The effect of vision on walking in children with different levels of motor competency

oleh: Miriam Palomo Nieto, Rudolf Psotta, Reza Abdollahipour, Adrian Agricola, Valtr Ludvík

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Palacký University Olomouc 2016-11-01

Deskripsi

Background: Motor coordination problems of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have been frequently associated with poor visuospatial processing. Objective: The aim this study has been to investigate a role of the vision in the motor control of walking between typical developing children (TD) and children at&#x202F;risk of&#x202F;DCD (DCD<sub>R</sub>). Methods: Participants included 16 TD (mean age 9.1, <i>SD</i> 1.0 years), and 16 DCD<sub>R</sub>, (mean age 8.7, <i>SD</i> 0.8&#x202F;years) who walked along a 10 meter walkway using the Optojump instrument to assess the spatio-temporal variables of the gait pattern in full vision (FV) and non-vision (NV) conditions. Data was analyzed in&#x202F;a&#x202F;two-way mixed-effect ANOVA (2 groups - TD vs. DCD<sub>R</sub>, 2 visual conditions - FV vs. NV) with repeated measurement on&#x202F;the last factor (<i>p</i> &le; .05). Results: The results demonstrated that DCD<sub>R</sub> children walked slower and with shorter steps than their TD peers. Also, withdrawing the vision affects some parameters of the gait cycle including the&#x202F;stance-phase, single-support, load-response and pre-swing regardless of the level of motor coordination of the children. Conclusions: A higher dependency on visual information or impaired utilization of proprioceptive inputs for execution of simple walk in the stable environment were not confirmed in the children with motor difficulties.