Article

Intermanual transfer implies that motor skills learned on one side of
the body transfer to the untrained side. This effect was previously noted in
adults practicing with a prosthesis simulator.
OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine whether intermanual transfer is present in children practicing
prosthetic handling. DESIGN: A mechanistic, pseudorandomized, pretest-posttest
design was used. SETTING: The study was conducted in a primary school in the
Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were children who were able-bodied
(N=48; 25 boys, 23 girls; mean age=5.1 years) and randomly assigned to an
experimental group or a control group. INTERVENTION: The experimental group
performed 5 training sessions using a prosthesis simulator on the training arm.
Before (pretest), immediately after (posttest), and 6 days after (retention test)
the training program, their ability to handle the prosthesis with the
contralateral (test) arm was measured. The control group only performed the
tests. Half of the children performed the tests with the dominant hand, and the
other half performed the tests with the nondominant hand. MEASUREMENTS: During
the tests, movement time and control of force were measured. RESULTS: An
interaction effect of group by test was found for movement time. Post hoc tests
revealed significant improvement in the experimental group between the posttest
and the retention test. No force control effect was found. LIMITATIONS: Only
children who were able-bodied were included. Measurements should have been masked
and obtained without tester interference. The fact that 4 children whose results
were slower than the mean result discontinued training may have biased the
findings. CONCLUSIONS: The intermanual transfer effect was present in 5-year-old
children undergoing training in prosthetic handling. After training of one hand,
children's movement times for the other, untrained hand improved. This finding
may be helpful for training children who are novice users of a prosthesis.
CI - (c) 2015 American Physical Therapy Association.

Langue : ANGLAIS