Abstract
Background/Objectives: CNS-directed leukemia therapies can adversely affect the acquisition of new skills, such as motor skills (Taverna et al., 2017), with schooling difficulties (Tremolada et al., 2018) and self-esteem problems (Tremolada et al., 2017). The goal of the present study is to assessfine motor skills in pre-school children with leukemia during the acute phase of first year of treatment and comparing their performance with those of matched healthy peers.
Design/Methods: Participants were 13 children, with a mean age of 58.31 months (SD=9.09; range: 44-70), including 7 females and 6 males. All participants were affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 7 with a high risk leukemia and 6 with a standard risk leukemia. Children were assessed with the manual dexterity scale of the MABC-2.
Results: A series of non-parametric Wilcoxon tests were run to identify the possible significant mean ranks differences between pediatric patients and healthy peers in the several scales of the motor development skills. Results showed a significant difference between the two groups in: 1. posting coins standardized score when using the non-preferred hand (Z=-3.11, p=0.002) with patients obtaining lower scores (Mean=7.69, SD=3.19) than the control group (Mean=11.38; SD=1.89); 2. in the thread beads standardized task (Z=-2.72, p=0.006) with the clinic group with a worse performance (M=9.31, SD=3.27) than the healthy one (M=13.23, SD=2.94); 3. in general manual dexterity standardized score (Z=-2.32; p=0.02), lower in patients (M=8.92, SD=3.09) than controls (M=11.53, SD=1.66). ALL participants’ age was negatively significantly correlated with the grapho-motor task performance (rho=-0.74; p=0.004).
Conclusions: Children with ALL showed a poorer fine motor skill’s general performance than healthy controls and older age of pediatric patients was associated with higher risk of impaired grapho-motor abilities. Occupational therapy intervention is needed children with leukemia in order to improve their fine motor abilities.