Document Type : Original Articles
Authors
1 Department of Physical Education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Sports Sciences، Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
Background: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental impairment that affects motor skills and causes attentional and executive impairments. Moreover, the Presence of neurodevelopmental disorders and comorbidities in these individuals influences the cognitive factors of DCD children.
Aim: The objective of this study was to compare differences in two components of executive functions in children with DCD to those of typically developing peers (TD).
Methods: In this study, 250 primary school students in Sepidan (age 8.86 ± 0.44) were examined using the MABC-2 test to identify DCD children from TD children. 20 DCD children were compared to their TD peers in two components of executive function (working memory assessed with the N-Back test and cognitive flexibility assessed with the Simple Stroop test). Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were used to examine executive functions.
Results: The results show that the number of correct answers in DCD children (Result1)) (56.60±21.43), was significantly lower than that of TD children (97.90±13.42) (P= 0.001). Additionally, the response time (Time1) in working memory for DCD children (910.35±174.92) was significantly longer than for TD children (745.4±164.35) (P= 0.004). In cognitive flexibility (Interference score) DCD children (11.2±6.32) was significantly higher than TD children (5.4±2.99) (P= 0.001).
Conclusions: The results showed that the performance of TD children in both components of executive function (working memory and cognitive flexibility) was significantly better than DCD children. Weak performance in multiple components of executive functions in DCD children highlights the need for motor/cognitive interventions in affected individuals.
Keywords
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