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Age-related differences in the reaching and grasping coordination in children: unimanual and bimanual tasks
Isabelle Olivier1, Laurette Hay, Chantal Bard
1Laboratoire TIMC, Equipe Santé Plasticité Motricité, UMR CNRS 5525, UFR APS, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53 X, 38 041 Grenoble Cedex, France. Isabelle.Olivier@ujf-grenoble.fr
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental motor control
- Human kinematics
- Child psychology
Background:
- Motor skill development is crucial for children's independence.
- Understanding the coordination of reach-to-grasp movements provides insights into motor development.
- Previous research has explored various aspects of reaching and grasping, but age-specific coordinative mechanisms require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in the coordinative mechanism of reach-to-grasp movements.
- To compare motor control strategies across different age groups, from childhood to adulthood.
- To analyze kinematic data to identify developmental trajectories in prehension tasks.
Main Methods:
- Participants included children aged 6, 8, and 11 years, and healthy adults.
- Three prehension conditions were used: unimanual self-driven, bimanual self-driven, and bimanual externally-driven tasks.
- Classical kinematics (e.g., peak velocities, grip timing) and relative kinematic variables were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Six-year-olds exhibited high variability in reach-to-grasp coordination.
- Significant age-related changes were observed between 6 and 8 years old.
- A notable difference existed between 11-year-olds and adults, indicating incomplete motor skill maturation.
Conclusions:
- The interdependence of reaching and grasping programs is unstable in 6-year-olds.
- A feedback-based coordination emerges by 8 years of age.
- Adult-like reach-to-grasp coordination is not fully developed by age 11.
Abstract:
This study examined age-related differences in the coordinative mechanism of the reach-to-grasp movement in three groups of children aged 6, 8, and 11 year, and in healthy adults. Three prehension conditions were manipulated: an unimanual and a bimanual self-driven tasks in which the reaching and grasping of the object were performed by participants, and a bimanual externally-driven task, in which the experimenter brought the object into the vicinity of the participant which grasped it. Classical kinematics data-peak velocities of the reaching and the grasping, the time to onset grip opening, maximum grip opening and grip closure-were calculated. Moreover, to obtain equivalent kinematics variables for all age groups, relative time to peak velocity (% of reaching duration), relative maximum grip opening (% of object size), and percentage of the four types of phase plans between reaching velocity and grip size have been calculated for each group of age. Our main results showed (1) a high variability at age 6, (2) an age-related change between the 6- and 8-year old for almost all of the dependent variables, and (3) a significant difference between the 11-year olds and adults. In summary, at 6 years, the interdependence between the reaching and grasping programs was unstable. A transitory feedback-based coordination between reaching and grasping appeared at 8 years of age. Finally, the adults' relationship between reaching and grasping was not attained at the age of 11.
