The role of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity in the fine motor coordination in children with ADHD

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities 2017-10, Vol.69, p.77-84
• Main Authors: Fenollar-Cortés, Javier, Gallego-Martínez, Ana, Fuentes, Luis J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Attention; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - diagnosis; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - psychology; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - therapy; Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; Child; Female; Fine motor coordination; Graphomotor skills; Handwriting; Humans; Impulsive Behavior; Male; Motor Activity - physiology; Motor Skills; Non-pharmacological interventions; Psychomotor Performance; Statistics as Topic; Task Performance and Analysis; Teaching
• ISSN: 0891-4222; 1873-3379
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.08.003

Deficits in fine motor coordination have been suggested to be associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, despite the negative impact of poor fine motor skills on academic achievement, researchers have paid little attention to this problem. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between ADHD dimensions and fine motor performance. Participants were 43 children with a diagnosis of ADHD aged between 7 and 14 years (M=9.61; 81% male) and 42 typically developing (TP) children in the same age range (M=10.76; 75.2% male). Children with ADHD performed worse than TP on all tasks (δFine_motor_tasks, −0.19 to −0.44). After controlling for age and ADHD-HY (hyperactivity/impulsivity), higher scores on ADHD-IN (inattentiveness) predicted a larger number of mistakes among all psychomotricity tasks and conditions (β 0.39–0.58, ps