Effectiveness of neuromotor task training for children with developmental coordination disorder: a pilot study.

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 no-treatment 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.

• Authors: M M Schoemaker, A S Niemeijer, K Reynders, B C M Smits-Engelsman
• Journal: Neural plasticity (Neural Plast) Vol. 10 Issue 1-2 Pg. 155-63 ( 2003) ISSN: 2090-5904 [Print] United States
• PMID: 14640316 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Topics

• Agraphia (therapy)
• Child
• Developmental Disabilities (therapy)
• Female
• Handwriting
• Humans
• Learning
• Male
• Motor Skills Disorders (therapy)
• Netherlands
• Physical Therapy Modalities
• Psychomotor Performance
• Treatment Outcome