Is treating motor problems in DCD just a matter of practice and more practice?

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is often called a motor learning deficit. The question addressed in this paper is whether improvement of motor skills is just a matter of mere practice. Without any kind of intervention, children with DCD do not improve their motor skills generally, whereas they do improve after task-oriented intervention. Merely offering children the opportunity to practice motor skills, for instance by playing active video games, did lead to improved motor performance according to recent research findings, but to a lesser extent than task-oriented intervention. We argue that children with DCD lack the required motor problem-solving skills necessary to further improve their performance. Explicit motor teaching with an emphasis on developing these problem-solving skills is a necessary ingredient of intervention in DCD, leveraging the effectiveness of intervention above that of mere practicing

SOS : a screening instrument to identify children with handwriting impairments

Poor handwriting has been shown to be associated with developmental disorders such as Developmental Coordination Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, autism, and learning disorders. Handwriting difficulties could lead to academic underachievement and poor self-esteem. Therapeutic intervention has been shown to be effective in treating children with poor handwriting, making early identification critical. The SOS test (Systematic Screening for Handwriting Difficulties) has been developed for this purpose. A child copies a sample of writing within 5 min. Handwriting quality is evaluated using six criteria and writing speed is measured. The Dutch SOS test was administered to 860 Flemish children (7-12 years). Inter-and intrarater reliability was excellent. Test-retest reliability was moderate. A correlation coefficient of 0.70 between SOS and "Concise Assessment Methods of Children Handwriting" test (Dutch version) confirmed convergent validity. The SOS allowed discrimination between typically developing children and children in special education, males and females, and different age groups

Clinimetric evaluation of methods to measure muscle functioning in patients with non-specific neck pain: a systematic review

Contains fulltext : 69123.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Neck pain is a significant health problem in modern society. There is evidence to suggest that neck muscle strength is reduced in patients with neck pain. This article provides a critical analysis of the research literature on the clinimetric properties of tests to measure neck muscle strength or endurance in patients with non-specific neck pain, which can be used in daily practice. METHODS: A computerised literature search was performed in the Medline, CINAHL and Embase databases from 1980 to January 2007. Two reviewers independently assessed the clinimetric properties of identified measurement methods, using a checklist of generally accepted criteria for reproducibility (inter- and intra-observer reliability and agreement), construct validity, responsiveness and feasibility. RESULTS: The search identified a total of 16 studies. The instruments or tests included were: muscle endurance tests for short neck flexors, craniocervical flexion test with an inflatable pressure biofeedback unit, manual muscle testing of neck musculature, dynamometry and functional lifting tests (the cervical progressive iso-inertial lifting evaluation (PILE) test and the timed weighted overhead test). All the articles included report information on the reproducibility of the tests. Acceptable intra- and inter-observer reliability was demonstrated for t enduranctest for short neck flexors and the cervical PILE test. Construct validity and responsiveness have hardly been documented for tests on muscle functioning. CONCLUSION: The endurance test of the short neck flexors and the cervical PILE test can be regarded as appropriate instruments for measuring different aspects of neck muscle function in patients with non-specific neck pain. Common methodological flaws in the studies were their small sample size and an inappropriate description of the study design

Clinimetric evaluation of active range of motion measures in patients with non-specific neck pain: a systematic review

The study is to provide a critical analysis of the research literature on clinimetric properties of instruments that can be used in daily practice to measure active cervical range of motion (ACROM) in patients with non-specific neck pain. A computerized literature search was performed in Medline, Cinahl and Embase from 1982 to January 2007. Two reviewers independently assessed the clinimetric properties of identified instruments using a criteria list. The search identified a total of 33 studies, investigating three different types of measurement instruments to determine ACROM. These instruments were: (1) different types of goniometers/inclinometers, (2) visual estimation, and (3) tape measurements. Intra- and inter-observer reliability was demonstrated for the cervical range of motion instrument (CROM), Cybex electronic digital instrument (EDI-320) and a single inclinometer. The presence of agreement was assessed for the EDI-320 and a single inclinometer. The CROM received a positive rating for construct validity. When clinical acceptability is taken into account both the CROM and the single inclinometer can be considered appropriate instruments for measuring the active range of motion in patients with non-specific neck pain in daily practice. Reliability is the aspect most frequently evaluated. Agreement, validity and responsiveness are documented less frequently

Task-specificity and transfer of skills in school-aged children with and without developmental coordination disorder

Aim: To compare the effects of two Active Video Game (AVG) protocols on transfer of learning in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Methods: Fifty children, aged 6–10 years were randomly allocated to either group A or B. Children in group A participated in a set of Nintendo Wii ball games whereas group B played agility games (8 DCD and 17 typically developing children (TD) per group). Participants in each group practiced Wii games for 20 min twice a week for 10 weeks. All children also practiced ball and agility games in real-world settings, once per week. Results: Both protocols yielded positive effects with the largest effect sizes shown on agility and balance items of the PERF-FIT and KTK tests. No interaction was found on learning real-world games and the virtual protocol, except for a Ping-Pong game. A significant interaction of time by protocol group indicated that the Ball group improved more on BOT-2-Upper-Limb Coordination than the Agility group. Importantly, children with DCD improved comparably with TD peers in virtual and real-world games. Conclusion: Independent of training protocol, both children with DCD and TD children performed better on trained and non-trained ball, balance and agility tasks after 10 weeks of training.</p

Crossing the North Sea seems to make DCD disappear : cross-validation of Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 norms

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SOS: een instrument om schrijfmotorische problemen op te sporen

De SOS (Systematische opsporing van schrijfmotorische problemen) werd ontwikkeld als een instrument dat eenvoudig is en weinig tijd vraagt om het handschrift van een kind te onderzoeken. Het is niet bedoeld om een uitgebreide analyse te maken van het probleem of om een behandeling uit te werken. Wel geeft het een indicatie of het handschrift kwalitatief afwijkt en kan de schrijfsnelheid worden vergeleken met de normen voor typisch ontwikkelende kinderen. Dit artikel gaat in op het instrument zelf en op de voorlopige normering, betrouwbaarheid en validiteit

Fast responses to target changes are not impaired in children with spastic hemiplegia.

Contains fulltext : 80728.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Humans are able to correct an ongoing movement very quickly in response to a suddenly moving target. Such fast responses possibly bypass the motor cortex and if so, one would expect that damage to the motor cortex would not greatly affect them. A group of children with congenital spastic hemiplegia were asked to move to a target, which, in some trials, jumped to a new position. It was found that the congenital spastic hemiplegia group was not affected more by the target jumps than the typically developing children. The moving targets made adaptive movements faster instead of slower for the affected hand. It is concluded that fast-adjusting movements do not necessarily rely on the motor cortex in these children

The reliability of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children for preschool children with mild to moderate motor impairment.

Item does not contain fulltextOBJECTIVES: To provide further evidence of the test-retest reliability and agreement of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC), a standardized motor test used for identification and evaluation of children with mild to moderate motor impairment. Both the stability of total test scores and classification according to specified cut-off points were examined. DESIGN AND SETTING: Children were tested on the M-ABC, three times with an interval of three weeks between each assessment. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-three 4- and 5-year-old children with poor motor performance, 24 boys and 9 girls. RESULTS: A systematic practice effect between three consecutive testing sessions was shown. This was significant for the total score and two of the three subscores. Test-retest reliability of the total test score yielded an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.88. The total impairment score ranged between 0 and 40. The standard error of measurement (SEM) of this score was 2.4, resulting in a least detectable difference of 6.6 (with alpha set at 5%). The agreement over three testing sessions (kappa) was 0.72. CONCLUSIONS: The total impairment score of the M-ABC is a reliable measure for identification of mild to moderate motor impairment in young children. Repeated testing on the M-ABC at intervals of three weeks results in a systematic measurement error and is not recommended. The SEM is substantial. Follow-up of preschool children with the M-ABC as a single outcome measure is not appropriate