| dc.description.abstract | the purpose of the present study was to investigate the performance of 6 to 13 year old boys with
and without developmental coordination disorder (dcd) on two balance tasks: balance space
and quiet standing. the participants were 40 boys, assigned to either a control or an
experimental group, based on initial screening by teachers with the motor behavior checklist,
and subsequent testing conducted at 阿根廷vs墨西哥竞猜
school of kinesiology motor
development clinic using the movement abc (mabc). final group assignment was based on
the mabc total impairment score and total balance score. boys were tested in a subsequent
session in 20 second trials using an amti force plate with the sampling frequency set at 100 hz,
gain at 4000x, 5x, and electronic filter at 10.5 hz using the cas stability program to measure the
following dependent measures: anterior-posterior sway, lateral sway, path length and area of
sway. the study incorporated a 2 (age) x 2 (condition) completely randomized factorial design.
the data analysis incorporated manova, factorial anova, planned comparisons and pearson
correlations, with the significance level at alpha level p< .05. the results of the study indicated
that boys" without dcd and balance difficulties were more effective in the balance space task
than boys with dcd and balance difficulties. there was no difference between the groups in the
quiet standing tasks. developmentally, older boys performed much better than the younger boys.
a significant interaction effect based on balance space indicated that the older boys from the
control group perceived their tolerance region significantly better than any other group (f (4,32)
= 3.27, e < .05). it was postulated that: older boys with dcd exhibited anticipatory postural
behavior similar to those of boys with no dcd who were 2 to 3 years younger, and that this gap in balance performance between boys with and without dcd increased with age. further study
of a longitudinal nature is required to confirm this hypothesis. although the balance space task
proved to be more sensitive to differences in balance performance, participants exhibited a
similar pattern of behavior in both tasks. more skilled balancers scored high on balance space
tasks and low on quiet standing tasks, while the reverse behavior was evident in the performance
of less skilled balancers. it appears that the quality of feedforward balance responses relates to
the quality of feedback based mechanisms as control children who experienced balance
difficulties related to voluntary balance mechanisms also experienced difficulties with
involuntary balance control. in terms of balance control and vision, children with dcd
performed significantly poorer than the control group with eyes open but not with eyes closed. it
was postulated that the absence of visual input may be a facilitating factor for boys who cannot
effectively respond to a multisensory environment although further study is needed, it was
concluded that the balance space task is most effective at showing condition, developmental and
interaction effects, whereas the quiet standing task is more sensitive to balance control
differences due to age. it was recommended that for future studies both tasks be incorporated, so
that the relationship between the postural mechanisms they represent can be studied further. | |
