Motor Imagery Training through Action Observation and Imitation of Rhythmical Actions in Indian Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Developmental coordination disorder is characterized by clumsiness and awkwardness. Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) experiences difficulty in performing activities of daily living and any other tasks that demands motor coordination. Difficulty in executing activities of daily living is due to the underlying deficits both in imitation and motor imagery (MI). Observation of actions performed and motor imagery can be coupled to enhance the imitation of tasks to be executed in ADL. In the current study, the effects of motor imagery with action observation in children with and without developmental coordination disorder are evaluated. On each training phase, participants observed or asked to imagine a familiar rhythmical action. The actions perceived were either fast or slow and they can be habitual too. Tooth brushing, window wiping, paint brushing, face washing. The direction of movement can be vertical and horizontal. The speed of the habitual tasks was manipulated across each trials. 3 levels of manipulations across trials were listed and the level 1 task was to observe and imitate the targets action, level 2 was to instruct the child to observe the habitual task and imagine how to execute it from imitating and the third level was to observe and imagine at the same time before performing it. This evaluation of the kinematics declared that the typically developing children executed and imitated the task in many cycles with significant sequence than children with developmental coordination disorder. It has been proved that subsequent instructions at each phase of the trial improved the AO and MI execution capability among children with DCD. There is a significant improvement in DCD children for action observation and motor imagery training in observe and imagine component than execution. However in typically developing children, imitation of task was improved significantly. AO + MI instructions and approach is a promising approach to refining performance of everyday activities among children with and without DCD.