Sports
Functional Strength in Children with Developmental Disabilities: An Exploratory Comparison of Three Clinical Cohorts Including Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder, Intellectual Disabilities, and Cerebral Palsy
By Aertssen W, Steenbergen B and Smits-Engelsman B.
Abstract
Background
This study presents an exploratory comparison of data from three previously collected clinical cohorts. The first aim was to compare functional strength performance among a cohort of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Intellectual Disabilities (ID), and Cerebral Palsy (CP). The second aim was to examine whether the associations between age and functional strength performance differed across these cohorts.
Methods
Data from 103 children aged 7-10 years (29 DCD, 47 ID, 27 CP) were combined. Functional Strength Measurement (FSM, FSM-ID, FSM-CP) scores were compared with reference norms. Cohort differences were examined using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with body weight included as a covariate. Associations between age and FSM performance were examined using General Linear Models including age, clinical cohort, and age-by-cohort interaction terms.