
BJMB! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!Research Article!
Brazilian(Journal(of(Motor(Behavior!
https://doi.org/10.20338/bjmb.v13i4.129
reading presented worse results in performance of balance tasks compared to girls and
boys with other types of learning difficulties. Amaro, Jatobá, Santos and Rosa Neto
6
also
reports that children with learning difficulties demonstrated greater difficulties in executing
balance and temporal organization skills. From this perspective, it is known that balance
motor skills are extremely important both in the sports and physical activity context, or
even to move quickly and efficiently from one place to another in everyday activities
7
. In
the scope of skills with this requirement, the forward roll is a skill applied in the context of
gymnastics, which involves dynamic balancing ability, and children aged about seven
years old should be able to master this skill.
Perotti Júnior and Pellegrini
8
pointed out that, although the skill to roll is a motor
pattern that very young children can perform on their first attempt, it is usually carried out
in a disorganized way and with the presence of unnecessary movements. In general, it is
stated that, throughout development, the child acquires some aspects of the skill, such as
body alignment and speed, perfecting it progressively. However, it should be noted that
failure in one of these aspects will influence the movement as a whole. Thus, for the
individual reach high levels of performance, it is considered that guided practice and the
use of efficient strategies are necessary
9
.
Studies such as those of Newell
10
and Schmidt and Wulf
11
emphasize the
influence of several factors related to learning that can potentiate the acquisition of
different skills, among which verbal and visual instructions are highlighted, indicating what
the learner should do or how to carry out the action
12
. However, these instructions may be
full of information, which would make it difficult to interpret and maintain long-term memory.
For these processes to occur, selective attention is essential, because the process of
choosing and selecting the relevant information to be processed depends on the
involvement of the attention mechanisms to highlight the priority source of attention
13
.
Considering that different strategies have the objective of enhancing learning,
instructions through cues are considered beneficial for the acquisition of motor skills by
acting on the mechanisms of information processing. This strategy focuses the learner's
attention on the important phases of the task, helping them to discard the irrelevant
information present in the action
14,15
and accelerating the transition between learning
stages
16
. In this case, the emphasis is on control of the selective attention mechanisms of
the performer, acting as a strategy that does not overload the learner with information. The
objective of instructional cues is to provide simple and specific information related to the
critical elements of the activity
14,17
.
The classic study conducted by Masser
14
has already demonstrated favorable
results from the use of cues and, among the abilities tested by the author, the learning of
forward rolls stands out. Other studies that demonstrated a positive effect of the use of
cues were conducted in the context of dance
16
, in the body perception improvement of
children with a motor deficiency
18
, learning rhythmic gymnastics skills
19
, dive rolls
20
, field
tennis
21
, and the Crawl swimming technique performed by hearing impaired individuals
22
.
It can be observed that learning cues present positive effects in different contexts
and with different populations; however, it is barely known about their effect on the learning
of children with academic learning difficulties. Such difficulties are understood as students’
issues during the schooling period, specifically to the capture and assimilation of
information
5
. Therefore, investigations into the effectiveness of this strategy in this
population are necessary, mainly due to the great ease of cues usage in the teaching-
learning process at scholar contexts
23
. Considering the learning difficulties of these