# Body representations in typical and atypical motor development and new insights toward classroom interventions

Thomas Gauduel, Camille Blondet, Alice Gomez

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Thomas Gauduel, Camille Blondet, Alice Gomez. Body representations in typical and atypical motor development and new insights toward classroom interventions. Symposium organised by A. Gomez et C. Assaiante: New insights about body representation across typical and atypical development, NeuroFrance, May 2023, LYON, France. hal-05177826

HAL Id: hal-05177826

https://hal.science/hal-05177826v1

Submitted on 9 Feb 2026

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# BODY REPRESENTATIONS IN TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND NEW INSIGHTS TOWARD CLASSROOM INTERVENTIONS.

T. Gauduel¹, C. Blondet¹

¹University Lyon 1, Eduwell Team, Bron, France

**Topic:** 1: Neurodevelopment

**2nd Topic:** 6: Cognitive, affective and behavioral neuroscience, neuroethology

**Abstract text:** Our Body representation (BR) develops until adulthood and is fundamental to efficient motor skills. In a broader view, its development is key to build other cognitive mechanisms such as language (Pulvermuller, 2018) or mathematical skills (Dupont-Boime & Thevenot, 2018). It is therefore both critical for academic and daily life activities.

In the first part, we will examine whether an atypical development of motor coordination (i.e. developmental coordination disorder, DCD) is related to poor BR. We hypothesized that children with DCD have imprecise BR both in the sensory and motor domain. Twenty neurotypical children, seventeen children with DCD and twenty neurotypical adults performed both sensory and motor BR tasks: a limb identification and a limb movement task. Compared to neurotypical children, children with DCD were more imprecise in their sensory and motor performance as reflected by a lower accuracy and a greater rate of associated movements respectively. Moreover, using a linear regression model, we showed that synkinesis production is a good predictor of sensory accuracy, and conversely. We will discuss the mechanisms that could account for such imprecise BR in DCD.

In the second part, we will discuss if BR accuracy can be trained to improve cognitive activities such as mathematical and syntaxic skills. In adults, short sensorimotor trainings can induce syntaxic improvements and conversely (Thibault et al., 2021). In children, physical training has been shown to improve mathematical abilities (Donnelly et al., 2016; Subramanian et al., 2015). Yet, no structured and evidence-based program on body representation currently exists for children. We will present the program "ENCOR", built to fill that gap efficiently, by training preschool children's BR abilities (Patriau et al., 2022). We further hypothesized that this training could improve cognitive functions such as syntaxic and mathematical abilities. 88 children (4-6 years old) followed a cross-over design with 3 weeks of experimental period and 3 weeks of control (regular instruction) interspersed with testing. The pre/post-tests assessed accuracy of body representation, motor skills, academic skills (math and syntax). After 3 weeks, improvement during the experimental in BR, motor and mathematical skills was above that of the control period, however the improvement in syntaxic skills did not differ between periods. We will conclude by suggesting possible societal implications of these results.

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