Introduction: Literature studies on gesture imitation abilities in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have consistently reported heterogeneity of deficits. Strong evidence has been reported for deficits in imitation of meaningful gestures. Imitation of meaningless novel gestures and sequence gestures, which can be related to the mirror neuron system hypothesis, has been far less investigated. This study proposes a new protocol to investigate deficits in meaningful and meaningless gestures in children with DCD. Patients and method: Seven children with DCD (mean age=7y 11mo, SD=1y 6mo) and seven age and sex matched TD children were enrolled. The protocol included eight simple (unilateral) and eight complex (bilateral) meaningless gestures, performed by finger or hand, and four sequence gestures with finger and hand, as well as 12 meaningful gestures based on the Gesture Test of Dewey et al. (1992). Children's performances were video recorded and scored independently by two researchers according to a four‐point ordinal scale proposed by Watkins et al. (2002). Inter‐rater and intra‐rater reliability will be analyzed. Results: Children with DCD scored significantly lower on the total score of simple and complex novel meaningless gestures (p=0.03) and sequence gestures (p=0.04). No significant difference was found for the meaningful gestures (p>0.10). Conclusions: To unravel the underlying mechanism deficits of gesture performance in children with DCD a larger sample is needed and validity results about the proposed protocol are warranted.
Gesture imitation abilities in children with and without developmental coordination disorder: a pilot study
Sgandurra, G.;Cioni G.;
2017-01-01
Abstract
Introduction: Literature studies on gesture imitation abilities in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have consistently reported heterogeneity of deficits. Strong evidence has been reported for deficits in imitation of meaningful gestures. Imitation of meaningless novel gestures and sequence gestures, which can be related to the mirror neuron system hypothesis, has been far less investigated. This study proposes a new protocol to investigate deficits in meaningful and meaningless gestures in children with DCD. Patients and method: Seven children with DCD (mean age=7y 11mo, SD=1y 6mo) and seven age and sex matched TD children were enrolled. The protocol included eight simple (unilateral) and eight complex (bilateral) meaningless gestures, performed by finger or hand, and four sequence gestures with finger and hand, as well as 12 meaningful gestures based on the Gesture Test of Dewey et al. (1992). Children's performances were video recorded and scored independently by two researchers according to a four‐point ordinal scale proposed by Watkins et al. (2002). Inter‐rater and intra‐rater reliability will be analyzed. Results: Children with DCD scored significantly lower on the total score of simple and complex novel meaningless gestures (p=0.03) and sequence gestures (p=0.04). No significant difference was found for the meaningful gestures (p>0.10). Conclusions: To unravel the underlying mechanism deficits of gesture performance in children with DCD a larger sample is needed and validity results about the proposed protocol are warranted.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
