Procedural learning and automatization process in children with developmental coordination disorder and/or...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) may represent a broader disorder due to shared deficits in procedural memory.
• Procedural learning studies in DD and DCD have produced conflicting results, and automatization has not been previously investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate procedural learning and movement automatization in children with DCD, DD, and comorbid DD+DCD.
• To explore the impact of comorbidity on motor performance and learning.

Main Methods:

• A finger tapping task was used to assess procedural learning and automatization in children aged 8-12.
• Participants included groups with DCD, DD, and combined DD+DCD.
• Motor performance was evaluated before training, after two weeks of training, and in a dual-task condition.

Main Results:

• All children demonstrated the ability to learn and automatize movements.
• Significant differences in procedural learning and automatization were observed between the groups, with the DCD group showing distinct patterns.
• Comorbidity of DD and DCD did not result in additional negative impacts on behavioral performance compared to single diagnoses.

Conclusions:

• Procedural learning and automatization are differentially affected in developmental coordination disorder.
• The findings suggest that developmental dyslexia and developmental coordination disorder may not have an additive effect on behavioral outcomes when comorbid.
• Further research is needed to elucidate the specific procedural memory deficits in these developmental disorders.