Motor skill training programs for children with developmental coordination disorder: Does gender matter?

Abstract

As a section of composing an update of the motor skill training programs in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) according to gender, a systematic review of intervention studies in this domain, emphasizing gender differences, was made. This study aimed to (i) systematically review the available literature on the effect of a motor intervention program in children with DCD with a focus on gender differences; (ii) to find clues that possibly explain the observed outcomes according to gender. An electronic search in 4-four databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and PubMed) was conducted for studies that evaluated motor-based interventions in participants of both genders with DCD assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children. The systematic review followed the guidelines defined in the Preferred Reporting Items for Meta-analysis (PRISMA) and Systematic Reviews and comprised articles published from January 2000 to January 2021. Each study extracted information about methodology, participant characteristics, intervention program (characteristics, duration, and frequency), outcomes, and differences according to gender. Outcomes indicated that although activity-oriented and body function-oriented interventions can effectively affect motor function and skills in children with DCD, only a few studies indicated equal outcomes of the effectiveness of programs on both girls and boys. However, those studies did not describe the gender effect in sufficient detail to help researchers and clinicians understand what it was about the treatment that made it equivalent. Future studies need to address this.