All actions are composed of a string of movements; simply pouring water from a kettle into a cup requires the hand to grasp the kettle, lift and move the kettle, tip the kettle to pour and place the kettle back down. When joining these movements each element can be tailored to the next in the sequence: if we grasped the kettle handle too far down we would need to re-assess our grip before continuing. This project will consider this type of 'forward anticipation' in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Recent figures suggest that 2 per cent of children in the UK present with DCD and show difficulties with fine and gross motor skill that persist into adulthood. This project will be the first to carry out a comprehensive review of forward anticipation in children with DCD, furthering our understanding of the potentially deficient systems in these children, and may indicate avenues for remedial programmes for DCD. Forward planning abilities will be measured in a group of typically developing children (aged 4-11) and in a group of children with DCD (aged 6-11). Both planning for end-state-comfort and planning for end-goal will be considered using sophisticated motion analysis equipment.
Data was collected from participants in three ways. Data is given in seperate files for the three methods of data collectionm file name given after description. 1. Movement ability. Children with DCD had previously been assessed using a variety of screening methods. As this data was not collected within the remit of this project only the full MABC-2 score is given for participants with DCD. Adults with DCD were assessed using the MABC-2, the BOT-brief and the ADC. Typically developing children and adults completed only the manual dexerity subset of the MABC (and adults the ADC). The data can be found in ....... 2. An end-state-comfort task was given to participants and the positioning of the thumb and finger measured for each movement. Participants were asked to reach out an grasp a octogan and turn it to a sepcific colour (rotation increased from 30 degree to 180 degrees). For each trial Only movements of the dominant hand were recorded......... 3. A simple reach-and-grasp task was given to participants. Participants reached out to a small cylinder, picked it and performed one of five onwards actions: hold it still, place in it a tight hole, place it in a loose hole, throw it or lift it. Movement of the hand was measured using a 3D VICON system running at 120Hz. Movement of the hand was based on a single wrist marker and grasp based on a marker placed on the thumb and finger. Matlab routined calculated movement kinematics. Variables cacluated were: ...... Only movements of the dominant hand were recorded.
