Comparing the Effect of Task-Oriented Approach Intervention with Ordinary Activity on Gross Motor Development of Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

This study carried out for observing the effect of 8-week exercise program runs during the school PE class based on task-oriented approach to develop the skills of locomotors and manipulation of 30 girls and boys between 7 to 9 years old with DCD in city of Tehran. This semi-experimental study was conducted through pretest-posttest design and two groups of school-based intervention (n=15) and ordinary training (n=15) during PE class. Data were collected with developmental coordination disorder diagnostic questionnaire (DCDQ’7) and test of gross motor development-2 (Ulrich, 2000). the Data were analyzed by independent and paired t-test, along with repeated measures analysis of variance. The results showed that an ordinary training in PE class would lead to significant improvement only in manipulative skills (P<0.05). but the performance score of task-oriented training group improved significantly both locomotors (except hop) and manipulation skills (P<0.01). The results of this study showed that intervention by specialized training and skills-based approach according to ecological perspectives will take precedence to the general training and emphasis on the overall ability. Therefore, it is recommended that task-based design should be considered by coaches and PE teachers for training schedule of DCD children.