Movement Strategies During Balance Tasks in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Measurement of the movement strategies used by children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) during a balance task. The movement strategies are measured by looking at the center of mass velocity and acceleration during this balance task. The goal is to: (1) investigate whether there is a difference in the used strategies between baseline and after a single training session of 30 minutes; (2) see whether the changes stay present after a one-week retention; (3) see whether there are differences between children with and without DCD.

Measurement of the changes in Oxy- and Deoxyhemoglobin concentrations (μmol/l) (baseline vs task condition), with the use of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), during the execution of balance tasks. The regions of interest are determinded based on the evidence of brain areas needed for postural control tasks in healthy individuals, and affected brain regions in children with DCD in a variety of tasks (frontal and parietal regions).

The goal is to: (1) determine whether brain activity patterns can be an explanation of the movement strategies used during the single-training session; (2) determine the test-retest reliability of fNIRS during balance tasks in children.

The NIRSport 2 (NIRx Medical Technologies, GE) with continuous wave imaging (760nm;850nm) is used.

Score on the Balance Evaluation Systems Test for Children, second edition. The test consists of 6 domains. A score below 80% is the cut-off which corresponds to a postural control problem. The scores give an idea in which domain of postural control the problems are present.

The MABC-2 consists of 3 domains (manual dexterity, aiming and catching, balance) with a total of 8 tasks. The test gives a general idea about the motor develompment of children on different domains.