title: Age Effects on Upper Limb Kinematics Assessed by the REAplan Robot in Healthy School-Aged Children.
abstract: The use of kinematics is recommended to quantitatively evaluate upper limb movements. The aims of this study were to determine the age effects on upper limb kinematics and establish norms in healthy children. Ninety-three healthy children, aged 3-12 years, participated in this study. Twenty-eight kinematic indices were computed from four tasks. Each task was performed with the REAplan, a distal effector robotic device that allows upper limb displacements in the horizontal plane. Twenty-four of the 28 indices showed an improvement during childhood. Indeed, older children showed better upper limb movements. This study was the first to use a robotic device to show the age effects on upper limb kinematics and establish norms in healthy children.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Avenue Mounier, 53 B1.53.04, 1200, Brussels, Belgium, maxime.gilliaux@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gilliaux
authors.forename: Floriane
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dierckx
authors.forename: Lola
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vanden Berghe
authors.forename: Thierry M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Lejeune
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sapin
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dehez
authors.forename: Gaëtan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stoquart
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Detrembleur
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012371:Robotics; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000502:physiology*