The Effects of Instructional and Motivational Self-talk on Learning a Dart Throwing Skill in Children with Mild Mental Retardation

Document Type : original article

Authors

1 Adib Mazandaran Institute of Higher Education, Sari, IRAN

2 Visiting Scholar, Department of Public Health, Kinesiology Indiana University, USA

3 Department of Physical Education, Islamshahr branch, Islamic Azad University, Islamshahr, iran

4 Department of Sport Management, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, IRAN

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on learning a dart throwing skill in children with mild mental retardation.
Method: The subjects included 45 children with mild mental retardation who were equally divided into three groups of instructional self-talk, motivational self-talk, and control. The motor task included darts throwing skill in which children’s darts throwing scores as well as self-efficacy were measured as dependent variables. The Participants performed pre-test (including 15 throws), acquisition phase (including five 5-minute practice blocks), and retention test (including 15 throws). The participants in the instructional self-talk group were asked to repeat the “Center-Target” phase before each attempt during the training phase and then throw the dart. Those in the motivational self-talk group were asked to use a motivational phrase “I Can" before the throw. The children in the control group followed a similar protocol but were not given any self-talk instructions.
Results: The results showed that mentally retarded children who practiced instructional self-talk had better performance than those who used motivational self-talk and the control group in throwing darts in the retention test (P=0.000). Moreover, the motivational self-talk group performed better than the control group in dart throwing in the retention test (P=0.000). Finally, the results showed that children in the instructional and motivational self-talk groups reported higher self-efficacy scores than those in the control group in the retention test (P=0.000), while no significant difference was observed between the instructional and motivational self-talk groups. (P=0.527)
Conclusion: The results of this study show that children with mild mental retardation are able to learn motor skills through self-talk.

Keywords

References

  1. Mokhtari, P., Shojaei, M., & Dana, A. (2007). The effect of observational practice on the Badminton volley service learning: The role of self-efficacy. Harakat, 32, 117-131.
  2. Rafiee, S., & Dana, A. (2019). The effect of observing different information on learning the basketball jump shot. Acta Gymnica, 49(4), 164-173.
  3. Farsi, A., Bahmanbegloo, Z, Abdoli, B., & Ghorbani, S. (2016). The effect of observational practice by a point-light model on learning a novel motor skill. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 123(2), 477-488.
  4. Ghorbani, S., & Bund, A. (2014). Acquisition a Baseball-pitch by observation: Which information is extracted? American Journal of Sport Science & Medicine, 2(6A), 18-21.
  5. Ghorbani, S., & Bund, A. (2016). Observational learning of a new motor skill: The effect of highlighting relative motion information. International Journal of Sport Science & Coaching, 15(4), 514-522.
  6. Ghorbani, S., Dana, A., & Fallah, Z. (2019). The effects of external and internal focus of attention on motor learning and promoting learner’s focus. Biomedical Human Kinetics, 11, 175-180.
  7. Ghorbani, S., Dana, A., & Christodoulides, E. (2020). Effects of external focus of attention on learning static balance among girls with ADHD. Biomedical Human Kinetics, 12(1), 69-74.
  8. Dana A, Gozalzadeh E. Internal and External Imagery Effects on Tennis Skills Among Novices. Perceptual & Motor Skills. 2017; 124(5):1022-1043.
  9. Latinjak AT, Torregrossa M, Comoutos N, Hernando-Gimeno C, Ramis Y. (2019). Goal-directed self-talk used to self-regulate in male basketball competitions. J Sports Sci. 37(12):1429-1433.
  10. Park, S., Lim, B., Lim, S. (2020). The effects of self-talk on shooting athletes’ motivation. Journal of Sport Science & Medicine. 22, 458-471.
  11. De Muynck GJ, Soenens B, Delrue J, Comoutos N, Vansteenkiste M. (2020). Strengthening the assessment of self-talk in sports through a multi-method approach. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 30(3):602-614.
  12. Dana, A., Rezaee Shirazi, R., Jalili, F., Zamanian, F. (2011). The effect of instruction and motivational self-talk on performance and retention of discrete and continuous motor tasks". Australian Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences, 5(8), 312-315.
  13. Dana, D., Vaez Mousavi, M., and Mokhtari, P. (2012a). The Effect of Instructional and Motivational Self Talk on Motor Performance in Adults and Adolescents. Advances in Environmental Biology, 17; 71-80.
  14. Dana, D., Vaez Mousavi, M., and Mokhtari, P. (2012b). Belief in Self Talk and Motor Performance in Basketball Shooting. International Research Journal of Applied & Basic Sciences, 17; 71-80.
  15. Bandura A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.
  16. Bakhtiari, A., Hashemi, A., & Naseri, S. (2020). Instructional Self-Talk on Motor Learning in Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Disabilities Studies, 10, 77.
  17. Baniasadi, T., Namazizadeh, M., Sheikh, M. (2018). Attentional focus can affect sway in postural and supra-postural tasks in community-wwelling older adults. Annals of Applied Sport Science, 6(3), 31-37.
  18. Baniasadi, T., Namazi Zadeh, M., Sheikh, M. (2019). The effects of balance training and focus of attention on sway in postural and supra-postural tasks in the elderly population. Motor Behavior, 11(36), 89-104.
Journal of Pediatric Perspectives
Volume 10, Issue 6
June 2022
Pages 16163-16169

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics