The Effectiveness of Neuro-Developmental Treatment Intervention on Motor Skills and Activities of Daily Living of Preschool Children with Down Syndrome

The aims of this study was to investigation of the effect of neuro-developmental therapy on motor skills and activities of daily living of preschool children with down syndrome.
Study procedure was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of this research includes all preschool children with down syndrome in Shiraz city in academic year 2014-2015. The sample size was twenty-four children with down syndrome whome were selected by in convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. Such as each group consist of 12 students. Both groups assessed pre-test.The experimental group received neuro-developmental therapy in fifteen sessions while control group did not. After completion of intervention period for experimental group; the post test was administered for both groups. The Lincoln-Ozretski’s Motor Development Scale and Activities Scale for Kids were administered to assess the motor skills and activities of daily living.
The data analyses by ANCOVA showed that there were significantly increase in the mean scores of motor skills and activities of daily living in experimental group.
Findings indicated that neuro-developmental therapy lead to improve motor skills and activities of daily living of preschool children with down syndrome. Therefore, it is proposed to design and implement neuro-developmental therapy in order to increase of motor skills and activities of daily activity of preschool children with down syndrome.