Deconinck F J A, De Clercq D, Savelsbergh G J P, Van Coster R, Oostra A, Dewitte G, Lenoir M
Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Child Care Health Dev. 2006 Nov;32(6):711-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2006.00685.x.
The motor co-ordination problems of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have been frequently associated with poor visuospatial processing. In order to extend these findings mainly based on fine motor experiments, the present study investigates the contribution of vision to the control of walking in children with DCD.
Children with DCD (n = 12) walked at their preferred speed on a straight, firm and uncluttered walkway in a condition with normal lighting and in a dark condition. Spatiotemporal gait variables were assessed by means of a three-dimensional ProReflex camera system and compared with the gait pattern of matched, typically developing (TD) children (n = 12).
In normal lighting, the gait pattern of both groups was similar, with the exception of subtle differences in the temporal phasing, showing a slightly longer support phase in the children with DCD. In the dark, step frequency and step length were decreased in the children with DCD, resulting in a significantly slower walking velocity. In addition, the medio-lateral excursion of the centre of mass tended to increase in this group. In the TD children, adaptations to the spatiotemporal pattern remained absent.
These results suggest that children with DCD are more dependent on global visual flow information than TD children for the maintenance of balance and the control of velocity during walking. This increased dependency on visual control might be associated with a poorly developed internal sensorimotor model.
发育性协调障碍（DCD）儿童的运动协调问题常与视觉空间处理能力差有关。为了扩展这些主要基于精细运动实验的研究结果，本研究调查了视觉在DCD儿童步行控制中的作用。
12名DCD儿童在正常照明条件和黑暗条件下，以他们偏好的速度在一条笔直、坚实且无杂物的通道上行走。通过三维ProReflex摄像系统评估时空步态变量，并与匹配的正常发育（TD）儿童（n = 12）的步态模式进行比较。
在正常照明下，两组的步态模式相似，但在时间相位上存在细微差异，DCD儿童的支撑期略长。在黑暗中，DCD儿童的步频和步长降低，导致步行速度明显减慢。此外，该组儿童的质心在内外侧的偏移倾向于增加。而TD儿童则没有出现对时空模式的适应性变化。
这些结果表明，与TD儿童相比，DCD儿童在步行过程中维持平衡和控制速度时更依赖整体视觉流信息。这种对视觉控制的依赖性增加可能与发育不完善的内部感觉运动模型有关。
