The Effects of Auditory Cues and Task Complexity on Inter-Limb Coordination and Perception-Action Coupling in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

• Main Authors: Ying-YaoLee, 李盈瑤
• Other Authors: Rong-Ju Cherng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/46937026114363523091

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 物理治療研究所 === 98 === Background and purpose: A series of motor behavior changes after birth developed to adapt the environmental and task demands. The abilities of inter-limb coordination and perception-action coupling are important for an individual to adapt in environment. Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have deficits in motor control. Limited study has examined the gross motor inter-limb coordination and coordination between limb action and external auditory cues in children with DCD. The aims of the study were to investigate the inter-limb coordination and perception-action coupling in children with DCD: (1) the effect of external cue on inter-limb coordination; (2) the effect of task complexity on inter-limb coordination; (3) the effect of limb movements on inter-limb coordination and perception-action coupling. Methods: twenty-four children with DCD and 24 age- and gender-matched typically developing (TD) children participated in the study. They performed tasks of marching or clapping alone and marching together with clapping in three auditory cue conditions (no cue, cue with preferred clap frequency and cue with preferred step frequency). The coefficient of variances (CVs) of action frequency and step-clap phasing value within-trials were used to examine the performance of inter-limb coordination. The mean and CV of perception-action phasing value were adopted as indicators of perception-action coupling ability. Results: The CV of action frequency was significantly larger in DCD group than in TD group. The CV of clap frequency increased with increased task complexity, but the CV of step frequency did not change. The mean of step-clap phasing value was also significantly larger in DCD group than in TD group. Significant cue and group interaction effect of the CV of perception-action phasing was noted. The CV of perception-action phasing was larger in TD group compared to that in DCD group. Conclusion: Children with DCD were less stable than TD children in an action and in the inter-limb coordination. Our study showed that children with DCD were more stable than TD children in the action-perception phase. This suggests that children with DCD reflect poor adaption to a cue and have problem in correcting on-going movements. Children with DCD tend to entrap in an attractor status. However, TD children tend to couple their limbs in adaptation and anticipation to the external cue.