Interlimb coordination and auditory-motor synchronization when walking and running in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Children walk or cycle to school, play with friends at the playground and participate in sports. Motor skills are vital for activities of daily life. Automatically, we take these motor skills for granted. However, when motor skills are atypical, significant consequences can arise, impacting daily life activities, participation and well-being. This is the case in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Children with DCD have difficulties with a variety of motor skills, negatively impacting there daily life activities, academic performance, and engagement in sports [1]. Previous research has highlighted a reduced involvement in physical activities and subsequently lower levels of physical fitness among individuals with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) [2]. This reduced physical activity is thought to be associated with difficulties in mastering essential motor skills such as running, jumping, and hopping [3]. Although most research in DCD focus on children, there is increased recognition of the impact of DCD in adulthood. Longterm consequences relate to socio-emotional difficulties, academic achievement and employment [4]. Despite coordination is part of the diagnostic term Developmental Coordination Disorder, our knowledge of coordination in individuals with DCD remains limited. Even the most basic motor task requires coordination among different body parts. In this sense, ‘coordination’ involves the ability of kinematic coupling, or synergy formation, in order to organize a movement pattern to accomplish a specific goal [5]. The hybrid multi-component model of motor skill development is proposed to explain motor coordination deficits in DCD through dynamical interactions at the individual, task, and environmental levels [6]. This dynamical interplay among the individual, the task, and the environment may either impede or enhance motor coordination and performance. Research in adults has shown that optimizing walking and running performance can be achieved by synchronizing steps to tempo-matched auditory rhythms [7- 10], thereby varying task constraints Auditory-motor synchronization, involves consistent coupling between auditory and motor rhythms over time. Studies focussing on coordination and synchronization in DCD considered mainly discrete tasks, such as a ball catching task [11], bimanual tapping [12] or handfoot tapping [13].