Starting School CKAT
Starting School was a research project that engaged Bradford primary schools and which ran for two consecutive academic years (2012-13 and 2013-14). The project aimed to assess all children in their first (reception) year of schooling who were in schools where there were at least 10 Born in Bradford children enrolled. Ninety-four out of the 142 primary schools in Bradford were contacted in the recruitment phase. Clinical Kinematic Assessment Tool (CKAT) is a standardised, computerised assessment battery of visuo-manual motor control which comprises of tasks involving the presentation of interactive visual stimuli displayed on a touch-screen tablet laptop screen, whilst simultaneously recording participant’s responses to these stimuli via interactions with the screen using a handheld stylus. The battery of tasks presented by CKAT is described in detail in Flatters et al. (2014; PloS One, 9(2), e88692. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088692), whilst the underlying software architecture and the performance metrics CKAT measures participants on are explained in Culmer, Levesley, Mon-Williams and Williams (2009; Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 184(1), 184–92. doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2009.07.025). To briefly summarise: (1) the CKAT Tracking task assesses participants ability to predict target movement; (2) the Aiming task assesses (discrete) feedforward and feedback control mechanisms and (3) the Tracing/Steering assesses (continuous) steering control mechanisms - all of which are considered to be fundamental sensorimotor control processes.