Abstract
In typical infants, the achievement of independent locomotion has a positive impact on the development of both small-scale and large-scale spatial cognition. Here we investigated whether this association between the motor and spatial domain: (1) persists into childhood and (2) is detrimental to the development of spatial cognition in individuals with motor deficits, namely, individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). Despite evidence of a co-occurring motor impairment in many individuals with ADHD, little is known about the developmental consequences of this impairment. Individuals with WS demonstrate impaired motor and spatial competence, yet the relationship between these two impairments is unknown. Typically developing (TD) children (N = 71), individuals with ADHD (N = 51), and individuals with WS (N = 20) completed a battery of motor tasks, a measure of independent exploration, and a virtual reality spatial navigation task. Retrospective motor milestone data were collected for the ADHD and WS groups. Results demonstrated a relationship between fine motor ability and spatial navigation in the TD group, which could reflect the developmental impact of the ability to manually manipulate objects, on spatial knowledge. In contrast, no relationships between the motor and spatial domains were observed for the ADHD or WS groups. Indeed, while there was evidence of motor impairment in both groups, only the WS group demonstrated an impairment in large-scale spatial navigation. The motor-spatial relationship in the TD, but not the ADHD and WS groups, suggests that aspects of spatial cognition can develop via a developmental pathway which bypasses input from the motor domain.
Highlights
The motor system is central to almost everything that we do
The final sample consisted of 43 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), all of whom had a formal diagnosis of ADHD from a clinician, were medication naïve for at least 24 h prior to testing, had an IQ within the normal range, and received an ADHD index score (Conners’ Parent Rating Scale – Revised Long version; CPRS-R:L; Conners, 1997) which supported their diagnosis of ADHD (≥60)
The Typically developing (TD) group was chosen to span the range of motor abilities of the ADHD and Williams syndrome (WS) group in order that developmental trajectory analysis could be carried out on large-scale spatial performance, with motor ability as a measure of motor “mental age” (Thomas et al, 2009)
Summary
The motor system is central to almost everything that we do. We use motor skills to interact socially, to produce language, in handwriting and in activities of daily living (e.g., eating, brushing hair). Performance on the A-not-B task (Piaget, 1952), which has a large spatial component (alongside factors such as cognitive flexibility and object concept), has been linked to locomotor experience (Bertenthal et al, 1994) In this task, infants observe a toy being repeatedly hidden in one of two locations (A) and successfully find the toy. All participants completed the Matrices subtest of the BAS (Elliot and Smith, 2011), and the BPVS (Dunn et al, 2009) as measures of IQ. The test–retest reliability for the ADHD index is 0.72
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