title: Response abilities of children with Down Syndrome and other intellectual developmental disorders.
abstract: Efficiency with which a task is performed results from the precise timing and force with which the task is executed. We aimed at assessing the influence of change in task constructs on the response abilities of children who are known to have impaired perceptual motor control. To answer this question, we assessed the response abilities in terms of response time(RT) and response force(RF) among children with Down Syndrome(DS), intellectual developmental disorders(IDD) and those who are typically developing. A response analyzer was used to assess their response abilities across a variety of task constructs namely while performing a simple response task, dual task (i.e. passive and active dual tasks), force modulation task and choice response task. Across all tasks, it was seen that their RT increased while RF decreased as the tasks became more complex in nature. The number of participants in the DS and IDD group diminished as the task complexity increased, reflecting their inherent difficulty in learning new tasks and executing a common expected response under different task conditions. The response abilities of the DS and IDD group was comparable across tasks and varied significantly from the TDC group. The study enables us to understand the influence of task difficulties on the response abilities and participation across groups of children with and without disabilities. The results of the study necessitate the need to evaluate and find methods to train the response abilities of children with DS and IDD, which has considerable implications towards the performance of their daily life skills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, School of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University,, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India. pratiksharao16@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pratiksha Tilak
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5760-2676
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Vasudeva
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Guddattu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiotherapy, School of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University,, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India.
authors.forename: John Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Solomon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Down Syndrome; Intellectual developmental disorders; Response force; Response time; Task