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Do motor ability and handwriting kinematic measures predict organizational ability among children with Developmental
1The Laboratory of Complex Human Activity and Participation (CHAP), Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Insights
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) struggle with organizing daily tasks. This study shows their handwriting and organizational skills are significantly impaired, impacting their perception-action mechanism.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Motor Control
Background:
- Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) affect children's daily functioning.
- Deficits in DCD are linked to the perception-action mechanism.
- Understanding these deficits is crucial for intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the behavioral organization of children with DCD.
- To investigate their ability to generate and monitor spatial-temporal representations.
- To gain insight into their perception-action mechanism.
Main Methods:
- 42 children (7-10 years) participated, half with DCD, half typically developing (TD).
- Handwriting tasks were performed on an electronic tablet (ComPET system).
- Teachers completed the Questionnaire for Assessing Students' Organizational Abilities-Teachers (QASOA-T).
Main Results:
- Significant differences in handwriting kinematics and organizational abilities were found between DCD and TD groups.
- Motor ability explained 30-37% of handwriting variance and 67% of organizational ability variance.
- Pen tilt variance added 3% to predicting organizational abilities.
Conclusions:
- Children with DCD show deficient behavioral organization in tasks requiring spatial-temporal representation.
- Findings enhance understanding of DCD performance mechanisms.
- Results have implications for clinical interventions and support.
Background And Aim:
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) exhibit deficient daily performance concealed in their perception-action mechanism. The aim of this study was to analyze behavior organization of children with DCD, in varied tasks that require generating and monitoring mental representations related to space and time inputs/requirements, for achieving better insight about their perception-action mechanism.
Method:
Participants included 42 children aged 7-10, half of whom were defined with DCD and half were typically developing (TD). The children were matched for age, gender and school. They were evaluated using the Movement-ABC and performed three handwriting tasks on an electronic tablet that is part of a computerized system (ComPET - Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool). In addition, their teachers completed the Questionnaire for Assessing Students' Organizational Abilities-Teachers (QASOA-T) to assess the children's daily organizational ability.
Results:
Significant group differences (DCD versus controls) were found for all handwriting kinematic measures across the three handwriting tasks and for the children's organizational abilities. Motor ability predicted a considerable percentage of the variance of the kinematic handwriting measures (30-37%), as well as a high percentage of the variance of their organizational abilities (67%). The coefficient of variance of the pen tilt added an additional 3% to the prediction of their organizational abilities.
Conclusions:
The results of this study exhibited deficient ability among children with DCD in organizing their behavior in varied real-world tasks requiring generation and monitoring representation related to space and time. The significance of the results to understanding the performance mechanism and implication to the clinical field are discussed.
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