EFFECTS OF A TASK ORIENTED INTERVENTION MOTOR PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN WITH COORDINATION DISORDERS WITHIN GREEK SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an especially designed intervention program in order to alleviate developmental coordination disorders (DCD) in elementary schoolchildren. The above program was implemented within school environment during physical education class. Participants were eight elementary schoolchildren (six boys and two girls), 8-11 year-old, with DCD. Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Henderson & Sugden, 1992) was used for the children’s motor assessment. The program was task oriented and its approach was knowledge based. The duration of the program was six weeks and included 12 practice units (two units per week) comprised of games and other activities. Two control groups were involved in the study. Control group I comprised of children with coordination problems who did not participated in the intervention program, while control group II comprised of children without any movement difficulties. The children of both control groups were following only the regular physical education instruction. The comparison among the experimental group and the control groups revealed that the intervention program had a positive effect on children with DCD. The experimental group exhibited significantly higher improvement in the majority of the motor tasks as well as in the total motor score. The encouraging results that emerge from the implementation of the intervention program show that movement difficulties can be improved with intensive practice. Furthermore, it seems that school environment constitutes an ideal environment for the implementation of such intervention programs. However, the permanent nature of the above positive effects remains to be established. In addition to that, the further education of the teacher of physical education on the planning and the application analogous programs seems warranted.