Motor proficiency in children with mild traumatic brain injury compared with a control group.

OBJECTIVE: To assess motor proficiency and movement disorders in children with mild traumatic brain injury compared with an uninjured control group. Inclusion criteria were based on the definitions issued by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.

SUBJECTS: A group of 27 children with mild traumatic brain injury (age range 4-17 years) and a control group of 79 healthy children.

METHODS: Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) was administered. This is a standardized comprehensive test of gross- and fine-motor function that produces standard scores for children in this age group. It is divided into 4 gross-motor tasks, 3 fine-motor tasks, 1 combined task, and a test of hand and foot dominance. Tremor was also evaluated.

RESULTS: The mean standard scores for both groups were within the normal range. For balance, the mild traumatic brain injury group had a significantly poorer performance than controls (p = 0.03). Tremor was significantly more frequent in the mild traumatic brain injury group (p = 0.004), and mixed-handedness was significantly over-represented in the mild traumatic brain injury group (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION: In this study, children with mild traumatic brain injury did not differ from the norm in terms of fine- or gross-motor proficiency compared with a control group of uninjured children, but a difference in balance skill (p = 0.03), mixed-handedness (p = 0.02) and tremor (p = 0.004) was detected, to the injured children's detriment.