Does a Fual-Task Promote Better Postural Control In Children Compared to a Single-Task?

Abstract

Postural control is the skill developed allowing body equilibrium and orientation, allowing for an efficient interaction with the environment. This skill is developed from birth; the first major landmark is the maintenance of an upright stance of a child, followed by the skill to walk freely (Shumway-Cook & Woollacott, 1985). A second important development occurs between the ages of 7-10 years-old when children start to demonstrate adult-like postural control (Riach & Hayes, 1987). While adults and older adults have shown increased automaticity in postural control in a dual-task (DT) (Potvin-Desrochers, Richer, & Lajoie, 2017), children have not yet been studied. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if children aged 6-7, 8-9, and 10-11 years old would demonstrate better postural stability, and greater postural automaticity in a DT condition than in a postural task (PT). To verify this, children were asked to stand still on a force platform in a PT or in a DT condition (PT with concurrent cognitive task). Results showed that older children had better postural stability, as demonstrated by a smaller sway area (7.20 cm2), reduced sway variability (0.60 cm), and a slower MV of sway (4.70 cm/s) than younger children (12.37 cm2, 0.78 cm, 6.60 cm/s). Older children also had a higher MPF in the PT (0.24 Hz) than in the DT (0.16 Hz). A wavelet transformation revealed a greater contribution of the ultra-low frequency band in the PT (49.9%) than in the DT (46.8%) across all children. These results demonstrated that older children were more stable than younger children. The smaller contribution to the ultra-low band in the DT may be an indication that children rely less heavily on their visual system in the DT. This research shows that children do not demonstrate automaticity of postural control between the ages of 6-11 years.