Scientific publications

Procedural Learning in Children With Developmental Coordination, Reading, and Attention Disorders

Mar 2, 2015 | Magazine: Journal of Child Neurology

Magallón S(1), Crespo-Eguílaz N(2), Narbona J(2).


ABSTRACT

The aim is to assess repetition-based learning of procedures in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), reading disorder (RD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Participants included 187 children, studied in 4 groups: (a) DCD comorbid with RD and ADHD (DCD+RD+ADHD) (n = 30); (b) RD comorbid with ADHD (RD+ADHD) (n = 48); (c) ADHD (n = 19); and typically developing children (control group) (n = 90). Two procedural learning tasks were used: Assembly learning and Mirror drawing. Children were tested on 4 occasions for each task: 3 trials were consecutive and the fourth trial was performed after an interference task. Task performance by DCD+RD+ADHD children improved with training (P < .05); however, the improvement was significantly lower than that achieved by the other groups (RD+ADHD, ADHD and controls) (P < .05).

In conclusion, children with DCD+RD+ADHD improve in their use of cognitive-motor procedures over a short training period. Aims of intervention in DCD+RD+ADHD should be based on individual learning abilities.

CITATION  J Child Neurol. 2015 Mar 2. pii: 0883073815572227.

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