Spiral drawing deficits in children with prenatal alcohol exposure
Roger W. Simmons, Jennifer D. Thomas, Tenille Taggart, Quentin J. Ward, Ashkan Ashrafi, Sarah N. Mattson, Edward P. RileyAbstract
Aims
Empirical investigations reveal that in comparison to typically developing peers, children with histories of prenatal alcohol exposure experience deficits in writing but not drawing skills, both of which require fine motor control. The present study further examines drawing skills in this clinical group by assessing simple free‐form spiral drawings with indices of spectral features and structural organization.
Methods
Children with (n = 15) and without (n = 24) prenatal alcohol exposure used their dominant and non‐dominant hands to draw a series of spirals using a wireless pen stylus that provided concurrent visual feedback in the form of a black ink trace or left no visible ink trace of each drawing. Spirals were drawn on a sheet of paper placed on a digitizing table, which facilitated online data acquisition. Data were assessed by power spectral density function analysis and sample entropy analysis.
Results
In comparison to typically developing peers, children with prenatal alcohol exposure produced spirals with a lower mean frequency and less spectral variability. Spirals were also lower in complexity and structural organization. These results occurred independently of hand dominance or the availability of visual feedback.
Conclusions
Drawing skills of children with prenatal alcohol exposure have inherent signal characteristics that differ significantly from those produced by typically developing peers. Simple tasks requiring fine motor control may be useful in identifying individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.