The Two-Arm Coordination Test: Maturation of Bimanual Coordination in Typically Developing Children and Deficits in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy

ABSTRACT

Background: Tools to assess bimanual coordination are scant. We aimed to: 1) provide normative data of maturation of bimanual coordination in tipically developing (TD) children measured by the Two Arm Coordination Test (TACT), and 2) validate the TACT as an instrument to specifically discriminate impairment of bimanual coordination in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP). Procedure: Cross-sectional observational study. 252 TD children and 26 children with UCP performed 8 trials of TACT (following a star pattern with a pointer steered by coordinated movements of both arms). Number of errors and time were combined in a performance index of motor learning.Results: In TD children, bimanual coordination improved with age (F(7,244)=36.888, p<.001). Children with UCP had a poorer bimanual coordination than TD children (all t>24.25, all p<.01). TACT scores were correlated moderately to manual dexterity and manual ability (all r>-.452, all p<.039), showing the capacity of the TACT to provide information on different aspects of hand function. Conclusion: TACT is a valid instrument to assess bimanual coordination.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment
• bimanual coordination
• motor skill learning
• typically developing children
• unilateral cerebral palsy

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Marianne Fréchet, who participated in the collection of data for this study and to all the children and families who participated.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Supplemental

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Additional information

Funding

IR had a grant from the Federation Wallonie Bruxelles (ref. WBI SOR/2015/230381). SH is funded as a postdoctoral fellow by the F.R.S.-FNRS (Belgium).