Timing perception and motor coordination on rope jumping in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Objectives: To evaluate timing perception ability and motor coordination in children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) while rope jumping at different rates.

Design and setting: Rope jumping at (1) a constant tempo of 100 for 15 s (RJ-C) and (2) two randomly permutated tempos (80, 100, or 120) for 15 s (RJ-V).

Main outcome measures: The "timing variation while jumping", "timing variation while whirling", and "hand-foot deviation time" in each rope jumping cycle were recorded, to assess the time estimation ability.

Participants: 10 children with ADHD (9.65 ± 1.27 years) and 10 children without ADHD (9.93 ± 1.54 years) were recruited.

Results: The ADHD group showed greater variation in time between the foot jumping and the rope whirling tasks. Also, the median value of hand-foot deviation time was greater in the ADHD group (3.34 ms) than in the control group (1.75 ms). In RJ-V, the control group was able to modify their pace and respond to the target speed in the post-phase, while the ADHD group could not.

Conclusion: Impaired timing perception leads to less accurate performance during rope jumping for ADHD children. The findings also reveal that poor hand-foot coordination results in poor control of simultaneous movements of the upper and lower limbs during rope jumping.