A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Motor Learning in Preschoolers and Children over the Last 15 Years

Abstract

Motor learning enables preschoolers and children to acquire fundamental skills that are critical to their development. The current study sought to conduct a bibliometric and visualization analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of motor-learning progress in preschoolers and children over the previous 15 years. The number of studies is constantly growing, with the United States and Australia, as well as other productive institutions and authors, at the leading edge. The dominant disciplines were Neurosciences and Neurology, Psychology, Rehabilitation, and Sport Sciences. The journals Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, Human Movement Science, Physical Therapy, Neuropsychology, Journal of Motor Behavior, and Journal of Experimental Child Psychology have been the most productive and influential in this regard. The most common co-citations for clinical symptoms were for cerebral palsy, developmental coordination disorder, and autism. Research has focused on language impairment (speech disorders, explicit learning, and instructor-control feedback), as well as effective intervention strategies. Advances in brain mechanisms and diagnostic indicators, as well as new intervention and rehabilitation technologies (virtual reality, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcranial direct current stimulation), have shifted research frontiers and progress. The cognitive process is critical in intervention, rehabilitation, and new technology implementation and should not be overlooked. Overall, our broad overview identifies three major areas: brain mechanism research, clinical practice (intervention and rehabilitation), and new technology application.

Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage and Protein Intake: A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis

“…Research weaving combines the power of two methods: (1) bibliometrics, which shows how pieces of evidence are connected, revealing the structure and development of a scientific field, and (2) systematic mapping, which provides a snapshot of the current state of knowledge, identifying areas that require more research attention and those ready for full bibliometric synthesis. This framework summarizes and visualizes information on a collection of papers on any given topic [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

“…We obtained data from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database on 4 June 2022. WoSCC has been widely used for the retrieval of scientific publications and for scientometric analyses [ 19 , 20 ]. To collect data comprehensively, we searched WoSCC from its inception to 2022 (1975–2022).…”

“…Full-text records were downloaded for further quantitative and qualitative analysis. Two authors independently conducted a literature search that strictly adhered to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, removing duplicate studies and extracting various outputs, such as research countries, institutions, authors, journals, keywords, and citations [ 20 ].…”

“…Co-citation reference networks. These networks allow researchers to estimate so-called hotspots [ 19 , 20 ] or units of measurement for authors, references, countries, institutions, or keywords that have significantly higher connections than others [ 21 ]. Technically, co-citation reference networks are based on the concept of co-citation networks, which are a method of visualizing highly cited and closely related publications.…”

“…When applied to scientific research, it enables us to summarize large amounts of bibliometric data in order to present the state of knowledge and emerging trends of a research topic or research field over time. To the best of our knowledge, the use of bibliometric and systematic mapping is still in its early stages, and no specific bibliometric analyses on EIMD and protein intake have been performed [ 19 , 20 ]. As a result, using an appropriate scientometric method to reveal the current state, frontiers, and future research trends of this topic is critical.…”