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Motor, visual and egocentric transformations in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Authors:
- WILLIAMS J., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.633-647.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This study aimed to test the internal modelling deficit (IMD) hypothesis using the mental rotation paradigm. According to the IMD hypothesis, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have an impaired ability to internally represent action. Thirty-six children (18 DCD) completed four tasks: two versions of a single-hand rotation task (with and without explicit imagery instructions), a whole-body imagery task and an alphanumeric rotation task. There was partial support for the hypothesis that children with DCD would display an atypical pattern of performance on the hand rotation task, requiring implicit use of motor imagery. Overall, there were no significant differences between the DCD and control groups when the hand task was completed without explicit instructions, on either response time or accuracy. However, when imagery instructions were introduced, the controls were significantly more accurate than the DCD group, indicating that children with DCD were unable to benefit from explicit cuing. As predicted, the controls were also significantly more accurate than the DCD group on the whole-body task, with the accuracy of the DCD group barely rising above chance. Finally, and as expected, there was no difference between the groups on the alphanumeric task, a measure of visual (or object-related) imagery. The inability of the DCD group to utilize specific motor imagery instructions and to perform egocentric transformations lends some support to the IMD hypothesis. Future work needs to address the question of whether the IMD itself is subgroup-specific.
Associations of motor co-ordination and attention with motor-perceptual development in 3-year-old preterm and full-term children who needed neonatal intensive care
- Authors:
- HEMGREN E., PERSSON K.
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 33(1), January 2007, pp.11-21.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Children who have needed neonatal intensive care (NIC) are considered to be at risk for deficits such as developmental co-ordination disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. By assessing motor-perceptual development, motor co-ordination and attention already at 3 years of age, it might be possible to identify such deficits earlier than they are today. The aim was to investigate the motor-perceptual development in a group of 202 NIC children but had no major impairments, to describe associations of deficits in co-ordination and attention with motor-perceptual delays, and to estimate the prevalence of NIC children with combined deficits together with a motor-perceptual delay. Co-ordination and attention in children born very preterm (n = 57), moderately preterm (n = 75) and full-term (n = 70) were observed according to a model for Combined Assessment of Motor Performance and Behaviour while they were assessed using a developmental scale, Motor-Perceptual Development, 0–7 years, MPU. In two out of 14 MPU areas, a larger proportion of very preterm than of moderately preterm and full-term children had marked developmental delay. Overall, the proportion of NIC children having a motor-perceptual delay increased with increasing incoordination and especially increasing lack of attention. Twenty-one (11%) of the NIC children had different motor-perceptual delays combined with pronounced incoordination and pronounced lack of attention. Deficits in co-ordination and attention were associated with motor-perceptual delays in areas important for daily living and development of academic skills. Therefore, to find children at risk for developmental co-ordination disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, assessments of co-ordination and attention should be added to assessments of motor-perceptual development in 3-year-old NIC children.
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder respond similarly to age-matched controls in both speed and accuracy if goal-directed movements are made across the midline
- Authors:
- SMITS-ENGLESMAN B. C. M., BLOEM-VAN DER WEL H. E., DUYSENS J.
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.703-710.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The conventional view among many clinicians is that crossing the midline in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) results in degradation of their performance. However, no kinematic data yet exist to support this view. We therefore tested this assumption in an experimental setting. A group of age- and gender-matched children with DCD (n = 48) and a group of typically developing children (n = 48) were compared while performing goal-directed movements with a pen on a XY-tablet. The authors examined whether speed or accuracy changed if the goal-directed movements were made towards targets positioned either at the midline, the contralateral (crossed) side or the ipsilateral (uncrossed) side of the body midline. These results showed that movements in the contralateral workspace were less accurate for both groups of children in the tested age range (6–11 years). The movements made towards the targets in the midline were the fastest, and the pen pressure for movements in the ipsilateral space was the highest. However, these effects were similar for children with and without DCD. As expected, children with DCD made more errors, were slower and pressed more erratically on their pen, but this difference was irrespective of the position of their hand in the workspace. Crossing the midline in children with DCD for small amplitude movements (2.5 cm), as tested in this study, does not result in increased degradation of the goal-directed movements compared with their typically developing peers. This implies that, contrary to expectation, there is no evidence for a preferential deficit in DCD in brain structures involved in making movements in the contralateral workspace.
Perception–action coupling in children with and without DCD: frequency locking between task-relevant auditory signals and motor responses in a dual-motor task
- Authors:
- WHITALL J., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.679-692.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The current research examines the relationship between perceptual and motor processes, known as perception–action or sensorimotor coupling, and the potential differences in perception–action coupling among children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and adults in a gross-motor co-ordination task (clapping while marching) when a task-relevant driving sensory signal is present. Ten children with DCD (7.32 + 0.23 years), eight typically developing (TD) children who were age-, gender- and racially/ethnically matched (6.91 + 0.24 years) and 10 college-aged adults were participants in this study. Participants clapped and marched to an auditory beat at four different frequencies: 0.8, 1.2,1.6 and 2.0 Hz. The relative timing measures of mean relative phase (MRP) and variability of relative phase (VRP) were calculated and compared using 3 (group) x 4 (frequency) x 2 (limb) anovas. Qualitatively, participants were assessed for the presence of absolute coupling (100% + 15% MRP). Statistically significant differences in MRP occurred for coupling, frequency and group, and post hoc analysis indicated that the adult group differed from both the DCD and TD groups, who did not differ from each other. In VRP, there were significant main effects for coupling and group, and a significant interaction between group and frequency, with post hoc analysis indicating the DCD group to be different from the TD and adult groups. Qualitatively, both the adult and TD groups increased in the number of participants who adopt absolute coupling as frequency increases. In contrast, the DCD participants adopt this absolute coupling far less frequently overall; in fact, the number of participants adopting this pattern decreases as frequency increases.These results indicate that children with DCD have difficulties with both the co-ordination and the control of their perception–action coupling for this particular task.
Visual contribution to walking in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Authors:
- DECONINCK F. J. A., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.711-722.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The motor co-ordination problems of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have been frequently associated with poor visuospatial processing. In order to extend these findings mainly based on fine motor experiments, the present study investigates the contribution of vision to the control of walking in children with DCD. Children with DCD (n = 12) walked at their preferred speed on a straight, firm and uncluttered walkway in a condition with normal lighting and in a dark condition. Spatiotemporal gait variables were assessed by means of a three-dimensional ProReflex camera system and compared with the gait pattern of matched, typically developing (TD) children (n = 12). In normal lighting, the gait pattern of both groups was similar, with the exception of subtle differences in the temporal phasing, showing a slightly longer support phase in the children with DCD. In the dark, step frequency and step length were decreased in the children with DCD, resulting in a significantly slower walking velocity. In addition, the medio-lateral excursion of the centre of mass tended to increase in this group. In the TD children, adaptations to the spatiotemporal pattern remained absent. These results suggest that children with DCD are more dependent on global visual flow information than TD children for the maintenance of balance and the control of velocity during walking. This increased dependency on visual control might be associated with a poorly developed internal sensorimotor model.
Problems in the coupling of eye and hand in the sequential movements of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Authors:
- WILMUT K., WANN J. P., BROWN J. H.
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.665-678.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Shifting gaze and attention ahead of the hand is a natural component in the performance of skilled manual actions. Very few studies have examined the precise co-ordination between the eye and hand in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). This study directly assessed the maturity of eye–hand co-ordination in children with DCD. A double-step pointing task was used to investigate the coupling of the eye and hand in 7-year-old children with and without DCD. Sequential targets were presented on a computer screen, and eye and hand movements were recorded simultaneously. There were no differences between typically developing (TD) and DCD groups when completing fast single-target tasks. There were very few differences in the completion of the first movement in the double-step tasks, but differences did occur during the second sequential movement. One factor appeared to be the propensity for the DCD children to delay their hand movement until some period after the eye had landed on the target. This resulted in a marked increase in eye–hand lead during the second movement, disrupting the close coupling and leading to a slower and less accurate hand movement among children with DCD. In contrast to skilled adults, both groups of children preferred to foveate the target prior to initiating a hand movement if time allowed. The TD children, however, were more able to reduce this foveation period and shift towards a feed forward mode of control for hand movements. The children with DCD persevered with a look-then-move strategy, which led to an increase in error. For the group of DCD children in this study, there was no evidence of a problem in speed or accuracy of simple movements, but there was a difficulty in concatenating the sequential shifts of gaze and hand required for the completion of everyday tasks or typical assessment items.
Rhythmic coordination of hand and foot in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Authors:
- VOLMAN M. J. M., LAROY M. E., JONGMANS M. J.
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.693-702.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulties producing stable rhythmic bimanual coordination patterns in comparison with age-related peers. Rhythmic coordination of non-homologous limbs (e.g. hand and foot) is even more difficult to perform because of mechanical differences between the limbs. The aim of the present study is to investigate the stability of hand–foot coordination patterns of children with DCD. Ten children with DCD (mean age 7.0 years, SD 1.1 years) and 16 control children (mean age 7.4 years, SD 1.3 years) participated in the study. They were asked to perform in-phase or anti-phase tapping movements in three different interlimb coordination combinations: (1) hand–hand (homologous), (2) hand–foot same body side (ipsilateral), and (3) hand–foot different body side (contralateral). Coordination stability was measured by the variability of the relative phase between the limbs under a 'steady state' (preferred) frequency condition, and by the critical frequency (i.e. the point at which loss of pattern stability was observed) in a condition in which the movement frequency was 'scaled' up (only anti-phase tapping). Coordination patterns of children in the DCD group were less stable in all three limb combinations compared with controls. Further, hand–foot coordination patterns were less stable than hand–hand coordination patterns. With regard to hand–foot coordination, ipsilateral patterns were equally stable compared with contralateral patterns in the in-phase task, but less stable in the anti-phase task. No differential effects were found between the DCD and control groups across the different limb combinations, except for steady-state anti-phase coordination in the ipsilateral limb condition. This effect was due to a relatively good performance of the control children in this condition in comparison with the other limb combination conditions. Children with DCD have difficulties producing stable rhythmic hand–foot coordination patterns compared with control children.
Shaping quality of life with nursing assistance. a grounded theory approach to nursing care for people with physical disabilities and interactions with carers in long-term care
- Authors:
- HELBIG Roman, METZING Sabine, LATTECK Anne-Dorte
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Long-Term Care, January 2022, pp.1-14. Online only
- Publisher:
- King's College London
- Place of publication:
- London
Context: Although the number of people with physical disabilities who need nursing support is increasing, there is a lack of empirical knowledge about how they experience necessary care support. This knowledge is a prerequisite for enabling self-determination in the provision of care and for providing care based on needs and requirements. People with physical disabilities live in residential institutions and their own homes with the support of care services, and they are dependent on permanent nursing assistance. Objective: This qualitative grounded theory study describes the importance that people with physical disabilities ascribe to the provision of care and how they organise their cooperation with caregivers. Methods: Twenty-seven problem-centred interviews with people who had a permanent physical disability and a need for care were analysed using the grounded theory approach. Findings: People with physical disabilities and a need for care want to enhance their quality of life with assistance. Quality of life is influenced by their wishes regarding assistance, acceptance of the physical disability, (previous) experience with assistance and the possibility of actively influencing the implementation of necessary assistance. The development and maintenance of a friendly relationship with professional carers represent a strategy for achieving quality of life. Limitations: This study focuses on people with physical disabilities who receive care from a professional service. Questions about the influence on family carers remain unanswered. Implications: For successful social participation, people with physical disabilities should be supported by nursing professionals to identify and express their priorities and needs. (Edited publisher abstract)
Comorbidity of DCD and SLI: significance of epileptiform activity during sleep
- Authors:
- SCABAR A., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.732-739.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In children affected by specific language impairment (SLI), many authors have investigated a link between language and epileptiform discharges during sleep resembling the focal sharp waves typical of benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BECTS), the so-called rolandic spikes. On the other hand, the same electroencephalographic trait occurs in more than 50% of children affected by learning or behavioural disabilities without seizures, supporting the hypothesis of a common genetic disposition. The biological background of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is currently unknown, but a genetic liability may be assumed. The aims of our study were first to estimate the prevalence of sleep-related epileptiform discharges in children affected by DCD and second to investigate the occurrence of DCD in a population of children affected by BECTS. The authors selected a group of eight children with severe DCD. In this group, the presence of epileptiform activity was investigated. We also searched for DCD among a group of 13 children affected by BECTS. The authors found rolandic spikes in more than 70% of the children with severe DCD and severe DCD in more than 30% of the children with BECTS. In children with severe DCD other disabilities are frequently associated. In these children, epileptiform activity during sleep is very frequently found and in our opinion, this represents a hallmark of 'Hereditary Impairment of Brain Maturation', a term only partially resembling 'Atypical Brain Development'.
Comorbidity, co-occurrence, continuum: what's in a name?
- Authors:
- KAPLAN B., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.723-731.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Comorbidity, co-occurrence and continuum are three terms used when referring to developmental problems such as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), but they can be confusing and misleading. Further, the terms can be upsetting to parents, and are not always helpful in guiding the selection of clinical interventions. The main purpose of this paper is to question some of the terminology we employ when referring to DCD and other developmental problems. A secondary purpose is to discuss some of the conceptual frameworks that have been proposed that attempt to address the issue of the interrelationships among developmental problems. The terminology is examined by first referring to the basic dictionary definitions. Second, data published that relate to the issues of co-occurrence and continuum are reviewed in light of the terminology questions. Finally, some alternative conceptual frameworks which more accurately describe the relationships among developmental problems. The term 'comorbidity' has limited relevance to developmental problems, and its use is questionable. In contrast, co-occurrence and continuum are more useful terms to use in regard to developmental problems. Concepts such as atypical brain development and minor neurological dysfunction provide some possible explanations for the increased levels of co-occurrence of developmental disorders in children who are more severely affected.