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Updated: Jun 22, 2026
07:30
Efficiently Recording the Eye-Hand Coordination to Incoordination Spectrum
Published on: March 21, 2019
Head-torso-hand coordination in children with and without developmental coordination disorder
Vera Elders1, Sinéad Sheehan, Andrew D Wilson
1College of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
|June 25, 2009
Summary
Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) struggle with basic movement control, impacting more complex tasks. Quantitative kinematic analysis reveals insights into these coordination challenges in DCD.
Area of Science:
- Motor Control
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) affects motor skill acquisition.
- Understanding the fundamental coordination deficits in DCD is crucial for effective intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the specific coordination and control problems in children with DCD.
- To analyze the kinematic characteristics of movements in children with DCD.
Main Methods:
- Optoelectronic apparatus recorded head, torso, and hand movements in adults, children with DCD, and a control group.
- Participants performed looking and pointing tasks while seated in a swivel chair.
- Spatial and temporal kinematic characteristics of movements were computed.
Main Results:
- Children with DCD exhibited longer head movement times, even in simple tasks, indicating issues with basic muscle group coupling.
- Increased task complexity (pointing) disproportionately affected DCD group performance, particularly feedforward kinematic landmarks.
- While all groups attempted similar movement patterns, children with DCD were significantly less successful than controls.
Conclusions:
- Children with DCD experience difficulties in coordinating single degree-of-freedom movements.
- These fundamental coordination deficits lead to disproportionate difficulties in more complex motor tasks.
- Quantitative kinematic analysis offers valuable insights into the nature of motor control problems in DCD.
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