Comparing the Acquisition of Internal Motor Representation by Observing a Point-Light Display between Children with Mild Intellectual Disability and Normal Children Based on Task Complexity Level

Learning motor skills by observation has been rarely investigated in mentally retarded children. This study aimed to examine the effects of observing a point-light display on acquiring internal motor representation of sport skills with different task complexity in mentally retarded children.

Twenty mild mentally retarded and 20 healthy children performed photo arranging tests of a Basketball free throw and a Baseball-pitch, before and after observing the point-light model. Number of correctly arranged photos and time took the children performed the test were measured as dependent variables.

The results showed that from pretest to posttest the mentally retarded children improved significantly their performances in Basketball free throw, but not in Baseball-pitch. Moreover, healthy children performed better than mentally retarded children in Basketball free-throw, but not in Baseball-pitch. Conclusion: The findings are discussed in terms of the ability of mentally retarded children to learn motor skills by observation and the role of task complexity.