{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T11:38:35Z","timestamp":1781523515445,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,15]],"date-time":"2024-01-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1705276800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Tailoring motor activities to the unique needs of children with special educational requirements has shown considerable efficacy. Our study aimed to develop a structured program specifically designed to enhance psychomotor abilities, focusing on balance and motor\u2013cognitive skills among 28 students (aged 12\u201314) from two institutional centers in Romania. The program spanned 36 weeks, with biweekly 30 min sessions. Psychomotor skills were assessed through tests measuring balance, speed of movements, and upper limb motor laterality. Initial and final data were collected for evaluation. A statistical analysis, employing the Kolmogorov\u2013Smirnov and Wilcoxon Z tests, compared the assessments. The results indicated significant improvements in movement speed, with a notable increase in stimulus identification (averaging from approximately 13 to 14) (p &lt; 0.05) and reduced processing time (decreasing from about 28.7 to 28 s) (p &lt; 0.05). However, while the structured program demonstrated substantial enhancements in specific motor and cognitive\u2013motor skills, it did not yield significant changes in dynamic balance, maintaining values close to 0.9 (p &gt; 0.05) for open-eyed balance and 0.88 (p &gt; 0.05) for closed-eyed balance. Additionally, an analysis of the processing speed in pulses per second showcased a marginal decline, from approximately 0.46 to 0.45, revealing notable disparities between the initial and final measurements (p &lt; 0.05).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children11010102","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,15]],"date-time":"2024-01-15T04:03:26Z","timestamp":1705291406000},"page":"102","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Structured Program for Developing the Psychomotor Skills of Institutionalized Children with Special Educational Needs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-2701-7501","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Ro\u0219u","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sciences, Physical Education and Informatics, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Pitesti University Center, 110040 Pitesti, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-2457-8608","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Florin","family":"Cojanu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sciences, Physical Education and Informatics, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Pitesti University Center, 110040 Pitesti, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-6969-5208","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paul-Florinel","family":"Vi\u0219an","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Sciences, Physical Education and Informatics, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Pitesti University Center, 110040 Pitesti, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5349-7004","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicoleta","family":"Samarescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Educational Science, Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Psychology, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Pitesti University Center, 110040 Pitesti, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-8848-6808","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mariana Augustina","family":"Ene","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Doctoral School Sports Science and Physical Education, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Pitesti University Center, 110040 Pitesti, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4615-6687","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raul-Ioan","family":"Muntean","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University \u201c1 Decembrie 1918\u201d of Alba Iulia, 510009 Alba Iulia, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2805-031X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vasile Emil","family":"Ursu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Education and Sport, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University \u201c1 Decembrie 1918\u201d of Alba Iulia, 510009 Alba Iulia, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jyl\u00e4nki, P., Mbay, T., Byman, A., Hakkarainen, A., S\u00e4\u00e4kslahti, A., and Aunio, P. 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