# Manual Dexterity Abilities and Dual Tasking in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder and Typically Developing Children

## TL;DR

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) show slower manual dexterity in all tasks compared to typically developing children, but their performance is not more affected by task complexity or attention issues.

## Contribution

This study provides new insights into the manual dexterity and dual-tasking abilities of children with DCD using the Tyneside Pegboard Test.

## Key findings

- Children with DCD performed worse in all TPT conditions compared to typically developing children.
- Task complexity and attentional difficulties did not differentially affect children with DCD.
- The automatization deficit hypothesis was not supported by the findings.

## Abstract

Poor manual skills in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) may be dependent on task complexity and due to difficulties in the automatization phase of the motor learning process. Increased task demands and the dual‐task paradigm can be used to test these hypotheses.

We aim to investigate (1) manual dexterity abilities using increased levels of difficulty; (2) dual tasking using an experimental protocol of the Tyneside Pegboard Test (TPT).

Sixteen children with DCD and 16 age‐matched typically developing (TD) children were included. Various experimental conditions of the TPT (unimanual, bimanual and dual task) were administered. The dual‐task paradigm comprised a primary unimanual task and a cognitive task (auditory non‐verbal task). Parents were asked to fill out the eConners questionnaire to report attentional difficulties. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to compare possible differences in effects on the performance of the groups. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between dual‐task performance and ADHD index of the eConners questionnaire.

Children with DCD performed significantly worse in all task conditions (unimanual, bimanual, dual task) compared to TD children. In unimanual and bimanual conditions, they did no not present a higher impact of task constraints. Dual‐task performances did not have a differential effect on groups and were not interfered by attentional difficulties.

Children with DCD exhibit a general slowness in all TPT tasks. Our findings do not support the automatization deficit hypothesis.