Spooning or choreic hand is flexion and dorsal arching of the wrists and
hyperextension
Motion, the process of movement, is described using specific anatomical terms. Motion includes movement of organs, joints, limbs, and specific sections of the body. The terminology used describes this motion according to its direction relativ ...
of the fingers when the hands are extended sideways palms down.
Spooning is a recognized
clinical sign
Signs and symptoms are diagnostic indications of an illness, injury, or condition.
Signs are objective and externally observable; symptoms are a person's reported subjective experiences.
A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature ...
in
pediatric
Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...
neurology
Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...
during standard evaluation of the posture with extended arms. Spooning is often observed in children up to the age of 5.
[Rohhytnald B. David (2005) "Child and Adolescent Neurology" ]
In older ages it is a clinical sign seen in children with
chorea
Chorea, or (rarely) choreia, () is an abnormal involuntary movement disorder, characterized by quick movements of the hands or feet. It is one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. The term ''chorea'' is derived , as the move ...
.
References
{{reflist
Neurology
Hand
Medical signs