| Summary: | It was hypothesized that children with physical disabilities would show a deficit in procedural and declarative knowledge of ball catching compared to age-matched non-disabled children. The first group of children consisted of sixteen children with physical disabilities, three girls and thirteen boys, aged from 6 years and 5 months to 12 years and 6 months. Sixteen children, five girls and eleven boys, comprised the second group. Their age range was from 6 years and 4 months to 12 years and 2 months. All children were tested individually. === Procedural knowledge of ball catching was measured by a 15-task ball-catching hierarchy. The difficulty of the tasks ranged from easy, static tasks to more difficult ones which required some expertise. Non-disabled children demonstrated higher scores in procedural knowledge than children with physical disabilities. Higher scores in procedural knowledge of ball catching were also shown by older non-disabled children compared to their younger non-disabled peers, as well as by ambulatory children with physical disabilities compared to their non-ambulatory peers. === Declarative knowledge of ball catching was assessed by a 14-item multiple choice questionnaire. The two groups exhibited very similar declarative knowledge. Moreover, no differences regarding declarative knowledge were found between older and younger non-disabled children or between ambulatory and non-ambulatory children with physical disabilities. Further investigation revealed that the association between procedural and declarative knowledge of ball catching was only moderate. === It was suggested that procedural and declarative knowledge do not develop at the same rate and a deficit in procedural knowledge does not necessarily lead to a deficit in declarative knowledge. The relationship between the two types of knowledge may be more complex than initially hypothesized. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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