title: Psychomotor slowness in school-age children with congenital heart disease.
abstract: Psychomotor problems are common in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) but their neuropsychological basis remains unknown. This study investigated motor planning, motor control, and motor slowness, three subprocesses potentially underlying these psychomotor deficits. Using various drawing tasks, 45 school-age children with CHD were compared with 41 healthy peers on several kinematic properties. Taking longer to initiate and execute their movements than the controls, the children with CHD exhibited significant motor slowness. No evidence was found for deficits in planning or motor control. Thus, motor slowness appears to be the major determinant of psychomotor problems in school-age children with CHD.
authors.affiliation: Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. rachel.van.der.rijken@deviersprong.nl
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van der Rijken
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hulstijn
authors.forename: Gerdine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hulstijn-Dirkmaat
authors.forename: Otto
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Daniëls
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maassen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time