Intralimb Coordination in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder in One-Handed Catching

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in the literature in regard to analysis of intralimb coordination exhibited by children with (n = 10) and without developmental coordination disorder (DCD; n = 9) in 1-handed catching. The functional data showed that children without DCD (M age = 10.6 years, SD = 1.08 years) were nearly perfect. Children with DCD (M age = 11.0 years, SD = 1.16 years) caught significantly fewer balls, and this was despite the fact that not all of them had difficulties organizing their actions at intralimb level of coordination. The analysis of the coinciding actions revealed differences at the distal (elbow-wrist relations), but not at the proximal joints where both groups exhibited decoupling between the shoulder and elbow joints. Large variability within the groups also suggested that the notion of universal coordinative tendencies at intralimb level of coordination has to be treated with caution. This is particularly true for children with DCD as different subgroups emerged in the present sample.

Keywords:

• degrees of freedom problem
• synergies
• constraints
• coupling