Hand-Use Preferences for Reaching and Object Exploration in Children with Impaired Upper Extremity Functioning: The Role of Environmental Affordances
Date
2023-12-05
Authors
Journal Title
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Publisher
Symmetry
Abstract
Infants and young children with weakened or impaired upper extremity functioning often develop a strong hand-use “preference” for reaching and object manipulation. While “preferring” their stronger hand, they often partially or completely ignore their “non-preferred” hand. Such manual lateralization might impede complex object exploration, which would negatively affect children’s cognitive development. The question is whether environmental affordances would significantly affect children’s manifested hand-use “preferences” by promoting the use of the “non-preferred” hand. The current sample included 17 children (5 males; 13.9 ± 8.7 months at baseline) with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (arthrogryposis). The reaching and object exploration of the children were evaluated longitudinally across a 6-month period with and without the Playskin LiftTM exoskeletal garment (Playskin). Results showed that the use of the Playskin increased both unimanual and bimanual object contact. Also, when anti-gravity support was provided to the arms by the Playskin, children significantly increased the use of their non-preferred hand, which correlated with improved quality of object play—more bimanual object interaction and greater intensity, variability, and complexity of exploration. These findings suggest that hand-use “preference” in children with arthrogryposis is quite malleable during early development. It is likely that children with impaired upper extremity functioning do not “prefer” to use a particular hand but, rather, cannot afford using both hands due to their limited muscular or manual abilities. Importantly, environmental affordances (i.e., anti-gravity support for the arms) might significantly affect the early development of manual lateralization, with potential implications for children’s quality of object exploration and future cognitive development.
Description
This article was originally published in Symmetry. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15122161. © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords
reaching, object exploration, hand-use preference, arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, Playskin LiftTM exoskeletal garment, children
Citation
Babik I, Lobo MA. Hand-Use Preferences for Reaching and Object Exploration in Children with Impaired Upper Extremity Functioning: The Role of Environmental Affordances. Symmetry. 2023; 15(12):2161. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15122161