Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare performance of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and typically developing (TD) children in a dual task paradigm with a dynamic balance task on the Wii Fit as primary task and a concurrent cognitive (counting) or a concurrent bimanual fine motor task as secondary tasks. Using a cross-sectional design, 25 children with DCD and 38 TD children were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition (MABC-2) and Divided Attention (DA) task of the KiTAP. Next, the single- and dual-tasks were performed and the level of interference or facilitation of the dual tasks was calculated. Regression analysis determined the predictive value of the DA and MABC-2 component balance outcomes on the dual task performance. On the motor and attentional tasks, the group of children with DCD scored significantly below the level of the TD children. The dual task effect showed similar interference and facilitation of tasks in the different dual-task conditions in both groups. In the dual task-cognitive condition, the divided attention abilities and the MABC-2 balance score predicted 25% of the Wii Fit dynamic balance task performance, whereas in the dual task-motor condition this was higher (31.6%). In both conditions, DA was a stronger predictor than MABC balance score and appears to be an important factor to consider when developing motor task training for children with DCD.
Highlights
Everyday life activities require the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks, e.g. riding a bicycle while judging the surrounding traffic and chatting with a friend, or dribbling with a ball while watching the opponents and avoiding the keeper when aiming for a goal
The children, aged 7-12 years, were selected: if they scored at or below the 16th percentile score on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2nd edition (MABC-2) and subtest balance (Criterion A); and were identified as having a motor coordination problem by the teacher based on poor motor performance during PE lessons or in the playground, poor handwriting skills and motor problems related to eating and drinking in the classroom (Criterion B); whose parents or teachers and age confirmed the onset is in childhood (Criterion C); whose parents reported no diagnosis of a significant medical condition known to affect motor performance and whose teacher stated the children did not show signs of intellectual or cognitive impairment based on the school records (Criterion D)
Significant group differences were found in the number of omissions (t(61) = − 4.1, p < .001) of the Divided Attention task and in the SD of the reaction time (t(61) = − 3.02, p = .004), but the reaction time did not reach the level of significance (t (61) = − 1.99, p = .051) (Table 2)
Summary
Everyday life activities require the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks, e.g. riding a bicycle while judging the surrounding traffic and chatting with a friend, or dribbling with a ball while watching the opponents and avoiding the keeper when aiming for a goal. Alerting involves the arousal and/or anticipation of an expected event; the orienting function of attention selects the one source of information for pro cessing, among other sources, while the executive control attention is needed in more complex response situations like doing two things at once (McDowd, 2007). Interaction of these attention networks is required, but the distinction may help to un derstand the normal functioning of attention versus deficits in attention
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