Manual Dexterity Abilities and Dual Tasking in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder and Typically Developing Children

Abstract

Poor manual skills in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) may be dependent on task complexity and due to difficulties in the automatization phase of the motor learning process. Increased task demands and the dual-task paradigm can be used to test these hypotheses.Objectives We aim to investigate (1) manual dexterity abilities using increased levels of difficulty; (2) dual tasking using an experimental protocol of the Tyneside Pegboard Test (TPT).Method Sixteen children with DCD and 16 age-matched typically developing (TD) children were included. Various experimental conditions of the TPT (unimanual, bimanual and dual task) were administered. The dual-task paradigm comprised a primary unimanual task and a cognitive task (auditory non-verbal task). Parents were asked to fill out the eConners questionnaire to report attentional difficulties. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to compare possible differences in effects on the performance of the groups. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between dual-task performance and ADHD index of the eConners questionnaire.Results Children with DCD performed significantly worse in all task conditions (unimanual, bimanual, dual task) compared to TD children. In unimanual and bimanual conditions, they did no not present a higher impact of task constraints. Dual-task performances did not have a differential effect on groups and were not interfered by attentional difficulties.Conclusions Children with DCD exhibit a general slowness in all TPT tasks. Our findings do not support the automatization deficit hypothesis.