Abstract
The current study aimed to compare differences in the cognitive development of children with and without upper limb motor disorders. The study involved 89 children from 3 to 15 years old; 57 children with similar upper limb motor disorders and 32 healthy children. Our results showed that motor disorders could impair cognitive functions, especially memory. In particular, we found that children between 8 and 11 years old with upper limb disorders differed significantly from their healthy peers in both auditory and visual memory scales. These results can be explained by the fact that the development of cognitive functions depends on the normal development of motor skills, and the developmental delay of motor skills affects cognitive functions. Correlation analysis did not reveal any significant relationship between other cognitive functions (attention, thinking, intelligence) and motor function. Altogether, these findings point to the need to adapt general habilitation programs for children with motor disorders, considering the cognitive impairment during their development. The evaluation of children with motor impairment is often limited to their motor dysfunction, leaving their cognitive development neglected. The current study showed the importance of cognitive issues for these children. Moreover, early intervention, particularly focused on memory, can prevent some of the accompanying difficulties in learning and daily life functioning of children with movement disorders.
Highlights
Older children were characterized by higher scores in attention, auditory and visual memory, storytelling, and average cognitive score (ACS)
Our results showed the difference in cognitive performance between subjects with motor disorders and age-matched healthy controls
We emphasize that ACS was significantly decreased in children with upper limb motor disorders
Summary
The establishment of a clear link between the development of motor and cognitive abilities as well as its underlying brain mechanisms would enable new and integrative rehabilitation approaches for the improvement of both cognitive and motor skills To address this question, this study assessed the cognitive function of children with upper limb motor disorders, in particular subjects with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) and obstetric brachial plexus palsy (OBPL). Brain Sci. 2021, 11, 1650 obtained in this study may be useful for the development of rehabilitation programs aimed at improving both motor and cognitive skills in children with upper limb motor disorders These findings confirm the affectation of the central nervous system in this clinical population, as previously suggested in recent studies, demonstrating the causal relationship between peripheral motor dysfunction and cognitive impairment [18]. The current study was focused on the importance of cognitive issues for these children
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