Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

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Browsing Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences by Author "Abrahams, Adrian Ian"

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    The manual motor control of South African children with and without foetal alcohol spectrum disorder during a pegboard task
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Abrahams, Adrian Ian; Burger, Marlette; Dr Brink, Yolandi; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Physiotherapy.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Introduction: Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) refers to a group of conditions caused by prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) during pregnancy. Children with FASD have impairments with fine manual motor control when completing a task. These impairments may have a negative impact on these children's ability to execute tasks. Three-dimensional (3D) kinematics is increasingly being used to analyse and assess upper-limb motor tasks. The aim of the study was to use the most feasible and informative approaches while using a motion analysis system to describe manual motor control during a pegboard task in children aged nine to ten years diagnosed with FASD and children without FASD; and the secondary aim was to perform a preliminary analysis comparing spatio-temporal and 3D kinematic parameters between the two groups. Methodology: Participants completed a 16-hole pegboard task in which they reached for and placed individual pegs in the corresponding holes as quickly as possible. A MyoMotion measurement system was used to describe 1) spatio-temporal parameters (duration) and 2) 3D kinematic parameters (joint range of motion). 3D kinematics included range of motion of the shoulder, elbow, head, neck and thoracic in three different planes. Line graphs were used to display the results. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the continuous variables were also provided in table format. The two-sample Hotelling's T2 test was used to determine if there were any significant differences in spatio-temporal and 3D kinematic characteristics between the FASD and no FASD groups (significance level of 0.05). Results: Thirty-seven children participated: 25 children (FASD) and 12 children (no FASD). The spatio-temporal results revealed that children with FASD completed the pegboard task slower overall; were slower when using the left-hand compared to the right hand; but were faster to perform the transport phase when using the right hand. The 3D kinematics results showed that children with FASD displayed greater elbow flexion/extension and shoulder abduction/adduction range of motion (ROM) when using either the right or left hands; greater flexion/extension and internal/external rotation ROM when using the right hand; greater head and neck side flexion and neck flexion/extension during the right-hand trials; and greater neck flexion/extension during the left-hand trials. Compared to the no FASD group, children with FASD had approximately 10 degrees more neck side flexion ROM during the right-side trials. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in any of the spatio-temporal or 3D kinematic joint parameters. Conclusion: These findings suggest that children with FASD might find completing the pegboard task more difficult when the using the left (non-dominant) hand than the right hand and utilise different movement patterns when completing the pegboard task (as seen by the differences in joint ROM). Future research should be encouraged to use objective assessment methods to further describe the motor control abilities of children with FASD when completing a fine motor control task i.e. the pegboard task as it will help in the development of evidence-based therapies for these children.