Rhythmic Handwriting Deficits and General Rhythmic Abilities in Children

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Patients with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects motor skills and motor learning (APA, 2013), have been reported to manifest rhythmic deficits in handwriting domain, as well as general rhythmic deficits (i.e., regardless handwriting context per se) (Rosenblum & Regev, 2013). Accordingly, children with DCD struggle in tasks like synchronising to an external musical rhythm (in rhythm production tasks) or even in discrimination tasks such as detecting beat deviations, i.e., in rhythm perception tasks (INSERM collective expertise, 2019). These rhythmic deficits which manifest in a variety of tasks and conditions support the hypothesis of a generalised dysrhythmia in DCD, according to which the rhythmic deficits - in perceptual tasks and motor production - could have a common source, namely a mechanism devoted to rhythm processing (a cerebral mechanism involved in the perception of rhythm) and independent of the effectors involved and the type of task considered. However, the nature of the relationships between general rhythmic skills (perceptual and motor) and rhythmic abilities when engaged in handwriting movement is largely unknown in DCD. Whether a common source drives these diverse rhythmic deficits remains to explore. If this hypothesis were to be confirmed, this would pave the way for innovative therapeutic tools (e.g., serious games) for training a central rhythmic processing mechanism (rhythm perception), which could positively impact in turn rhythmicity of thandwriting movement in this population.

Official Title
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Links Between Rhythmic Handwriting Deficits and General Rhythmic Abilities in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder: a Pilot Study. TDC-Rythme

Conditions
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Developmental Coordination Disorder

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Children aged 7 to 10 inclusive Children who can read and write Diagnosis of DCD according to DSM-5 criteria (APA, 2015) Native French speaker Living with at least one parent Exclusion Criteria: Intellectual development disorder confirmed or suspected during the initial evaluation phase in the MPEA department. Presence or suspected presence of a visual impairment at the root of the motor skills deficit. Presence or suspected presence of a neurological motor disorder (e.g. sensory impairment, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, degenerative disease). Not affiliated to a social security scheme or not benefiting from such a scheme. Absence of written, informed consent from parents.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 7 Years
Maximum Age: 10 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The rhythm of handwriting movement | measured by the variability of the handwriting movement frequency, obtained by calculating the inverse of the period of the strokes (local minima of speed) from the children's writing productions on a graphic tablet (Danna et al., 2013). | 1 day at First visit | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The rhythmic variables | Perceptual and motor rhythmic skills out of context of handwriting, obtained from the assessment of rhythmic skills using the gold-standard BAASTA battery (Dalla Bella et al., 2017). | 1 day at First visit | 
| Speed of handwriting : abnormal peak velocity fluctuations during handwriting movement | Abnormal variations of the speed peaks during the writing movement are processed from the raw or transformed data according to the same conditions as in BHK test condition depending on the normality or non-normality of data. | 1 day at First visit | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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: Developmental Coordination Disorder, Rhythm, Rhythmic skills, Handwriting