Deficits in Motor Skills and Upper Limb Proprioception in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech and Language Therapy

Background:

• Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often present with motor challenges and somatosensory perception issues.
• Upper limb proprioception, vital for motor control, has not been well-studied in DLD.
• This research addresses the gap by examining motor skills and wrist position sense in children with DLD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate motor proficiency in Mandarin-speaking children with DLD.
• To assess wrist position sense acuity in children with DLD.
• To compare these abilities between children with DLD and typically developing (TD) peers.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-seven children with DLD and 27 TD children (aged 6-12) participated.
• Motor function was assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (MABC-2).
• Wrist position sense was evaluated via ipsilateral and contralateral matching tasks, measuring position error (PE) and standard deviation of PE (SDPE).

Main Results:

• Children with DLD scored significantly lower on all MABC-2 domains (p < .001), with 77.8% below the 5th percentile.
• This suggests a high comorbidity with developmental coordination disorder.
• While position error (PE) did not differ between groups, children with DLD showed significantly higher SDPE values (p < .05), indicating reduced precision in wrist position sense.

Conclusions:

• Children with DLD exhibit deficits in both motor skills and upper limb proprioceptive acuity.
• This study highlights impaired wrist proprioception in DLD, underscoring widespread sensorimotor difficulties.
• Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of somatosensory processing in DLD.