Robot Guided 'Pen Skill' Training in Children with Motor Difficulties

Motor deficits are linked to a range of negative physical, social and academic consequences. Haptic robotic interventions, based on the principles of sensorimotor learning, have been shown previously to help children with motor problems learn new movements. We therefore examined whether the training...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-03, Vol.11 (3), p.e0151354-e0151354
Main Authors: Shire, Katy A, Hill, Liam J B, Snapp-Childs, Winona, Bingham, Geoffrey P, Kountouriotis, Georgios K, Barber, Sally, Mon-Williams, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Factors
Bingham, Mark
Biomechanical Phenomena
Brain research
Cerebral palsy
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Engineering and Technology
Female
Handwriting
Humans
Intervention
Kinematics
Male
Manual control
Medical research
Methods
Motor learning
Motor skill learning
Motor Skills
People and Places
Physical Sciences
Physiological aspects
Psychology
Psychomotor Performance
Rehabilitation
Robotics
Robots
Sensorimotor system
Skills
Social Sciences
Studies
Teaching hospitals
Training
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Summary:Motor deficits are linked to a range of negative physical, social and academic consequences. Haptic robotic interventions, based on the principles of sensorimotor learning, have been shown previously to help children with motor problems learn new movements. We therefore examined whether the training benefits of a robotic system would generalise to a standardised test of 'pen-skills', assessed using objective kinematic measures [via the Clinical Kinematic Assessment Tool, CKAT]. A counterbalanced, cross-over design was used in a group of 51 children (37 male, aged 5-11 years) with manual control difficulties. Improved performance on a novel task using the robotic device could be attributed to the intervention but there was no evidence of generalisation to any of the CKAT tasks. The robotic system appears to have the potential to support motor learning, with the technology affording numerous advantages. However, the training regime may need to target particular manual skills (e.g. letter formation) in order to obtain clinically significant improvements in specific skills such as handwriting.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0151354