Visuomotor adaptation in children with developmental coordination disorder

Although one of the criteria for the diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) suggests learning impairments, there is a lack of studies investigating motor adaptation in these children. This study examined the ability of 7 children with DCD to adapt to a novel visuomotor relationship by exposing them to a 45° visual feedback rotation while they performed a centerout drawing task, and compared their performance with that of 7 normally developing children. The results showed that the children with DCD were less affected by the feedback distortion than the control children, and did not show aftereffects, suggesting they had a less well-defined internal model. A principal component analysis of the performance variables during early and late exposure showed that the variables accounting for most of the variance in the trajectories were different between the groups, suggesting that underlying control processes might operate differently in the 2 groups of children.