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How do children coordinate simultaneous upper and lower extremity tasks? The development of dual motor task coordination

How do children coordinate simultaneous upper and lower extremity tasks? The development of dual motor task coordination
How do children coordinate simultaneous upper and lower extremity tasks? The development of dual motor task coordination
When performing simultaneous clapping with walking or galloping, adults adopt coupled, consistent and stable dual motor task coordination (Whitall & Getchell, 1996); do developmental trends in this coordination exist? In this study, we measured and compared coupling characteristics, consistency across trials and variability of phasing in 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds (n=44) as they also performed the same dual motor task. For walk/clap, children adopted specific coupling patterns like adults by 8 years and with the same consistency by 10 years. Across age, children became less variable in clap and step movements separately and as coupled together. In the gallop/clap, children did not resemble adults in coupling patterns by 10 years but all measures were becoming more consistent across age. We discuss dual motor task coordination as a function of age and task complexity using a “dynamic” perspective within a developmental context
0022-0965
120-140
Getchell, Nancy
ad8930a7-1a17-4c02-941a-cbe52984277f
Whitall, Jill
9761aefb-be80-4270-bc1f-0e726399376e
Getchell, Nancy
ad8930a7-1a17-4c02-941a-cbe52984277f
Whitall, Jill
9761aefb-be80-4270-bc1f-0e726399376e

Getchell, Nancy and Whitall, Jill (2003) How do children coordinate simultaneous upper and lower extremity tasks? The development of dual motor task coordination. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85 (2), 120-140. (doi:10.1016/S0022-0965(03)00059-6). (PMID:12799165)

Record type: Article

Abstract

When performing simultaneous clapping with walking or galloping, adults adopt coupled, consistent and stable dual motor task coordination (Whitall & Getchell, 1996); do developmental trends in this coordination exist? In this study, we measured and compared coupling characteristics, consistency across trials and variability of phasing in 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds (n=44) as they also performed the same dual motor task. For walk/clap, children adopted specific coupling patterns like adults by 8 years and with the same consistency by 10 years. Across age, children became less variable in clap and step movements separately and as coupled together. In the gallop/clap, children did not resemble adults in coupling patterns by 10 years but all measures were becoming more consistent across age. We discuss dual motor task coordination as a function of age and task complexity using a “dynamic” perspective within a developmental context

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Published date: June 2003
Organisations: Faculty of Health Sciences

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Local EPrints ID: 361332
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/361332
ISSN: 0022-0965
PURE UUID: 934fa1d3-5dde-4b54-bbf1-0a374d7ec109

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Date deposited: 17 Jan 2014 14:09
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 15:49

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Author: Nancy Getchell
Author: Jill Whitall

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