Speed accuracy trade off in childhood incoordination
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An investigation of the relationship between speed and accuracy and the trade off between the two and age and motor function for children with coordination difficulties employing the novel iPad app 'Bubbles Burst'.
IRAS ID
192486
Contact name
Anne E O'Hare
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 28 days
Research summary
Children may experience delays in acquiring co-ordinated movement skills in developmental conditions such as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD)or neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy. These then have a detrimental effect on everyday function and the problems often come to light in the school years when the child learns writing and is acquiring independence in activities of daily living, including tasks such as dressing and the use of cutlery. The currently available clinical assessments in this situation include parent/carer/teacher completed questionnaires on motor function and everyday activities and directly observed clinical assessment during a range of coordination tasks.
This research investigates the use of an iPad app 'Bubbles Burst' which measures a child's fine motor performance by recording speed and accuracy as the task becomes more difficult. This is known as the 'speed accuracy trade off' and this relationship is explained by the limitation to transmitting information in a child's motor system. Essentially the app measures how well a child can maintain speed whilst a task becomes more difficult without a loss of their accuracy. This situation is created in the 'Bubbles Burst' app by reducing the size of the target or 'bubble' that the child is requested to touch. This study will investigate the feasibility of employing this novel measure of motor competence in children aged between 5-15 years, who are attending clinics for children and young people with coordination difficulties. It will examine how these findings relate to the child's age and level of function as judged from a questionnaire of everyday motor skills and activities measured by a validated parent/carer questionnaire called the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCD-Q).REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
15/SS/0204
Date of REC Opinion
13 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion