Research Overview

Research in the Child Movement, Activity, and Developmental Health Laboratory takes a developmental perspective toward studying three complementary areas: motor skill acquisition, physical activity, and physical health and development in pediatric populations (primary 3 to 8 years old).

The lab seeks to:

1. Understand the developmental process of motor skill acquisition along with the underlying factors that shaped or that are influenced by a child’s ability to move.

2. Maximize physical activity, motor skills, and physical health and development in pediatric populations, both typical developing and those at-risk of developmental delays through the design and implementation of evidence-based interventions.

3. Investigate how these interventions contributeto other domains of child development - school/academic readiness (cognitive health) and self-perceptions/confidence (affective health).

The overarching goal of the Child Movement, Activity, and Developmental Health Laboratory is to promote movement while motivating children to be physically active with a developmentally appropriate interventions, CHAMP (i.e., the Children's Health Activity Motor Program) to ensure that they enter school healthy, active, and ready to learn. We achieve this goal by using state-of-the-art assessments to research questions that contributes to understanding how motor skills/behaviors and physical activity participation affects developmental trajectories of health in children.