A note on motor skill acquisition in mild and moderate Down syndrome individuals

Abstract

This study investigated the acquisition of a serial motor skill in individuals with Down syndrome with two levels of handicap, mild group (mean age = 14.5 years, SD = 2.3, 7 individuals) and moderate group (mean age = 15.2 years, SD = 3.2, 7 individuals). The task involved single-arm sequential movements to five. The measures to access performance were overall sequence error, reaction time, and total movement time. To evaluate action program, formation variability of sequencing and relative timing variability were considered. Although there was no clear practice effect, the results showed that the level of handicap led to different strategies to plan and control the actions. The moderate group presented a less stable action program expressed in the variability in sequencing and timing. Their longer reaction times also suggest a heavy demand on central processing in accord with the onetarget advantage hypothesis and also due to memory deficits to select and plan movements.

The multiple process model of goal-directed aiming/reaching: insights on limb control from various special populations

“…Children and adults with Down syndrome take more time to initiate and complete goal-directed aiming movements than their chronological age counter-parts from the general population (Chen et al 2015;Elliott et al 2006;Gimenez et al 2017;Hodges et al 1995;Lawrence et al 2013;Vimercati et al 2012). This perceptual-motor slowness is particularly evident when the accuracy demands of the movement are high (Hocking et al 2011;Lam et al 2009).…”

Visuomotor skill learning in young adults with Down syndrome

“…Despite this, our data analysis demonstrates a statistically significant difference between the groups. Lastly, it would have been of interest to have information on the level of severity of the intellectual disability of the DS-group, as this could to influence the performance of motor tasks (Gimenez et al, 2017).…”