Abstract
The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a Neuromotor Task Training (NTT), recently developed for the treatment of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) by pediatric physical therapists in the Netherlands. NTT is a task-oriented treatment program based upon recent insights from motor control and motor learning research. Ten children with DCD (intervention group) were tested before and after 9 and 18 treatment sessions on the Movement ABC and a dysgraphia scale in order to measure the effectiveness of treatment on gross and fine motor skills in general and handwriting in particular. Five children (no-treatment control group) were tested twice with a time lag of nine weeks on the Movement ABC in order to measure spontaneous improvement. No improvement was measured for the children in the notreatment control group, whereas a significant improvement was found for children in the intervention group for both quality of handwriting and performance on the Movement ABC after 18 treatment sessions.
Highlights
Over the past forty years, various treatment programs have been developed for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)
No significant change was found between T1 and T2 for the notreatment control group (p 0.49)
When examining the subtests of the Movement-ABC, we found a significant improvement between T1 and T3 for manual dexterity and ball skills (p= 0.028 and p=0.018 respectively), but not for balance (p =0.108)
Summary
Over the past forty years, various treatment programs have been developed for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). These treatment programs can roughly be divided into two categories: the so-called process-oriented approaches and the task-oriented approaches (Sugden & Wright, 1998). The process-oriented approaches concentrate on the treatment of deficits in processes assumed to underlie poor motor coordination. Examples of process-oriented approaches are kinesthetic training developed by Laszlo et al (1988) and Sensory Integration Therapy developed by Ayres (1972). Laszlo et al attributed a prominent role to kin aesthesis in the control of movement, and assumed that the motor co-ordination problems of children with DCD were the result of a deficit in kinesthetic awareness. Sensory Integration Therapy (S.I.T.) is based upon the assumption that children with learning disabilities in general and those with motor problems in particular are deficient in integrating perceptual information from various (C) 2003 Freund & Pettman, U.K
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
