Jere Gallagher - Presentations

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that contribute to poor bimanual performance in children with DCD. Children were recruited from a school population of 10- and 12-year-olds and were assigned to the DCD or the control group based upon the scores of the Movement ABC test (15th percentile or below, DCD, above XX percentile, control). Bimanual coordination was measured by a figer tapping task using the index finger. Participants completed four conditions: rhythmic unimanual and bimanual tapping sequence (500, 500, 300, 300 ms), bimanual 2:1 alternating sequence (400:800 ms), and bimanual rhythmic tapping sequence (800, 800, 800, 400, 400 ms). They tapped using an thin metal disk attached to a a metal spring tal mounted on a small platform connected to a computer to record interval taps. DON’T WE NEED TO SAY HOW ANALYZED A primary finding was that the long intervals within each pattern more clearly differentiated the two groups than did the shorter intervals whether unimanual or bimanual. In addition, the 800 ms alternating pattern was more difficult for the group with DCD than the 800 ms symmetrical tapping. These results indicate that inhibition (whether slowing of their movement, or inhibiting one hand from tapping while the other tapped) was problematic for the DCD group. Secondly, 2:1 tapping was the condition that differentiated the groups; in fact, the 10-year-old subjects with DCD frequently had to slow down the rate of the 2:1 task in order to perform correctly. These data support the position that children with DCD have difficulty with movement inhibition, and this contributes to poorer bimanual control, especially when the hands are required to perform different tasks.Some conclusions are that children with DCD have a poorer sense of rhythm than the controls, they have greater difficulty with bimanual than unimanual tasks, that they have difficulty inhibiting movement.

Invited presentation for First International Conference of Sport, Health, and Performance

Keynote presentation for First International Conference of Sport, Health, and Performance, Amman Jordan

Mazzardo, O., Fontana, F., Furtado, O. & Gallagher, J. (2006) Part-Whole Presentation: Does it work? Presented at the annual convention of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, Denver, CO.

Invited Presentation for UCP Cares "The Power of Play" workshop