Perceptual Control of Manual Pointing in Children with Motor Impairments

Abstract

Accuracy in manual pointing was studied in 29 children between 5 and 13 years of age with motor impairments including cerebral palsy, developmental co-ordination disorders and spina bifida. The task was to place pins underneath a table-top at positions seen or felt on the table-top. Vision of the pointing hand was always excluded. The results were evaluated with reference to Hofsten and Rösblad (1988), who collected corresponding data from 270 normal children between 4 and 12 years of age. Children with motor impairments, like normal children, were more accurate when the target was visible than when it was felt or remembered. However, the dependency on vision was found to be much more pronounced in the group of children with motor impairments. The wide variation within the three diagnostic groups is discussed and the results of individual children are presented.