Unimanual and Bimanual Continuous Movements Benefit From Visual Instructions in Persons With Down Syndrome

Abstract

The authors' aim was to understand how persons with Down syndrome (DS) perform different tasks and to assess if there were any differences in performance based on the type of instructions. This is important because of neurological differences in persons with DS and neurological demands for performing different types of tasks. Twenty right-handed participants with DS, 20 chronological age-matched (CA), and 20 mental age-matched (MA) performed unimanual, bimanual, discrete, and continuous drumming following visual, auditory, and verbal instructions. Overall, discrete drumming was performed with shorter movement times than continuous drumming and unimanual drumming was performed with shorter movement amplitude than bimanual drumming. With respect to instructions, persons with DS performed with smaller amplitudes, thus more efficient movements, following the visual instructions than auditory and verbal instructions for all types of tasks, whereas CA performed similarly with all instructions and MA performed with smaller amplitudes with visual instructions than auditory instructions. These results suggest that visual instruction provides the best information for people with DS to aid in performance of many different types of movements.

How can instructions and feedback with external focus be shaped to enhance motor learning in children? A systematic review

“…Post-hoc comparisons showed that children with ASD threw more accurately after a visual analogy [ 79 ]. Similar results were found in studies with healthy young adults and young adults with Down syndrome, where skill performance improved more after video [ 94 , 95 ] or instructor demonstration [ 96 ] than with verbal instructions with EF. Although evidence is limited, instructors might consider using pictures, videos or real live demonstrations as instructions or feedback to teach children motor skills.…”

How can instructions and feedback with external focus be shaped to enhance motor learning in children? A systematic review

“…Post-hoc comparisons showed that children with ASD threw more accurately after a visual analogy (83). Similar results were found in studies with healthy young adults and young adults with Down syndrome, where skill performance improved more after video (88,89) or instructor demonstration (90) than with verbal instructions with EF. Although evidence is limited, instructors might consider using pictures, videos or real live demonstrations as instructions or feedback to teach children motor skills.…”

Use of electropalatography in the treatment of speech disorders in children with Down syndrome: a randomized controlled trial

“…EPG has minimal cognitive and language demands and also capitalizes on the known relative strength of visual versus auditory processing ability in children with DS (e.g., Fidler and Nadel , Ringenbach et al . ). Weismer et al .’s () suggestion that tongue control is strongly related to speech intelligibility further strengthens the argument for exploring the utility of a VBF technique to target lingual errors in children with DS.…”