title: Graphomotor skills in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD): Handwriting and learning a new letter.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to analyze handwriting difficulties in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and investigate the hypothesis that a deficit in procedural learning could help to explain them. The experimental set-up was designed to compare the performances of children with DCD with those of a non-DCD group on tasks that rely on motor learning in different ways, namely handwriting and learning a new letter. Ten children with DCD and 10 non-DCD children, aged 8-10 years, were asked to perform handwriting tasks (letter/word/sentence; normal/fast), and a learning task (new letter) on a graphic tablet. The BHK concise assessment scale for children's handwriting was used to evaluate their handwriting quality. Results showed that both the handwriting and learning tasks differentiated between the groups. Furthermore, when speed or length constraints were added, handwriting was more impaired in children with DCD than in non-DCD children. Greater intra-individual variability was observed in the group of children with DCD, arguing in favor of a deficit in motor pattern stabilization. The results of this study could support both the hypothesis of a deficit in procedural learning and the hypothesis of neuromotor noise in DCD.
authors: Aix Marseille Université, PSYCLE EA 3273, 13621 Aix en Provence, France. Electronic address: andrea.huau@etu.univ-amu.fr.
authors: Andréa
authors: A
authors: Huau
authors: Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LNC UMR 7291, 13331 Marseille, France. Electronic address: jean-luc.velay@univ-amu.fr.
authors: Jean-Luc
authors: JL
authors: Velay
authors: Aix Marseille Université, PSYCLE EA 3273, 13621 Aix en Provence, France. Electronic address: marianne.jover@univ-amu.fr.
authors: Marianne
authors: M
authors: Jover
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012153:Retention, Psychology
keywords: Graphic tablet; Handwriting; Intra-individual variability; Motor learning