The hand function of children with and without neurological motor disorders

This study aimed to establish a hand function evaluation protocol to compare the hand function abilities of children with and without neurological motor disorders. One hundred and twenty preschool children between 4 to 6 years of age participated in being assessed on sensorimotor function, developmental fine motor skills and hand functional tasks. The same evaluation was repeated on sixteen children of similar age with the neurological disorder of hemiplegia. Results indicated that there were differences in grip strength (p=0.01), sensibility (p=0.00) and dexterity (p=0.00), developmental fine motor skills (p=0.001), chopsticks manipulation (p=0.01), buttoning (fasten/unfasten buttons) (p=0.04) and scissors skills (p=0.00) between the two groups of children. Children with hemiplegia also demonstrated weaker precision grip (p=0.00) and dexterity (p=0.01) on the unaffected hand. It was concluded that children with hemiplegia were poor in the overall hand function performance although only one side of the body was affected. They had poor dexterity skills of the "unaffected" hand. The research is significant for alerting therapists to focus on training of sensorimotor, developmental and functional hand tasks for children with this neurological disorder.