Exploration of Sensory-motor Representations in Children of Typical Development Aged 5 to 8
Condition: CHILD
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Evaluate the quality of sensorimotor representations in typically developing children aged 5
      to 8 years.
    

Detailed description: 
      The early coupling of perception and action makes it possible to build the sensorimotor
      representations, necessary for the functions of anticipation, adaptation and learning which
      will allow a harmonious development of motor skills throughout ontogenesis. One of the
      current hypotheses to explain the learning disorders detected in elementary school is a
      defect in the development of sensorimotor representations. Our study therefore aims to assess
      the quality of sensorimotor representations in typically developing children aged 5 to 8
      years, using a motor imaging protocol, conventionally used in the literature in adults and
      patients. child. This motor imagery protocol consists of comparing the time taken by the
      subject to perform a given action and the time taken to imagine the action he has just
      performed. More precisely, the mental chronometry paradigm, based on the similarity or the
      difference between the two durations, makes it possible to assess the robustness of
      sensorimotor representations. While this isochrony is widely reported in the literature in
      adults, developmental studies describe onset around 9-10 years of age. Currently there is a
      lack of data to know the construction of these sensorimotor representations in younger
      children, especially during the transition to primary school. The originality of our protocol
      lies in two points: 1. the proposed tasks are particularly suited to young children and 2.
      the subject himself times his performance in the two situations: action carried out and
      action imagined. The duration of the experience will last 1 hour per participant in a single
      session.
    

Intervention name(s): sensorimotor activities
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The activities chosen involve either the whole body or specific parts such as the hand to grasp or perform graphic tests.
Trial 1 : Straightening: passage from sitting to sitting.
Trial 2 : Movement with difficulty of balance: heel-toe walking
Trial 3 : Movement with difficulty of balance with a structured visual environment: heel-toe walk in a contrasting fabric decoration to increase the impact of visual flow
Trial 4 : Move to a target, 5 m away
Trial 5 : Graphics: drawing of a tree. This test requires spatial skills and the establishment of median space in written transcription.
Trial 6 : Manual entry: collection of 12 small cubes arranged in an arc in front of the child using one hand, the choice of which will be left to the child.
All of these tests will be offered according to a so-called "interlaced" protocol, that is to say, each execution of an action will be followed by an action simulation, and this alternation will be repeated 5 times for each task. .
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Other