Awareness about developmental coordination disorder.

The present paper is designed to promote awareness of DCD outside the academic world. With a prevalence of 5-6% it is one of the most common disorders of child development. It is therefore surprising that so little is known about it among professionals in child healthcare and education. Parents have expressed frustration about this lack of awareness, including the general public. The general aim of this paper was to describe those critical aspects of DCD that will promote awareness.

Motor-cognitive coupling is impaired in children with mild or severe forms of developmental coordination disorder.

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) show deficits in motor-cognitive coupling. However, it remains unclear whether such deficits depend on the severity of DCD. The aim of this study was to examine cognitive-motor coupling under different levels of inhibitory control in children with severe (s-DCD) or moderate DCD (m-DCD), compared with typically-developing children (TDC). The performance of 29 primary-school children aged 6-12 years with s-DCD (Mage = 9.12 ± 1.56 years), 53 m-DCD (Mage = 8.78 ± 1.67 years), and 201 TDC (Mage = 9.20 ± 1.50 years) was compared on a double jump reaching task (DJRT) paradigm, presented on a large 42-inch touchscreen. The task display had a circular home-base, centred at the bottom of the display, and three target locations at radials of -20°, 0°, and 20°, 40 cm above the home-base circle. For the standard double-jump reaching task (DJRT), children moved their index finger from home-base circle to touch the target stimulus as fast as possible; 20% were jump trials where the target shifted left or right at lift-off. For the anti-jump reaching task (AJRT), 20% of trials required an anti-jump movement, touching the contralateral target location. While no group differences were shown on the DJRT, the DCD group were slower to complete reaching movements than the TDC group on AJRT; on the latter, the two DCD sub-groups were not shown to differ. Results confirm the presence of motor inhibition deficits in DCD which may not be dependent on the motor severity of the disorder.

Effects of the Specific Eye Fixation Training on Fine Visuomotor Coordination in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

This study investigated the effects of quiet eye training (QET) on the neuropsychological functioning and fine motor performance of children with attention deficits. The participant cohort consisted of 106 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) between the ages of 8 and 12 years. The children were assigned to either the QET group (n = 54) or the control group (n = 52). The QET group went through a 5-week intervention in which the performance of blocks of targeting tasks was preceded by watching split-screen video footage featuring the gaze and body movements of a skilled model performing a throwing motion. Both groups underwent pre-test and post-test assessments, which included the reaction test of alertness, go/no-go inhibition test, and motor performance series test. The QET group demonstrated significant improvements in attentional engagement, inhibitory control, and fine motor skills, which require precise and fast visuomotor coordination. These results highlight the potential benefits of QET intervention in ameliorating attention deficits and enhancing fine aiming motor skills in children with ADHD. However, task specificity was evident, indicating that the intervention effects were most pronounced for the hand fine motor aiming tasks requiring both precision and speed.

Quiet eye training-based intervention can ameliorate inhibitory control but not visuospatial working memory in children with ADHD.

INTRO: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of quiet eye training (QET) on inhibitory control, visuospatial working memory (WM), and tonic attention in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Forty-eight children with ADHD aged 9-12 years were randomly assigned to QET and control (CON) groups. The QET group practiced targeted hand-eye tasks within a QET protocol developed to optimize controlled attention and gaze through eye fixations. We used the go/no-go (GNG) test, the Corsi test, and the reaction test of alertness (RTA) to verify the effects of QET on inhibition control, WM, and tonic attention. RESULTS: QET group showed significantly shorter reaction times, a higher number of correct responses, and a lower number of omissions in the GNG inhibition test after QET as compared to the pre-measurements, whereas the CON group did not demonstrate significant changes in this test. The measures of WM (Corsi test) and tonic attention (RTA) did not change significantly with the QET-based intervention. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that the QET protocol, which includes instructions and a video demonstration to optimize eye fixation on a target during aiming tasks, is acceptable and usable for children with ADHD. Overall, a short-term, 5-week visuomotor training intervention based on the quiet eye paradigm was shown to be effective in improving inhibitory control and focused visual attention, but not visuospatial WM and intrinsic attention in 9-12-year-old children with inattentive or combined ADHD.

Do Girls Have an Advantage Compared to Boys When Their Motor Skills Are Tested Using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd Edition?

This study aims to investigate sex-related differences in raw item scores on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd Edition (MABC-2) in a large data set collected in different regions across the world, seeking to unravel whether there is an interaction effect between sex and the origin of the sample (European versus African). In this retrospective study, a secondary analysis was performed on anonymized data of 7654 children with a mean age of 8.6 (range 3 to 16; SD: 3.4), 50.0% of whom were boys. Since country-specific norms were not available for all samples, the raw scores per age band (AB) were used for analysis. Our results clearly show that in all age bands sex-related differences are present. In AB1 and AB2, girls score better on most manual dexterity and balance items, but not aiming and catching items, whereas in AB3 the differences seem to diminish. Especially in the European sample, girls outperform boys in manual dexterity and balance items, whereas in the African sample these differences are less marked. In conclusion, separate norms for boys and girls are needed in addition to separate norms for geographical regions.

Cultural Adaptation of the MABC-2 Checklist as a Screening Tool for Developmental Coordination Disorder in Schools.

The purpose of this study was to adapt the MABC-2 Checklist to Czech primary schools by examining of its content validity and feasibility. The content validity achieved the satisfactory level in the second round of panels of experts on child motor development. The evidence on feasibility was obtained from classroom teachers who described this tool as clear, objective and having logical structure and its administration as comprehensible and fast. The MABC-2 Checklist is applicable instrument for the Czech school environment, but its adaptation to various countries should consider the items representing the common motor skills in local children.

Steady, Aim, Fire! Optimized Instructions Enhance Performance and Reduce Intra-Trial Variability in a Shooting Task.

The present study examined the influence of the individual and sequential combination of the key components of OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance Through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning) theory (i.e., enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and external focus), on the performance of a laser-pistol shooting task. In addition to shooting accuracy, intra-trial variability in the sway of forearm/pistol motion prior to movement execution (pulling the trigger) was the primary variable of interest. In a between-within-subject design, thirty-six participants (Mage = 21.27 ± 1.75 years) were randomized into either a control or an optimized group. Enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, and an external focus were implemented via sequential blocks of trials for participants in the optimized group. Participants in the control group performed all trials under "neutral" conditions. Our results showed that motor performance was enhanced for participants in the optimized group compared to those in the control group. Moreover, greater reductions in forearm sway leading up to the trigger pull were observed for the optimized group compared to the control group. These findings suggest higher movement effectiveness and efficiency, potentially through better attunement to task and environmental constraints, when implementing optimized instructions in a self-initiated fine motor task.