Visual information and the control of reaching in children: a comparison between children with and without developmental coordination disorder

Three experiments were performed on reach and grasp in 9- to 10-year-old children (8 controls and 8 with developmental coordination disorder [DCD]). In normal reaching, children in the DCD group were less responsive to the accuracy demands of the task in controlling the transport component of prehension and spent less time in the deceleration phase of hand transport. When vision was removed as movement began, children in the control group spent more time decelerating and reached peak aperture earlier. Children in the DCD group did not do that, although, like the control group, they did increase grip aperture in the dark. When depth cues were reduced and only the target or only the target and hand were visible, children in the control group used target information to maintain the same grip aperture in all conditions, but DCD children behaved as if the target was not visible. Throughout the studies, the control group of 9- to 10-year-olds did not produce adult-like adaptations to reduced vision, suggesting that they had not yet attained adult-like integration of sensory input. Compared with control children, children with DCD did not exhibit increased dependence on vision but showed less recognition of accuracy demands, less adaptation to the removal of vision, and less use of minimal visual information when it was available.