Attention during functional tasks is associated with motor performance in children with developmental coordination disorder

Abstract

This cross-sectional and exploratory study aimed to compare motor performance and electroencephalographic (EEG) attention levels in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and those with typical development, and determine the relationship between motor performance and the real-time EEG attention level in children with DCD.Eighty-six children with DCD [DCD: n = 57; DCD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): n = 29] and 99 children with typical development were recruited. Their motor performance was assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and attention during the tasks of the MABC was evaluated by EEG.All children with DCD had higher MABC impairment scores and lower EEG attention scores than their peers (P < 0.05). After accounting for age, sex, body mass index, and physical activity level, the attention index remained significantly associated with the MABC total impairment score and explained 14.1% of the variance in children who had DCD but not ADHD (P = 0.009) and 17.5% of the variance in children with both DCD and ADHD (P = 0.007). Children with DCD had poorer motor performance and were less attentive to movements than their peers. Their poor motor performance may be explained by inattention.

Adapted Taekwondo Training for Prepubertal Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

“…Therefore, we postulate that 3 months of TKD training may not be long enough to elicit a training effect in EHC reaction time. Another plausible reason was that our reaction time test (a finger-pointing task) results could be confounded by the attention level of the participants with DCD who are known to be inattentive to motor tasks 22 . Therefore, further study may monitor the attention level of the participants concurrently during the EHC test 23 .…”

Developmental Coordination Disorder in Chinese Children Is Correlated With Cognitive Deficits

“…Subsequently, Wilmut et al (26) found that the slow response to exogenous attention distribution among children with DCD was only observed in tasks involving the integration of visual actions. To further clarify the relationship between attention and movement performance among children with DCD, more recent studies have used electroencephalogram recordings taken from the foreheads of participants and subsequently converting them into indicators of attentional levels, with the results indicating a correlation between attention level and movement performance among children with DCD (27).…”

Single-channel electroencephalography and its associations with anxiety and pain during oral surgery: a preliminary report

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study to use a mobile single-channel EEG device to monitor TMo surgeries; for this reason, there is no comparative method. It should be viewed as an exploratory study with highly interesting points that may direct the development of a new device for identifying biological markers to explore surgical stress in oral surgery; NBSKeeg, used in this research, shows fair validity and reliability, and it has been employed by several clinical studies [ 10 11 12 13 23 24 25 26 ]. Clinical modifications of the initial protocol, such as expanding the EEG monitoring period to cover the full surgery and clinically time-controlling the events of the trans-surgical development, could also be an interesting approach.…”