Motor Performance
Funding: The Waterloo Foundation
Lab members: Emily Farran, Aislinn Bowler
Collaborators: Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Elisabeth Hill
We are interested in the developmental relationship between motor skills and large scale spatial knowledge. A summary of the research follows:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder in childhood. Where studies have investigated motor abilities (balance, ball skills, hand and finger movements), difficulties are reported for this group. Given the importance of motor abilities in everyday life (in social interaction, to produce language, for handwriting and for activities of daily living such as eating), knowledge is surprisingly limited in this area. We will explore the motor system in ADHD in detail.
A developmental consequence of poor motor ability is a poor understanding of large scale space, i.e. navigation, crucial for getting around the environment. We will also measure navigation (using virtual reality). We predict that navigation skills will be poor in ADHD. This study will be the first to investigate navigation and how it relates to motor deficits in ADHD. It is crucial to establish the developmental links across different types of behaviour, because it is possible that difficulties in one area (navigation) stem from difficulties in another area (motor) that develops earlier in life. Knowledge of the developmental consequences of impaired motor abilities in ADHD will enable us to decide when and how to intervene in order to help people with ADHD to achieve their optimal potential, not just in the motor domain, but in other areas, navigation being just one example. ADHD performance
will be compared to performance in the typical population. We will also compare ADHD to Williams syndrome, a genetically defined neurodevelopmental disorder in which both attention and motor deficits are reported. This will determine which difficulties and developmental patterns are specific to ADHD.
Last updated October 2016
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder in childhood. Where studies have investigated motor abilities (balance, ball skills, hand and finger movements), difficulties are reported for this group. Given the importance of motor abilities in everyday life (in social interaction, to produce language, for handwriting and for activities of daily living such as eating), knowledge is surprisingly limited in this area. We will explore the motor system in ADHD in detail.
A developmental consequence of poor motor ability is a poor understanding of large scale space, i.e. navigation, crucial for getting around the environment. We will also measure navigation (using virtual reality). We predict that navigation skills will be poor in ADHD. This study will be the first to investigate navigation and how it relates to motor deficits in ADHD. It is crucial to establish the developmental links across different types of behaviour, because it is possible that difficulties in one area (navigation) stem from difficulties in another area (motor) that develops earlier in life. Knowledge of the developmental consequences of impaired motor abilities in ADHD will enable us to decide when and how to intervene in order to help people with ADHD to achieve their optimal potential, not just in the motor domain, but in other areas, navigation being just one example. ADHD performance
will be compared to performance in the typical population. We will also compare ADHD to Williams syndrome, a genetically defined neurodevelopmental disorder in which both attention and motor deficits are reported. This will determine which difficulties and developmental patterns are specific to ADHD.
Last updated October 2016
