Clinical Trial: Rhythmic Motor Learning in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorders
Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Brain Plasticity and Motor Skill Competence Development in Young People With Development Coordination Disorder
Brief Summary:
The importance of play and physical activity include many benefits on positively improving health and well-being, enhancing children's and young people's thinking and performance in school, improving their sleep and enabling confidence and skill building. However, some children find it hard to learn and perform motor skills, and are at risk of decreased participation in sports and physical activity and subsequently decreased physical fitness and overall health and well-being.
Previous studies from the research group have explored the impact and recovery following acute exercise at different intensities in children and adolescents with and without movement difficulties. Following this, a pathway promoting physical activity and engagement has been successfully established within schools for those with and without movement difficulties. Taking the previous studies further, we want to specifically focus on the children's performance and learning of a sporting skill, such as stepping, and the associated brain activity changes, using available high resolution imaging techniques. This will help us understand how these children perform and learn motor and sporting skills. Evidence obtained from imaging alongside measures of movement has helped the development of optimal therapeutic approaches for other conditions such as stroke and Parkinson's and will help us to develop approaches to help children best learn motor skills and hence gain confidence in performing sporting activities.
Detailed Summary:
Children with poor motor skill acquisition and execution despite having opportunity for learning, are now described as having developmental coordination disorder (DCD). There is a prevalence of 5-6% of young people who have normal intelligence who meet this category who have problems affecting their activities of daily living (ADL's). Young people with lower motor skills are one of a number of conditions affecting children identified by the Chief Medical Officer as requiring an improved evidence base for management. Poor motor skill acquisition and execution, whereby skills remain substantially lower than expected despite opportunities for learning; interferes with participation in academic, sporting and leisure activities. Motor performance is slower and of poor quality; and children may have difficulties learning all kinds of motor skills including sporting activities. Importantly people with poor motor skill acquisition and execution can fail to establish the fundamental movement skills and literacy required to integrate in physical pursuits, such as sport, and become exposed to long-term conditions associated with inactivity. Motor sporting skills can be learnt if trained, but difficulties in performing and learning skills persist into adulthood.
Brain imaging during rhythmic motor tasks which are essential in day-to-day (non-)sporting activities, have established that children with poor motor skill acquisition and execution show differences to healthy controls in grey and white matter functional connectivity and in cortical activation patterns during performance of simple movement tasks . Provisional evidence suggests that individuals with poor motor skill acquisition and execution utilise activation processes when learning motor tasks that are more controlled and require extra processing demands, but a systematic review of neural correlates of those with poor motor
Sponsor: Oxford Brookes University
Current Primary Outcome:
- Novel Stepping Task (assessing change over time) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]Rhythmic stepping task measuring coordination
- Functional Near-Infra red Spectroscopy (FNIRs) (assessing change over time) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]Monitoring haemodynamic change of the cortex
Original Primary Outcome: Same as current
Current Secondary Outcome:
- Physical Activity Audit (PAQ-A) (assessing change over time) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]Questionnaire
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) (assessing change over time) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks ]Monitoring change in brain activity
- Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2 [ Time Frame: Baseline ]Measuring Motor Coordination
- Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]Accelerometry Gait Analysis
- Child Health Utility Questionnaire 9D (assessing change over time) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]Questionnaire
- Harter's Self-Perception Profile for children (assessing change over time) [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]Questionnaire
- Axivity AX3 Accelerometer [ Time Frame: Baseline - change from baseline 6-7 weeks - change from baseline 12 weeks ]7 Day physical activity measurement
Original Secondary Outcome: Same as current
Information By: Oxford Brookes University
Dates:
Date Received: April 4, 2017
Date Started: October 2016
Date Completion: August 2018
Last Updated: May 11, 2017
Last Verified: May 2017
