Assessing the Development of Fine Motor Control in Elementary School Children Using Drawing and Tracing Tasks

Evaluation of Motor Skills With Functional Dexterity Test in Children With ADHD and Comparison With Healthy Controls

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to investigate whether the fine motor skills measured by the Functional Dexterity Test (FDT) in ADHD children differ from healthy controls. The second aim was to assess the applicability of the FDT assessment method among ADHD children.

METHOD

The FDT results as an objective assessment of hand skills were compared between 7 and 17 years old ADHD cases (n = 146) and age and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 213).

RESULTS

We found lower dominant and non-dominant processing time (respectively for dominant hand and non-dominant hand p = .001, effect size Cliff's Delta = .22; p = .001, ES Cliff's Delta = .29), higher peg processing speed (p = .001, ES Cliff's Delta = .23; p = .001, ES Cliff's Delta = .29), higher total error (p = .001, ES Cliff's Delta = .40; p = .001, ES Cliff's Delta = .51), and total FDT time (p = .0017, ES Cliff's Delta = .14; p = .011, ES Cliff's Delta = .16) in ADHD patients compared to healthy controls.

CONCLUSION

Manual dexterity evaluation would be helpful to detect the fine motor skill deficits of ADHD children. Although ADHD children were advantageous regarding speed, they were disadvantageous regarding processing errors and total process time. Therefore, the error time data should be considered in evaluating ADHD children, unlike healthy children.

Quantification of hand functional recovery in spinal cord injury patients

STUDY DESIGN

A prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the use of a circle-tracing task in quantifying hand functional recovery in cervical spinal cord injury patients.

METHODS

Ten cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients and 10 healthy age-matched controls performed a circle-tracing task, using a computerized tablet at the beginning of the study and after 4 weeks. Data relative to performance accuracy as well as pen pressure throughout the performances were collected, and clinical assessment for all patients was performed at the beginning and at the end of the study.

RESULTS

Significant differences were found in pen pressure profiles in the SCI patients between the initial assessment and after 4 weeks of assessment. SCI patients, when compared with controls, apply less pressure during the execution, though no significant differences were found for the other parameters. Examination of pen pressure profiles of both controls and SCI patients reveals that, in addition to the lower pressure registered, SCI patients present a more oscillating pressure profile which is direction-dependent. No significant correlations were found between clinical assessments and pen pressure, both within the initial assessment as well as after 4 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS

This study emphasizes the potential of simple computerized means for quantifying upper limb functions in SCI patients. These results of this study could be helpful for both highlighting specific functional deficits in patients as well tailoring specific interventions.

The application of drawing tasks in studying cognitive functions in autism: a systematic review

Objective: Cognitive atypicalities are prevalent in autism. This prevalence has exhorted researchers to look for developing the most appropriate evaluation tools, which enable them to study cognitive functions in autism accurately and efficiently. Drawing tasks, due to their numerous advantages, are known as promising tools for examining cognitive functions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to systematically review the characteristics of the drawing tasks used for studying cognitive functions in autism. Method: Using PRISMA guidelines, we identified relevant articles via systematic electronic literature search up to March 2022. Results: A total of 50 articles were eligible to be included in this review. Among this literature, drawing tasks have been mainly used to investigate perceptual functions, social cognition, and imagination in individuals with autism. Executive functions, memory and creativity were also examined by using drawing tasks in a few studies. Conclusion: We discussed the potential of drawing tasks in the assessment of cognitive functions in autism. Moreover, we reviewed how drawing tasks could be improved for application in individuals with autism.

Age-dependent Upper Limb Myoelectric Control Capability in Typically Developing Children

Research in EMG-based control of prostheses has mainly utilized adult subjects who have fully developed neuromuscular control. Little is known about children's ability to generate consistent EMG signals necessary to control artificial limbs with multiple degrees of freedom. As a first step to address this gap, experiments were designed to validate and benchmark two experimental protocols that quantify the ability to coordinate forearm muscle contractions in typically developing children. Able-bodied, healthy adults and children participated in our experiments that aimed to measure an individual's ability to use myoelectric control interfaces. In the first experiment, participants performed 8 repetitions of 16 different hand/wrist movements. Using offline classification analysis based on Support Vector Machine, we quantified their ability to consistently produce distinguishable muscle contraction patterns. We demonstrated that children had a smaller number of highly independent movements (can be classified with >90% accuracy) than adults did. The second experiment measured participants' ability to control the position of a cursor on a 1-DoF virtual slide using proportional EMG control with three different visuomotor gain levels. We found that children had higher failure rates and slower average target acquisitions than adults did, primarily due to longer correction times that did not improve over repetitive practice. We also found that the performance in both experiments was age-dependent in children. The results of this study provide novel insights into the technical and empirical basis to better understand neuromuscular development in children with upper-limb loss.

The Best of Two Different Visual Instructions in Improving Precision Ball-Throwing and Standing Long Jump Performances in Primary School Children

Two observational learning approaches have been shown to be successful in improving children's motor performances: one is "technique-focused", another is "goal-focused". In this study, we sought to compare the effectiveness of these two strategies, thus testing for the more efficient method of observational learning to enhance motor skills in primary school children. To this end, two experiments were designed. Experiment 1 involved a precision ball throwing task. Experiment 2 involved a standing long jump task. A total of 792 subjects (aged 6-11) participated in this study and were divided into technique-focus (Experiment 1 n = 200; Experiment 2 n = 66), goal-focus (Experiment 1 n = 195; Experiment 2 n = 68), and control groups (Experiment 1 n = 199; Experiment 2 n = 64). The experiments were divided into pretest, practice, and retention phases. During the practice phase, the technique-focus and goal-focus groups were given different visual instructions on how to perform the task. The results showed that children aged 10-11 belonging to the technique-focus group performed significantly better in the practice phase than both the goal-focus and the control group (p < 0.001), but only for the precision ball throwing task. These findings could be useful for training adaptation in the context of motor learning and skills acquisition.

Crosstalk between Gross and Fine Motor Domains during Late Childhood: The Influence of Gross Motor Training on Fine Motor Performances in Primary School Children

Gross and fine motor competence have a close relationship during development and are shown to correlate to some extent. However, the study of the interaction between these domains still requires further insights. In this study, we investigated the developmental changes in overall motor skills as well as the effects of gross motor training programs on fine motor skills in children (aged 6–11, n = 240). Fine motor skills were assessed before and after gross motor intervention using the Box and Block Test. The gross motor intervention was based on the Test of Gross Motor Development—3rd Edition. Results showed that gross and fine motor skills correlate across all years of primary school, both significantly improving with age. Finally, the gross motor intervention appeared to not influence fine motor skills. Our findings show that during primary school age, overall motor development is continuous, but non-linear. From age nine onward, there seems to be a major step-up in overall motor competence, of which teachers/educators should be aware of in order to design motor educational programs accordingly. While gross and fine motor domains might be functionally integrated to enhance children’s motor performances, further research is needed to clarify the effect of gross motor practice on fine motor performances.