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Updated: Sep 21, 2025
Measurement of Spatial Stability in Precision Grip
Published on: June 4, 2020
Spatial Instability during Precision Grip-Lift in Children with Poor Manual Dexterity
Yuki Nishi1,2, Satoshi Nobusako1,3, Taeko Tsujimoto4
1Neurorehabilitation Research Center, Kio University, Koryo, Kitatkatsuragi-gun, Nara 635-0832, Japan.
Insights
Children with poor manual dexterity exhibit spatial instability during precision grip tasks, affecting their control and adaptation to object weight. This highlights potential sensory-motor integration issues relevant to developmental coordination disorder.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have known deficits in precision grip control.
- The spatial instability aspects of this deficit, such as force direction and object roll, remain poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate spatial instability in the precision grip force control of children with poor manual dexterity.
- To compare grip control and spatial stability between children with low and high manual dexterity.
Main Methods:
- 66 school-aged children performed precision gripping and lifting tasks with light and heavy objects.
- Children were categorized into low (n=11) and high (n=55) manual dexterity groups using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (2nd edition).
- Center of Pressure (COP) trajectory length, position, and object roll were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Children with low manual dexterity showed longer COP trajectory lengths, particularly with lightweight objects, linked to grip force.
- The low-dexterity group exhibited medial-lateral COP shifts and object roll, irrespective of object weight.
- These spatial instability measures were closely related within the low-dexterity group across different object weights.
Conclusions:
- Children with poor manual dexterity demonstrate significant spatial instability during precision grip tasks.
- They show distinct adaptations to object weight compared to their high-dexterity peers.
- Further research is needed to confirm if these findings apply to children formally diagnosed with DCD.
Abstract:
Although children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) show impaired precision grip control due to a sensory-motor integration deficit, their spatial instability (such as changes in force direction and object roll during a precision grip task) is unclear. Herein, we investigated the spatial instability in the precision grip force control of children with poor manual dexterity. We divided 66 school-aged children who performed a precision gripping and lifting of heavy- or lightweight objects into those with low manual dexterity (n = 11) and those with high manual dexterity (n = 55) as revealed by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (2nd edition). The group and weight effects were then determined. The results revealed that the total trajectory lengths of the center of pressure (COP) were longer in the lightweight object data of the children in the low-manual-dexterity group and were related to the children's grip force. The low-manual-dexterity group also showed a shifted COP position from the center of the object in the medial-lateral direction and in the object roll regardless of the object's weight; these were closely related in both weights' tests. These results demonstrated that children with poor manual dexterity show spatial instability and different adaptations to the weight of objects during a precision grip task. Further studies are needed to determine whether these findings would be replicated in children with a diagnosis of DCD.
