Pencil grasp

BACKGROUND: Children with developmental coordination disorder show difficulties in making rapid online corrections, and this has been demonstrated in experiments where reaching/pointing movements were employed. However, typical hand movements in real-life contexts involve subsequent movements, such as grasping and manipulating objects after reaching. This study aimed to reinvestigate online correction of reaching movements that were connected with grasping and object manipulation and to explore its impact on the coordination of subsequent hand movements in children with developmental coordination disorder...

BACKGROUND: Late-preterm and early-term births constitute a significant proportion of live births. However, handwriting skills of these two populations remain unclear. We aimed to investigate their risk for poor Chinese handwriting in grade two. METHODS: In this observational study, 185 second graders born late preterm (34+0 -36+6 weeks' gestation, n = 54), early term (37+0 -38+6 weeks' gestation, n = 56), and full term (39+0 -41+6 weeks' gestation, n = 75) without any intervention or diagnosis related to developmental delays were included...

BACKGROUND: Clinical handover is a pivotal, high-risk communicative event because it involves the transfer of responsibility and accountability for patients and their care. Nurses' perceptions and their communication skills inevitably impact on their ability of clinical handover. Limited studies have explored nurses' handover practice in the Hong Kong context. This study aimed to identify factors associated with and specific impact paths between the quality, communication skills and nurses' perceptions on clinical handover...

Object affordance refers to possibilities to interact with the objects in our environment, such as grasping. Previous research shows that objects that afford an action activate the motor system and attract attention, for example they elicit an enhanced frontal negativity and posterior P1 in the event-related potential. An effect on posterior N1 is discussed. However, previous findings might have resulted from physical differences between affording and non-affording stimuli, rather than affordance per se . Here we replicated the frontal negativity and posterior P1 effects and further explored the posterior N1 in affordance processing under constant visual input...

Aims: Handwriting is an essential life skill, impacted by proficiency in visual-motor integration and fine motor control. The increase in the use of digital technology has changed the way children interact with their environments, and potentially, the development of the important requisite skills for handwriting. This study examined the "handwriting readiness" skills of children born in the digital age. Methods: 219 children in their first year of formal schooling (mean age = 5 years, 10 months), completed the Beery Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (Beery-VMI) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) Short Form to assess visual motor integration, overall motor proficiency, and fine motor proficiency...

Recent behavioural evidence suggests that when processing others' actions, motor acts and goal-related information both contribute to action recognition. Yet the neuronal mechanisms underlying the dynamic integration of the two action dimensions remain unclear. This study aims to elucidate the ERP components underlying the processing and integration of grip and goal-related information. The electrophysiological activity of 28 adults was recorded during the processing of object-directed action photographs (e...

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Charles is a 10-year-old African-American male who presents to the Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic for evaluation of his learning. His primary care provider (PCP) was concerned that his developmental delays were negatively affecting his ability to engage in his homeschooling curriculum and also that his mother seemed unaware of the severity of his delays. Neuropsychological evaluation had been recommended by the PCP several times in the past, but the family declined. At one point, the PCP had considered potential child protective services (CPS) referral for medical neglect because of missed appointments and lack of follow-through on recommendations, which motivated the parent to bring him to this appointment...

BACKGROUND/AIM: Few studies have examined graphomotor skills in children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). METHODS: Graphomotor skills were assessed in 108 predominantly Australian Aboriginal children aged 7.5-9.6 years in remote Western Australia using clinical observations (pencil grasp; writing pressure) and standardised assessment tools (the Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting; and the Miller Function and Participation Scales - The Draw-a-Kid Game)...

Endobronchial foreign body impaction is a common occurrence, especially in the pediatric population. Bronchoscopic techniques are the standard of care for their retrieval. However, the most distally located foreign bodies are often difficult to retrieve using these techniques. A novel approach using biplane fluoroscopy, with tools usually used for intravascular foreign body retrieval, has been recently described in adults by interventional radiologists. We are the first to report 2 cases in children using this approach for distally impacted endobronchial foreign body retrieval in the cardiac catheterization laboratory...

Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) is normally assessed with paper-and-pencil tests. Virtual reality can be an effective neuropsychological tool for a more ecological and functional assessment and rehabilitation of neglect. We developed a 3D Virtual Reality platform - NeuroVirtual 3D - for the assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive deficits, in particular for USN. Within the virtual environments it is possible to interact with virtual objects and execute specific exercises using a Microsoft Kinect. Through the analysis of different grasping tasks it is possible to evaluate in an ecological way the patients' ability to find and handle objects in both sides of the virtual space...

Previous research has shown that unilateral visual neglect is improved when patients are required to actively grasp an object at its center, rather than only pointing to its center. A similar dissociation between pointing and grasping responses has been reported for pseudoneglect, a spatial bias toward the left side of space that is normally exhibited by healthy participants. Among other theories, the two-visual-streams hypothesis has been offered as an explanation for these dissociations. According to this hypothesis, highly practiced actions that are performed under easily available visual input (e...

Action observation typically induces an online inner simulation of the observed movements. Here we investigate whether action observation merely activates, in the observer, the muscles involved in the observed movement or also muscles that are typically used to achieve the observed action goal. In a first experiment, hand and foot motor areas were stimulated by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation, while participants viewed a typical hand action (grasping) or a nonspecific action (stepping over an object) performed by either a hand or a foot...

OBJECTIVE. We investigated differences in handwriting kinetics, speed, and legibility among four pencil grasps after a 10-min copy task. METHOD. Seventy-four Grade 4 students completed a handwriting assessment before and after a copy task. Grip and axial forces were measured with an instrumented stylus and force-sensitive tablet. We used multiple linear regression to analyze the relationship between grasp pattern and grip and axial forces. RESULTS. We found no kinetic differences among grasps, whether considered individually or grouped by the number of fingers on the barrel...

OBJECTIVE: Pencil grasps other than the dynamic tripod may be functional for handwriting. This study examined the impact of grasp on handwriting speed and legibility. METHOD: We videotaped 120 typically developing fourth-grade students while they performed a writing task. We categorized the grasps they used and evaluated their writing for speed and legibility using a handwriting assessment. Using linear regression analysis, we examined the relationship between grasp and handwriting...

AIM: To investigate the impact of common pencil grasp patterns on the speed and legibility of handwriting after a 10-minute copy task, intended to induce muscle fatigue, in typically developing children and in those non-proficient in handwriting. METHODS: A total of 120 Grade 4 students completed a standardised handwriting assessment before and after a 10-minute copy task. The students indicated the perceived difficulty of the handwriting task at baseline and after 10 minutes...

OBJECTIVES: A pencil in the urinary bladder is an unusual problem for urologists. We present a case in a 44-year-old female with an eyeliner pencil self-introduced into the urethra. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patient was referred to us with a recent history of "ingestion of foreign body". The clinical presentation, radiologic data, and treatment were reported. RESULTS: The patient had a pencil placed sideways in the urinary bladder, with focal perforation of the left wall...

Simple writer's cramp (WC) is a task-specific form of dystonia, characterized by abnormal movements and postures of the hand during writing. It is extremely task-specific, since dystonic symptoms can occur when a patient uses a pencil for writing, but not when it is used for sharpening. Maladaptive plasticity, loss of inhibition, and abnormal sensory processing are important pathophysiological elements of WC. However, it remains unclear how those elements can account for its task-specificity. We used fMRI to isolate cerebral alterations associated with the task-specificity of simple WC...

This article presents information on standardized paper-and-pencil measures of spiritual and transpersonal constructs that hold promise for use in yoga research. Nine instruments are discussed at length including the Assessment Schedule for Altered States of Consciousness, Ego Grasping Orientation, Expressions of Spirituality Inventory, Hindu Religious Coping Scale, Measures of Hindu Pathways, Self-Expansiveness Level Form, Spiritual Orientation Inventory, Spiritual Transcendence Scale, and the Vedic Personality Inventory...

The effect of lateralized practice on manual preference was investigated in right-handed children. Probing tasks required reaching and grasping a pencil at distinct eccentricities in the right and left hemifields (simple), and its transportation and insertion into a small hole (complex). During practice, the children experienced manipulative tasks different from that used for probing, using the left hand only. Results showed that before practice the children used almost exclusively the right hand in the right hemifield and at the midline position...