Article

This study investigated the nature of coordination and control problems in
children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). METHOD: Seven adults
(two males, five females, age range 20-28 y; mean 23 y, SD 2 y 8 mo) and eight
children with DCD (six males, two females, age range 7-9 y; mean 8 y, SD 8 mo),
and 10 without DCD (seven males, three females, age range 7-9 y; mean 8 y, SD 7
mo) sat in a swivel chair and looked at or pointed to targets. Optoelectronic
apparatus recorded head, torso, and hand movements, and the spatial and temporal
characteristics of the movements were computed. RESULTS: Head movement times were
longer (p<0.05) in children with DCD than in the comparison group, even in the
looking task, suggesting that these children experience problems at the lowest
level of coordination (the coupling of synergistic muscle groups within a single
degree of freedom). Increasing the task demands with the pointing condition
affected the performance of children with DCD to a much greater extent than the
other groups, most noticeably in key feedforward kinematic landmarks. Temporal
coordination data indicated that all three groups attempted to produce similar
movement patterns to each other, but that the children with DCD were much less
successful than age-matched children in the comparison group. INTERPRETATION:
Children with DCD have difficulty coordinating and controlling single
degree-of-freedom movements; this problem makes more complex tasks
disproportionately difficult for them. Quantitative analysis of kinematics
provides key insights into the nature of the problems faced by children with DCD.

Langue : ANGLAIS