Gross motor skills in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to compare gross motor skills in children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Children diagnosed with ADHD encounter difficulties in many areas of daily living activities that require motor coordination skills and often perform poorly on motor skills tests.

Methods: A hundred and sixty primary school children (80 with ADHD and 80 controls) between 7-13 years, both females and males, participated in the study. Simple gross motor skills tasks such as walking, standing, catching, dribbling and kicking tasks were employed. The results were compared for gender and age.

Results: The children with ADHD showed poorer performance on all tasks. The gender of the participants influenced performance on kicking and dribbling tasks.

Conclusion: An association between the symptoms of ADHD and gross motor control was demonstrated, implying the need to include gross motor tasks or tests in assessments and interventions of children with ADHD.

Keywords: ADHD, Gross motor skills, simple gross motor tasks, gender differences.