Ride-On Cars With Different Postures and Motivation in Children With Disabilities: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

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A child's independent mobility, environments, and mastery motivation are critical factors during early development. To examine the effectiveness of ride-on car (ROC) training with a standing (ROC-Stand) or a sitting posture (ROC-Sit) in enhancing children's mastery motivation and decreasing parenting stress levels. Randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a multiple pretest-posttest design. Hospital-based environment in northern Taiwan. Thirty-nine children with disabilities ages 1 to 3 yr were randomly assigned to ROC-Stand (n = 16), ROC-Sit (n = 12), or conventional therapy (control; n = 11). All groups received 2-hr training sessions two times a week for 12 wk and then a 12-wk follow-up period that involved only regular therapy. Assessments included the Revised Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire-Chinese version and the Parenting Stress Index. All groups showed significant changes in social persistence with adults, mastery pleasure, and general competence after the intervention. The two ROC training groups showed a significantly greater decrease in parenting stress than the control group. In addition, increased general competence of the ROC-Stand group also strongly correlated with decreased parent-child dysfunctional interaction. This RCT verifies the effectiveness of ROC training and offers a novel approach to increase children's mastery motivation and decrease parenting stress. What This Article Adds: Providing a large amount of active, exploratory experiences with goal-directed, moderately challenging tasks and cooperation with caregivers may result in the greatest benefits to young children with motor disabilities.