Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Reduced looming sensitivity in primary school children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Purcell, Catherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0301-2555, Wann, John, Wilmut, Kate and Poulter, Damian 2012. Reduced looming sensitivity in primary school children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. Developmental Science 15 (3) , pp. 299-306. 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01123.x

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Almost all locomotor animals are sensitive to optical expansion (visual looming) and for most animals this sensitivity is evident very early in their development. In humans there is evidence that responses to looming stimuli begin in the first 6 weeks of life, but here we demonstrate that as children become independent their perceptual acuity needs to be 50 to 100 times better than has been demonstrated in infants in order to be skilful at collision avoidance at a roadside. We have recently established that sensitivity to the detection of visual looming in 6‐ to 11‐year‐old children is significantly below that of adults (Wann, Poulter & Purcell, 2011). Here, using comparable methods, we explore looming detection sensitivity in children with Developmental Co‐ordination Disorder (DCD), who show broad patterns of impairment in visuo‐motor control. We presented visual simulations of approaching vehicles, scaled to represent different approach rates, to children with DCD aged between 6 and 11 years (n = 11) and typically developing age and gender matched controls (n = 11). Looming detection thresholds were measured under foveal and perifoveal viewing conditions, for isotropic expansion and isotropic expansion with simulated viewpoint motion. Our results show that there are situations in which children with DCD may fail to detect vehicles approaching at speeds in excess of 22 km/h, suggesting a developmental immaturity in looming sensitivity. This provides one of the first clear demonstrations of low‐level motion processing deficits in children with DCD. The decrement observed may give rise to potential errors in the road crossing behaviour of these children, whereby approaching vehicles could be perceived as stationary. These findings further contribute towards understanding the adverse statistic that children under 9 years of age are four times more likely than adults to be involved in a road accident as a pedestrian.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Healthcare Sciences
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Publisher: Wiley
ISSN: 1363-755X
Last Modified: 24 Oct 2022 07:02
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/113951

Citation Data

Cited 15 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item