Sensory disorders in children with developmental coordination disorder: cutaneous sensitivity and joint proprioception

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to compare the two-point discrimination and elbow joint proprioception of children with and without DCD. Methods: Twenty-four children with DCD (19 boys and 5 girls; mean age ± standard deviation = 7.6 ± 1.5 years) and 36 typically-developing children (20 boys and 16 girls; mean age ± standard deviation = 7.1 ± 1.1 years) participated in the study voluntarily. Two-point discrimination at the fingertip was assessed using a two-point discriminator. Elbow joint proprioception of the dominant arm was evaluated with an active elbow joint angle-repositioning test. Results: Results revealed that there was no significant difference in the two-point discrimination threshold between children with DCD and the typically-developing children (p = 0.409). However, the DCD-affected children had significantly lower (101.9%) elbow joint repositioning accuracy than the control participants (p = 0.001). Conclusion(s): Children with DCD s elbow joint proprioception was inferior to their typically-developing peers while their cutaneous sensitivity at the fingertip was comparable to the healthy control children. Implications: Proprioceptive training should be factored into rehabilitation treatments for children with DCD. Key-Words: 1. Clumsy children 2. joint sense 3. stereognosis Funding Acknowledgements: This study was partially supported by an ECS grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR (27100614). Ethics Approval: Human Research Ethics Committee, the University of Hong Kong