Rhythmic Interlimb Coordination in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder Compared to Typical Developing Children: the Effect of Individual, Task and Environmental Constraints
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Sponsor
- Hasselt University
- Enrollment
- 52
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Auditory motor coupling - Relative phase angle
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- last year
Overview
Brief Summary
This study is a case-controlled observational study, involving children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and typically developing children with an age from 8 up to 12 years old. The study aims to investigate interlimb coordination of the lower limbs and sensorimotor synchronization ability in children with DCD compared to age-matched typically developing children during gait and fundamental lower limb coordination task to 2 metronomes with different temporal structures. The study consists of a maximum of 4 sessions (2 descriptive sessions, 2 experimental sessions), each lasting around 60 minutes. Depending on the preferences of the child and parents, the sessions can be combined in 2 sessions of 2 hours. During the first descriptive session, the participant will perform the m-ABC2 test to assess gross and fine motor function. The MBEMA-s will be used to examine rhythm perception ability. During the second descriptive session, children will perform the Kids BESTest to examine postural control, and two cognitive tests (digit span, go-no/go test) to assess executive functioning. During the third visit (experimental session), interlimb coordination and synchronization will be investigated during three tasks with different dynamic balance demands (seated, walking and running) in three conditions: in silence, to beats in isochronous metronome (discrete structure), to beats in non-isochronous metronomes (sinusoidal structure). In the last experimental session, the tempi of the auditory metronomes will be set at higher and lower tempi than the preferred comfortable tempo of the child.
Investigators
Eugene Rameckers
Principal Investigator
Hasselt University
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •are aged between 8-12 years
- •have no medical conditions that could impede their motor abilities.
- •Children with a diagnosis of DCD, consistent with the DSM-V (Blank et al., 2019), or total percentile score \<P16 on the movement assessment battery for children edition 2 (m-ABC-2), will be included in the group of (probably) DCD.
- •The m-ABC score total of typical developing children needs to be ≥P25 for inclusion
Exclusion Criteria
- •have other neurological, orthopaedical, cardiorespiratory or intellectual impairment that could affect their motor abilities (verified using a health questionnaire)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Auditory motor coupling - Relative phase angle
Time Frame: week 3
Synchronization accuracy of steps to the beats during walking and running; and of the knee flexion-extension movement to the beats during the seated task. Relative phase angle, asynchrony in time to quantify synchronization accuracy (in degrees and in milliseconds respectively)
Phase coordination index (PCI)
Time Frame: week 3
PCI is a measurement of consistency and accuracy in generating a series of anti-phase left - right stepping phases. Detailed information is described in Plotnik et al. (2007). Shortly, phase represent the relative timing of contralateral heel strikes, determining the phase, and normalize the step time with respect to the stride time (Plotnik, Giladi, \& Hausdorff, 2007). Ideal interlimb coordination for each step is 180°. The consistency of the phase generation is represented by the Coefficient of variation of the series of the relative timing of the stepping of one leg with respect to the gait cycle.A lower PCI%, closer to zero, indicates a better antiphase interlimb coordination pattern.
Auditory motor coupling - Resultant Vector Length to quantify synchronization consistency
Time Frame: week 3
Synchronization consistency of steps to the beats during walking and running; and of the knee flexion-extension movement to the beats during the seated task Resultant Vector Length to quantify synchronization consistency. If the distribution of the relative phase angles over time is consistent, it results in a high resultant vector length (maximum value 1). If the synchronization is not consistent, the resultant vector length will be low (minimum value 0)
Secondary Outcomes
- step width (cm)(week 3)
- velocity (m/s)(week 3)
- stride length (cm)(week 3)
- movement frequency(week 3)
- cadence (step/minute)(week 3)
- double support (%gait cycle)(week 3)
- movement amplitude(week 3)
- The m-ABC (second edition)(Baseline)
- Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Abilities (MBEMA-s)(Baseline)
- Kids BESTest(week 1)
- digit span(week 1)
- go-no/go test(week 1)