Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026
Computerized Dynamic Posturography for Postural Control Assessment in Patients with Intermittent Claudication
Published on: December 11, 2013
Postural responses to a suprapostural visual task among children with and without developmental coordination disorder
F C Chen1, C L Tsai, T A Stoffregen
1Affordance Perception Action Laboratory (APAL), School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, Minnespolis, MN 55455, USA.
Insights
Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) showed greater postural sway than typically developing children (TDC). Increased visual task difficulty worsened sway in DCD but improved it in TDC, suggesting impaired postural-visual integration in DCD.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Motor Control
Background:
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting motor skills.
- Postural control is crucial for daily activities and can be influenced by cognitive and visual demands.
- Understanding how visual task difficulty impacts posture in children with DCD is important for targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of varying perceptual demands of a suprapostural visual task on postural activity in children with DCD and typically developing children (TDC).
- To compare postural variability between DCD and TDC groups under different visual task difficulty conditions.
Main Methods:
- Sixty-four children (9-10 years old, 32 per group) participated in a within-participants design.
- Children performed a signal detection task at low (LD) and high difficulty (HD) levels.
- Positional variability of the head and torso was measured using a magnetic tracking system during task performance.
Main Results:
- Overall positional variability was significantly greater in the DCD group compared to the TDC group.
- In TDC, positional variability decreased with increased task difficulty (HD vs. LD).
- In the DCD group, positional variability increased with increased task difficulty (HD vs. LD).
Conclusions:
- Children with DCD exhibit greater postural instability than TDC.
- Increased perceptual demands of visual tasks negatively impact postural control in children with DCD.
- DCD may impair the functional integration between postural activity and suprapostural visual task demands.
Abstract:
We sought to determine the effects of varying the perceptual demands of a suprapostural visual task on the postural activity of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and typically developing children (TDC). Sixty-four (32 per group) children aged between 9 and 10 years participated. In a within-participants design, each child performed a signal detection task at two levels of difficulty, low (LD) and high difficulty (HD). During performance of the signal detection tasks we recorded positional variability of the head and torso using a magnetic tracking system. We found that task difficulty had a greater effect on task performance among the TDC group than among children with DCD. Overall positional variability was greater the DCD group than in the TDC group. In the TDC group, positional variability was reduced during performance of the HD task, relative to sway during performance of the LD task. In the DCD group, positional variability was greater during performance of the HD task than during performance of the LD task. In children, DCD may reduce the strength of functional integration of postural activity with the demands of suprapostural visual tasks.
