Kinetics and Kinematics of Shape Tracing in Children with Probable Developmental Coordination Disorder (pDCD)

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) exhibit visual-motor deficits affecting handwriting. Shape tracing, a key prerequisite for handwriting, supports motor and cognitive development but remains underexplored in research, particularly in objectively studying its role in children with DCD. To compare the kinetics (pressure applied to the writing surface) and kinematics (spatial and temporal aspects) of shape tracing in children with pDCD to those of typically developing (TD) peers utilizing a digitized tablet. A total of 27 children with pDCD aged 7 to 12 years and 27 TD children matched by age and gender traced five unique shapes resembling print letters onto a digitized tablet. Participants' performance measurements included precision, time, smoothness, velocity, and pressure. The findings revealed lower precision, longer duration, more smoothness but less consistency, lower velocity, and less pressure application in the pDCD group. This research underlies the mechanisms of shape-tracing difficulties in children with DCD. Insights into early shape-tracing processes beyond product outcomes are essential for therapeutic and educational interventions, with digitized tablets offering a novel tool for assessing graphomotor skills in children with DCD.