Comparing Motor Competence of Sex- and Age-Matched Youth With Intellectual Disability From Brazil and the United States

Abstract

Youth with intellectual disabilities (IDs) demonstrate below-criteria motor competence (MC) compared with typically developing (TD) youth. Whether differences in MC exist for youth with ID from different countries is unknown. This study examined the MC of youth with ID from Brazil (BR) and the United States (US) and compared it with norms for TD youth as established by the Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2). The authors measured 19 BOT-2 test items for bilateral coordination, balance, and upper limb coordination of 502 youth (BR = 252, US = 250) with ID (6–21 years). Raw scores were converted to %ceiling (percentile of highest expected scores). For all test items, no significant differences were seen between BR and US participants in %ceiling scores. Participants from both countries demonstrated equivalent to slightly below BOT-2 norms in 14 of the 19 test items, with lowest scores seen in contralateral synchronizing bilateral coordination, balancing on one leg, and ball handling.

Homogeneity in Motor Competence Among Youths With Intellectual Disability With and Without Down Syndrome

“…Of 19 test items from Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition (BOT-2) 16 involving BAL, upper limb coordination (ULC), and bilateral coordination (BLC), no significant differences existed between countries and sex (ie, Brazil males vs US males vs Brazil females vs US females) when specific motor test procedures and basic demographic factors are controlled. In addition, participants in the study by Bertapelli et al 15 had equivalent or slightly below expected BOT-2 scores for youth without disabilities in 14 of 19 test items.…”

“…16 Thus, these 3 subtests best evaluate the components of motor competence. Second, although the work by Pitetti and colleagues 10,27 and Bertapelli et al 15 have established standards for the 19 items from these subtests for youth with ID without DS, it is not known if these standards can be applied to youth with DS.…”

“…10 , 15 Possible causes for these inconsistent findings include methodological (ie, motor test used and testing procedures), level of ID (mild vs moderate vs severe), demographical (ages, combined and separate sex data), cultural (geographical location) differences, and the extent to which participants had experienced early movement intervention programs. 10,15 To manage these issues, Bertapelli et al 15 controlled for specific motor test procedures and basic demographic factors (age and sex) and demonstrated that cultural differences between participants in Brazil and the United States did not impact motor competence of children and adolescents with ID. Of 19 test items from Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition (BOT-2) 16 involving BAL, upper limb coordination (ULC), and bilateral coordination (BLC), no significant differences existed between countries and sex (ie, Brazil males vs US males vs Brazil females vs US females) when specific motor test procedures and basic demographic factors are controlled.…”

“…In the studies cited earlier concerning motor competency levels of youth with ID, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] either no youth with Down syndrome (DS) were included or it was not stated if participants with ID in the studies included youth with DS. DS is the most common genetic cause of ID and is characterized by the presence of 1 extra copy of human chromosome 21.…”

Quantification of Early Gait Development: Expanding the Application of Catwalk Technology to an Infant Rhesus Macaque Model

“…As children transition to a more mature gait pattern with less variability, their balance and control in the gait cycle increases as evidenced by decreased base of support and increased step length, speed, and time in swing phase (Adolph et al, 2003; Voss et al, 2020). Gait has been used as one measure that can differentiate neurodevelopmental disorders from typical development based on these gait parameters (Lum et al, 2021; Simmons et al, 2020) Motor deficits have been identified in children with autism spectrum disorder (Gawali et al, 2017; Green et al, 2009; Provost et al, 2007), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Lee et al, 2021), cerebral palsy (Gawali et al, 2017), developmental coordination disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), and in general, intellectual and developmental disabilities (Bertapelli et al, 2020; Gawali et al, 2017). In addition, motor development can be influenced by insults such as prenatal Zika virus infection (Faiçal et al, 2019; Nielsen-Saines et al, 2019; Peçanha et al, 2020) or conditions causing preterm birth (Chung et al, 2020).…”