Movement sequence coordination of children born prematurely with and without white matter disease

• Main Author: Figueiredo, Elyonara Mello de
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2003
• Subjects: Cellular biology; Children & youth; Developmental biology; Disease; Motor ability; Physical therapy; Premature birth; Rehabilitation; Therapy
• ISBN: 9780496486618; 0496486616

Although children born prematurely typically develop normally, many display subtle developmental disorders in the perceptual-motor domain such as transient deficits in the regulation of muscle power, and excessive and temporarily disorganized postural muscle activity leading to difficulties to adapt to task-specific conditions such as instructed movement velocity during reaching. Children with white matter disease (WMD) are at higher risk for poor movement outcomes than children born prematurely or full term without WMD. WMD designates brain lesions including periventricular leukomalacia and periventricular hemorrhagic infarction. Children with WMD have 60–90% chance of developing cerebral palsy (CP) (Leviton & Paneth, 1990; Graham, Levene, Trounce, 1987, Kuban & Leviton, 1994). Children with CP show increased difficulties when performing movement sequencing (Olney & Wright, 1995). The PLM-test (Posture, Locomotion, Manual-test) has been used to assess the spatiotemporal coordination of action units in adults with neuromotor disabilities such as Parkinson's Disease. Additionally, this test has been shown to be sensitive to the effects of medication on the performance of such sequential tasks. The goal of this project is to use the PLM-test as a measure of the spatiotemporal coordination of functional action sequences in three samples of children: children who are born prematurely with WMD, children who are born prematurely without WMD and a healthy full term group.