Recent evidence has emphasized the importance of the early childhood years for developing lifelong physical activity patterns. As such, evidence-informed programs that create opportunities for young children to engage in physical activity are needed and education settings present an important context. This review aimed to identify strategies that are implemented by teachers to promote physical activity in early childhood education and care settings. This is a scoping review that followed the framework proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Searches were conducted using the databases of PubMed, SCOPUS, PsycINFO, SPORT Discus, ERIC and Web of Science for publications up to September 2020. From a total of 8974 articles, 19 were deemed eligible. Ten types of strategies, performed by teachers with the intention to improve physical activity-related primary outcomes, were identified. Physical activity promotion by teachers in early childhood settings is recommended to take a multi-strategy approach, in conjunction with professional development training opportunities and continuous follow-up support for teachers. Future work is warranted to fill the evidence gap in other regions (e.g., Asia, Africa and South America) and strengthen the evidence base to establish best practice standards.

Previous literature shows the beneficial effects of an external focus of attention on various sports skills in young adults. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the effects of external and internal focus of attention on motor performance in healthy older adults. The literature search was conducted in five electronic databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Scopus, and Web of Science). Eighteen studies that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated. Most of the motor tasks targeting older adults were related to postural control and gait. Over 60% of the included studies reported that the effect of an external focus was superior to that of an internal focus on motor performance in older adults. An external focus generally results in better motor performance than an internal focus among healthy older adults. However, the advantage of an external focus on locomotion may not be as significant as those illustrated in previous attentional focus studies. A challenging cognitive task may allow more automatic motor control than an external focus. Practitioners might provide clear instruction cues guiding performers to divert their attention away from their body and towards the movement effect for better performance, particularly in balancing tasks.

There is emerging evidence for the use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to improve health outcomes in the context of stroke rehabilitation. This scoping review identified recently available evidence and possible research gaps regarding how MBIs affect psychological and physical rehabilitation outcomes in individuals poststroke. Electronic searches were performed using the four major databases, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. Sixteen studies out of a total of 404 relevant studies met the selection criteria for inclusion in this review. Our findings indicate diverse results on the benefits of MBIs in individuals poststroke across a range of rehabilitative outcomes. For instance, significant improvements in mental fatigue, cognition, and quality of life were observed for most of the studies while the outcomes for mood and physical functioning were mixed. The available evidence lends qualified support to the view that mindfulness has the potential to be a therapeutic intervention that offers health benefits to individuals poststroke. Yet, the diversity of results highlights the need for a more rigorous examination in further research. We also identified several knowledge gaps in mindfulness research in the stroke population, such as the limited amount of evidence for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), inadequate evaluations of physical outcomes, and the lack of methodologically robust trials. Further investigations are warranted to strengthen the evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of MBIs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

This study evaluated the effect of attentional focus instructions on movement efficiency during a level-ground walking task in older adults with and without a history of falls. One hundred and thirty-four community-dwelling older adults were categorised into older fallers (OF) (n = 37) and older non-fallers (ONF) (n = 97). Each participant was instructed to walk at a self-selected pace along a 6 m walkway under three attentional focus conditions (i.e. internal, goal-directed and control) for a total of nine trials. Average muscle activity indices of lower limb co-contractions were measured using surface electromyography. Both shank and thigh muscle co-contractions were higher in OF than in ONF in all three conditions. OF also demonstrated higher shank muscle co-contraction under the internal relative to the goal-directed condition, with no such change observed in ONF. Despite no significant between-group differences in functional balance and balance confidence, relative walking inefficiencies were observed in OF compared with ONF. This finding demonstrates the debilitating consequences of falling that can occur with relative independence from various physiological or psychological factors that are commonly associated with falling and used to rationalise behavioural change. We also provide evidence that OF are more susceptible to conditions that provoke them to allocate attention internally. Therefore, in clinical contexts (e.g. gait rehabilitation), verbal instructions that refer to body movements (internal focus) might serve to compromise movement efficiency in older adults with a history of falls. Such changes will, theoretically, lessen the ability to react efficiently to changing environments experienced in daily life.

It has been suggested that implicit motor learning via dual-task or analogy training during gait rehabilitation may yield better outcomes in older adults by reducing the propensity for the conscious processing of movements (movement-specific reinvestment). The current study investigated the immediate effects of single-task, dual-task, and analogy training on reinvestment propensity and fall-related rehabilitation outcomes among older adults at risk of falling. Seventy-one older adults were randomly allocated to the single-task (ST), dual-task (DT), or analogy (AG) training conditions and received 12 training sessions. We assessed the reinvestment propensity, functional gait and balance, functional mobility, balance ability, single-task and dual-task walking abilities, and fear of falling at baseline (before training) and immediately after training. Our findings revealed a lack of training effect on reinvestment propensity for all groups. However, all groups displayed significant improvements in functional gait and balance (p < 0.001), functional mobility (p = 0.02), and balance ability (p = 0.01) after training. AG appeared to be superior to DT and ST, as it was the only condition that resulted in significant improvements in both single-task and dual-task walking abilities (p < 0.001). Implementing movement analogies could be a feasible and useful gait rehabilitation strategy for fall prevention and wellbeing promotion among older adults.

Objectives: We aimed to address whether increased task difficulty is sufficient to induce heightened conscious control and influence gait performance in older adults through the manipulations of either task difficulty or attentional focus. Method: Fifty older adults, split into high- (HR) and low-reinvestor (LR) groups, performed a walking task on a 7.4 m straight walkway in two conditions: firm level-ground surface (GW) and foam surface (FW). They subsequently performed the same walking task under two attentional focus conditions: Internal focus (IF) and External focus (EF). Electroencephalography (EEG) T3-Fz and T4-Fz coherences were used to indicate real-time conscious motor control and visual-spatial control, respectively. Results: We observed significantly higher T3-Fz and T4-Fz coherences under FW compared to GW. HR reduced their gait speed at a greater extent than LR under FW. Significantly lower T3-Fz coherence and faster gait were demonstrated under EF compared to IF. LR walked slower under IF compared to Baseline while gait speed of HR did not differ. Discussion: Visual-spatial and conscious movement processing increase as a function of task difficulty during gait. Our findings also advocate the use of external focus instructions in clinical settings, with the potential to reduce conscious control and promote movement automaticity, even in relatively complex gait tasks.