How do children coordinate simultaneous upper and lower extremity tasks? The development of dual motor task coordination.
When performing simultaneous clapping with walking or galloping, adults adopt coupled, consistent and stable dual motor task coordination; do developmental trends in this coordination exist? In this study, we measured and compared coupling characteristics, consistency across trials and variability of phasing in 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds (n=44) as they also performed the same dual motor task. For walk/clap, children adopted specific coupling patterns like adults by 8 years and with the same consistency by 10 years. Across age, children became less variable in clap and step movements separately and as coupled together. In the gallop/clap, children did not resemble adults in coupling patterns by 10 years but all measures were becoming more consistent across age. We discuss dual motor task coordination as a function of age and task complexity using a "dynamic" perspective within a developmental context.
Getchell
Nancy
N
Department of Health and Exercise Sciences, University of Delaware, 141 Human Performance Laboratory, Newark, DE 19716, USA. getchell@udel.edu
Whitall
Jill
J
D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity; D009048:Motor Skills; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D034941:Upper Extremity