Author(s): TSENG, Y.T., LIN, Y., CHEN, Y., TSAI, C., Institution: NATIONAL TSING HUA UNIVERSITY, Country: TAIWAN, Abstract-ID: 744

INTRODUCTION:
Proprioceptive deficits have been found to be associated with motor dysfunctions in young adults with probable developmental coordination disorder (pDCD). However, little is known if such signs of proprioceptive dysfunctions affect different body parts of the pDCD. Here, we aim to verify 1) whether position sense acuity is impaired in both upper and lower limbs in adults with pDCD, and 2) how upper and lower limb position sense acuity is associated with motor skills in young adults with and without pDCD.
METHODS:
Twenty-five young adults participated in the study, comprising ten individuals with pDCD (aged 20.40 ± 1.01 years) and fifteen controls (aged 20.13 ± 0.92 years). Participants in the pDCD group exhibited total motor scores below one standard deviation on the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2nd Edition, Long-Form (BOT-2, LF), while the control group scored above the mean. All participants performed a joint position sense paradigm that consists of a contralateral position matching and an ipsilateral position reproduction task of the upper and the lower limbs (the wrist and the ankle). Position sense error (PE) and error variability (SDPE) of the two joints were calculated to examine upper and lower limb position sense acuity.
RESULTS:
We observed that individuals with pDCD demonstrated a significantly higher SDPE in both contralateral and ipsilateral conditions at both the wrist and ankle (p = .044), in comparison to control adults. This suggests that those with pDCD exhibited decreased position sense precision in both the upper and lower limb position sense. No significant group difference was found for the PE measure. Correlation analysis indicated that ankle SDPE values in the ipsilateral condition significantly correlated with BOT-2 fine manual control (FMC), manual coordination (MC), strength and agility (SA), and total scores for the combined group (n = 25) (rs = -0.51 to -0.53, p = .007 to .009), indicating that young adults who had more decreased ankle position sense precision exhibited poorer motor skills.
CONCLUSION:
Our study highlights the significant impact of upper and lower limb position sense dysfunction in young adults with pDCD. The elevated SDPE values observed in both contralateral and ipsilateral conditions at the wrist and ankle indicate decreased precision in position sense among individuals with pDCD compared to controls. The correlation analysis reveals a close link between decreased ankle position sense precision and compromised motor skills, emphasizing the critical role of position sense acuity in motor skill proficiency among young adults with pDCD.