skills. Gymnastic program was more effective than the control group in the development of manipulation skills (P<0.05). Thus, it can be concluded that instructional programs can be considered as a proper motor experience for children. These programs can be used to develop motor skills at schools through providing suitable opportunities for more training and presenting developmental motor tasks.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of SPARK Physical Education (PE) program on fundamental motor skills in 4-6 year children. SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) is an evidence based PE program designed in order to promote the lifelong wellbeing.Methods: In total, 90 children aged 4 to 6 years were selected randomly. The children were allocated into 3 groups with separate PE programs: 1-SPARK, 2-Gymnastics and 3-Routine activity. Using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2), a pretest was done in all groups. Afterwards, SPARK and Gym PE programs were performed for 8 weeks and 3 sessions each week. The third group used to do the routine physical education program in their daycare. After 8 weeks (24 sessions), the post tests were done for all groups with the same scoring system as the pretest.Findings: The results showed that the SPARK program had a higher efficacy on the promotion of the fundamental motor skills comparing to the routine physical education programs or gymnastics PE group.Conclusion: SPARK can be used as an appropriate alternative in order to promote the children’s motor skills.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a selected motor program on visual-motor skills of children (3 to 6 years) with profound hearing loss and a cochlear implant. Participants were selected purposefully from a rehabilitation center in Tehran and divided into two groups experiment (n=10) and control (n=12) according to their scores on Gardner’ s Test of Visual-Motor Skills. Visual-motor skill pretest was taken from two control and experimental groups by the test of visual motor skills revised (TVMSR). The experiment group subjects contributed in the SPARK program for 8 weeks, three sessions per week with 45 minutes in each session. A posttest was taken of both groups after completion the course of intervention program. Analyze of Covariance test (ANCOVA) were conducted for data analysis (α = 0. 05). Results showed that there was no significant difference between groups for TVMSR score before the intervention program but, it was significant after program course. However, effect of the program on visual spatial skill (P=0. 002), visual analysis skills (P=0. 010) and visual motor integration (P=0. 002) was significant. In conclusion, appropriate training opportunities may lead to improvement on visual-motor skills in children with profound hearing loss and a cochlear implant.