Motor coordination and kinaesthesis in boys with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder

TLDR

The study compared movement ability and underlying kinaesthetic processes of boys with ADHD to matched controls. Sixteen boys with predominantly inattentive or combined ADHD and sixteen age‑ and IQ‑matched controls were assessed. ADHD boys showed significantly poorer motor coordination, with a high proportion meeting criteria for developmental coordination disorder; fine‑motor deficits were more pronounced in the inattentive subtype, gross‑motor deficits in the combined subtype, inattentive symptom severity predicted coordination problems, and kinaesthetic sensitivity did not differ between groups.

Abstract

In the current study, movement ability and underlying kinaesthetic processes of boys with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were compared with a group of control children. Two groups of 16 boys with either predominantly inattentive subtype ADHD (ADHD-PI) or combined subtype ADHD (ADHD-C) were compared with 16 control boys matched on age and verbal IQ. The findings demonstrated that the children with ADHD had significantly poorer movement ability than the control children. A high percentage of children with ADHD displayed movement difficulties consistent with developmental coordination disorder. In addition, the current study found that the type and degree of movement difficulty differed between subtypes. Children with ADHD-PI had significantly poorer fine motor skill while children with ADHD-C were found to experience significantly greater difficulty with gross motor skill. The severity of the children's inattentive symptomatology was found to be a significant predictor of motor coordination difficulties. Kinaesthetic sensitivity was not found to differ significantly between the groups.