MASTERING MOVEMENT

Ten Years of Little Mavs

Celebrating its 10th year, the Little Mavs Movement Academy (LMMA) is a motor-skill intervention program to improve the lives of children and adolescents with movement and coordination difficulties. In helping to address these motor issues for kids, Little Mavs also provides hands-on training for CONHI students, who gain real-world research experience by assisting the program.

“The Little Mavs Movement Academy started as a way to serve the needs of the community,” says Priscila Tamplain, director of LMMA. “We launched in 2012 with only six children in a small room. Today we see over 25 children every semester.”

The Little Mavs program combines physical training along with social skill development, which helps children and families feel included and like they belong to a community.

“We have seen children and families grow,” says Dr. Tamplain. “The growth is not only from improving their motor skills, but also in how they gain confidence and love for movement and physical activity, something they initially had a hard time with.”

To learn more about the program, visit littlemavs.uta.edu