PRAXIS AND SEQUENCING SKILLS IN CHILDREN WITH SENSORIMOTOR DYSFUNCTION

Children with sensorimotor dysfunction (SMD) and children who exhibited motor problems (MP) not due to sensorimotor dysfunction were compared to normal controls (NC) on their performance of transitive and intransitive limb gestures performed to command and imitation. Performance of an action sequence involving four different responses (i.e., pull, slide, turn, point) was also examined. The SMD children had greater difficulty in performing limb gestures and motor sequences both to verbal command and to imitation compared with the NC children. They also had greater difficulty in performing motor sequences than the MP children. These findings indicated that the SMD children demonstrate a deficit in the performance of representational gestures and in the performance of motor sequences. The finding that motor sequences were performed better to verbal command than to imitation suggests that language may be important in mediating the performance of motor sequences.