Time Perception Reveals Risk For Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)

Children who are at risk of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) face difficulties with time perception.

Link between children who are at risk of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and difficulties with time perception such as interpreting changes in rhythmic beats, is found by neuroscientists at McMaster University, as published in the journal Child Development.

Basic skills such as walking and processing speech and music significantly depend on accurate time perception. Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a common lifelong condition, characterized by difficulty in learning fine and/or gross motor skills and coordination, that causes clumsiness.

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‘Link between children who are at risk of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and difficulties with time perception such as interpreting changes in rhythmic beats reveals space for therapies involving rehabilitation. However, further exploration is required to determine whether these therapies are useful for children with DCD.’

DCD affects almost 5 to 15% of all children. It can profoundly hinder everyday tasks like getting dressed, writing, and engaging in sports or play. Most often, it interferes with learning, academic performance, and socialization.

At present, there are no medications to treat DCD. However, physiotherapy and occupational therapy can help children improve muscle strength, balance, and coordination.

“Many developmental disorders, including dyslexia or reading difficulties, autism and attention deficits have been linked to deficits in auditory time perception,” says Laurel Trainor, senior author of the study and founding director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind.

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Earlier studies support the involvement of brain networks for time perception with the motor control networks that aid in activities such as catching a ball or tapping along to musical beats. Despite the existing risk of dyslexia and attention deficits in children with DCD, the researchers have not investigated the auditory timing deficits in them.

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The study team enrolled more than 60 children aged 6 and 7 years old, who were assessed either for their risk of DCD or to be developing it, using motor skills tests.

Each child was asked to pinpoint which of two sounds was shorter in time or had an off-beat rhythm in a series of trials. This helped in measuring the threshold or smallest time difference at which each child could just barely make the correct judgment.

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It was seen that children who are at risk for DCD had less sensitivity to time changes as compared to those children who are typically developing it.

Another experiment was conducted using EEG (a device that measures the brain waves) as the children listened to a sequence of sounds with occasional timing deviations. The study revealed slower brain activity in children at risk for DCD with the response to the unexpected timing deviants.

“We know anecdotally that therapists sometimes incorporate regular rhythms into the physical therapy they give to children with DCD, and they have the impression this helps – for example, that children can walk better when they walk to a rhythm. Although our current study did not directly investigate any intervention effects, the results suggest that music with salient and regular beats could be used for physiotherapy to help treat children,” says Andrew Chang, the lead researcher and graduate student in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster.

Motor rehabilitation (utilized in adult patients with Parkinson’s disease or recovering from a stroke) is being further explored to determine whether these therapies are useful for children with DCD.

Source-Medindia