Cavalcante Neto J.L.1,2, Machado L.R.1, Ito C.Y.3, Marques C.C.3, Sato T.O.1, Subkowiaki M.C.4, Tudella E.1
1Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar, Physical Therapy, Sao Carlos, Brazil, 2State University of Bahia, Human Sciences, Jacobina, Brazil, 3APAE - Association of Parents and Friends of Exceptional Children, Sao Carlos, Brazil, 4Federal University of São Carlos, Physical Therapy, Brazil, Brazil
Background: Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) present motor impairments, which have significant impacts on daily life, school and leisure. Using virtual reality resources has shown to be effective in improving learning and motor performance of these children. However, there are few studies that have used a standardized protocol to observe the effects of this training on learning and motor performance in DCD.
Purpose: To analyze the effects of 16 training sessions using the Nintendo Wii in learning and motor development of children with DCD.
Methods: Six children (three boys and three girls) aged between 7 and 10 years, with a positive Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) and a total score from the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) of ≤16 took part in a clinical trial of 16 training sessions using Nintendo Wii. The training consisted of six different games, two sets for each one of the MABC-2 domains. The training took place twice a week, with sessions of 60 minutes and an average time of 7 minutes per game. The score obtained on the first day was considered as familiarization. The score for the second session was the pre-test measure and the last session was the post-test measure of motor learning. The score and the total score of the pre and post MABC-2 was considered the motor performance measure of the children. The paired t-test to test the training effect on learning and motor performance of the children with a significance level of 5% was used. The training effect size (Cohen´s d) was also calculated.
Results: There was a significant increase (p=0.03) between the scores of the pre games (732.33; 248,67DP) and the post test (1313.00; 465.09DP), with a large effect size (d=1.44). However, significant differences were not observed (p=0,11) between the measures of the pre total score
(51.66; 16.23DP) and the post-test (58.83; 22.57DP), nor between the measures of the pre total score (4.83; 2.13) and the post test (6.50; 3.20DP); (p=0,06) of MABC-2. The effect size on the total score of MABC-2 was small (d = 0.36) and on the total score was moderate (d = 0.75).
Conclusion(s): These preliminary findings suggest that the 16 training sessions with this intervention protocol were effective in providing motor learning, measured by the game scores of the children with DCD. However, this training protocol was not sufficient to significantly improve the motor performance measured from the total score and MABC-2 score.
Implications: The findings are essential so that intervention strategies based on virtual reality games with systematized protocols can be used to improve the motor condition of children with DCD, being able to combine the motivational factor of the games with significant gains in motor learning.
Funding acknowledgements: FAPESP - Research Support Foundation from the State of São Paulo
Topic: Disability & rehabilitation
Ethics approval: Approved by the Ethics Committee on Human Research at the Federal University of São Carlos (CAEE/47091115.0.0000.5504), BR
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
