Étude comparative de la dyspraxie : évaluation neuropsychologique d’enfants porteurs d’une dyspraxie développementale ou consécutive à la prématurité Comparative study of dyspraxia: Neuropsychological evaluation of children with developmental dyspraxia or consecutive to a preterm birth

Objectives. – The aim of the present study was to compare and contrast developmental dyspraxia and dyspraxia following preterm birth. Material. – Three different domains (attention–executive function, sensorimotor and visuospatial functions) were evaluated using Nepsy battery tests and the Purdue pegboard test. Method. – The results of a neuropsychological evaluation of 32 children with developmental dyspraxia (the DVLT group) were compared with those of 16 children with dyspraxia following preterm birth (the AP group). The population inclusion and exclusion criteria were set according to Gérard’s (Gérard C-L. Le concept de dyspraxie. In: Gérard C-L, Brun V, editors. Les dyspraxies de l’enfant. Paris: Masson; 2005. p. 15–24.) definition of dyspraxia. * Auteur correspondant. Adresse e-mail : [email protected] (V. Barray). 0168-6054/$ – see front matter # 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits réservés. doi:10.1016/j.annrmp.2008.01.004 V. Barray et al. / Annales de réadaptation et de médecine physique 51 (2008) 161–168 162 Results. – The two groups had similar visuospatial performance. However, differences between the DVLT and AP children appeared in a test of attention–executive function (visual attention, specifically) and in some sensorimotor tests, with better performance by the DVLT group in all situations. Conclusion. – The difficulties exhibited by preterm-born children (poor upper limb motor control, more severe dyspraxia and the presence of oculomotor impairments) could explain the latter’s poor performance relative to children with developmental dyspraxia. Indeed, oculomotor impairments are especially likely to impair performance in visual attention and visuomotor accurary tests — the two situations in which pretermborn children performed worse. # 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits réservés. Mots clés : Dyspraxie développementale ; Prématurité ; Visuospatial ; Attention–exécutif ; Sensorimoteur