Tanja H Kakebeeke1,2, Annina E Zysset1, Nadine Messerli-Bürgy3,4, Aziz Chaouch5, Kerstin Stülb4, Claudia S Leeger-Aschmann6, Einat A Schmutz6, Amar Arhab3, Valentin Rousson5, Susi Kriemler6, Simone Munsch4, Jardena J Puder3,7, Oskar G Jenni1,2. 1. a Child Development Centre , University Children's Hospital Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland. 2. b Children's Research Center , University Children's Hospital Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland. 3. c Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Service , Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) , Lausanne , Switzerland. 4. d Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy , University of Fribourg , Fribourg , Switzerland. 5. e Division of Biostatistics, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine , University Hospital , Lausanne , Switzerland. 6. f Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute , University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland. 7. g Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Diabetology and Obesity , Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) , Lausanne , Switzerland.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Young children generally show contralateral associated movements (CAMs) when they are making an effort to perform a unimanual task. CAM and motor speed are two relevant aspects of motor proficiency in young children. These CAMs decrease over age, while motor speed increases. As both CAM and motor speed are associated with age, we were interested in whether these two parameters are also linked with each other. METHOD: In this study, three manual dexterity tasks with the dominant and nondominant hands (pegboard, repetitive hand, and repetitive finger tasks) were used to investigate the effect of covariates (age, sex, socioeconomic status, total physical activity) on both motor speed and CAMs in preschool children. RESULTS: There was a significant age effect for both motor speed and CAMs in all tasks when the dominant hand was used. When the nondominant hand was used, the decrease in the intensity of CAMs over age was not consistently significant. The influence of physical activity and socioeconomic status on motor proficiency was small. Furthermore, the correlation between motor speed and CAMs, although significant, was low. CONCLUSIONS: Motor speed improved with age over three fine motor tasks in preschool children. Decrease in CAMs was observed but it was not always significant when the nondominant hand was working. Motor speed and CAMs were only weakly associated. We conclude that the excitatory pathways responsible for motor speed and inhibitory pathways responsible for reducing CAMs occupy two different domains in the brain and therefore mostly behave independently of each other.
INTRODUCTION: Young children generally show contralateral associated movements (CAMs) when they are making an effort to perform a unimanual task. CAM and motor speed are two relevant aspects of motor proficiency in young children. These CAMs decrease over age, while motor speed increases. As both CAM and motor speed are associated with age, we were interested in whether these two parameters are also linked with each other. METHOD: In this study, three manual dexterity tasks with the dominant and nondominant hands (pegboard, repetitive hand, and repetitive finger tasks) were used to investigate the effect of covariates (age, sex, socioeconomic status, total physical activity) on both motor speed and CAMs in preschool children. RESULTS: There was a significant age effect for both motor speed and CAMs in all tasks when the dominant hand was used. When the nondominant hand was used, the decrease in the intensity of CAMs over age was not consistently significant. The influence of physical activity and socioeconomic status on motor proficiency was small. Furthermore, the correlation between motor speed and CAMs, although significant, was low. CONCLUSIONS: Motor speed improved with age over three fine motor tasks in preschool children. Decrease in CAMs was observed but it was not always significant when the nondominant hand was working. Motor speed and CAMs were only weakly associated. We conclude that the excitatory pathways responsible for motor speed and inhibitory pathways responsible for reducing CAMs occupy two different domains in the brain and therefore mostly behave independently of each other.