The Effects of Strengthening Motor-sensory Functions on Spatial Visual Processing and Balance Function in Preschool Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) includes impairment in motor function that cannot be described by chronological age and intelligence level; DCD can manifest with significant delays in the acquisition of motor skills, raw motor skills, poor performance in sports, and handwriting. Among the problems in the DCD are the developmental defects in visual perception and difficulties related to visual–spatial processing. Another aspect in which children with DCD encounter challenges is balance and motor problems. Occupational therapists and movement therapists commonly use several special treatment approaches for children with DCD. The most common of these approaches is sensory integration. The theory of sensory integration is based on understanding the principles of motor–sensory learning. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of enhancing sensorimotor functions on spatial visual processing and balance function in preschool children with DCD.

This was a quasi–experimental study with pretest–posttest and a control group design. The study's statistical population included all children aged 5–6 years with DCD in Yazd City, Iran, in 2019. Furthermore, a cluster random sampling method was used to select 30 children with DCD using a parental DCD questionnaire. The study subjects were randomly divided into the experimental and control groups (n=15/group). The inclusion criteria were the age range of 5–6 years, obtaining a score above 20 in the Revised Version of Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ'07; Wilson et al., 2009), child and parent consent to participate in the study, and no severe psychiatric disorders. The exclusion criteria were failure to participate in more than two sessions and failure to complete the questionnaire. The applied instrument was a subtest of Visual–Spatial Processing in the Revised Version Tehran–Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale (Kamkari et al., 2006) and Balance Function Subtest in Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (Bruininks, 1978). Interventions related to enhancing sensory–motor functions were performed for the experimental group in 24 sixty–minute sessions. Descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics, including univariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), were used to analyze the obtained data according to the type of research variables in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05.

The collected results indicated that after removing the pretest effect, in the posttest, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the mean scores of visual–spatial processing (p<0.001) and balance function in the study participants (p<0.001). The effect of strengthening sensory–motor on visual–spatial processing equaled 0.460, and the balance function of children with developmental coordination disorder was measured as 0.626.

According to research results, strengthening sensory–motor functions improves spatial visual processing and balance function among preschool children with DCD. Therefore, implementing this method is recommended to the relevant experts.