Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) – Article Summary

Posted on: February 28, 2021 | By: aetherton | Filed under: Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Movement-ABC)

Title: Motor intervention with and without Nintendo Wii for children with developmental coordination disorder: protocol for a randomized control trial

Authors: Jorge Lopes Cavalcante Neto, Bert Steenbergen, Eloisa Tudella

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is characterized by the presence of motor deviations in young children that impact daily activities including school and social participation. The purpose of this proposed study protocol is to compare the effects of motor training interventions with or without use of virtual reality (VR) technology in motor learning of children with DCD. The design of this study is a randomized control trial in which children will be allocated into one of two intervention groups. One group will participate in motor training interventions that utilize the Nintendo Wii system, and the other group will participate in comparable interventions without utilization of VR technology. For both groups, motor training activities are specifically designed to target MABC-2 domains: manual dexterity, aiming and catching, and balance. These particular domains of the MABC-2 are considered the gold standard for recognizing DCD in children. Outcome measures to be administered at pre and post-testing include the MABC-2 and Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ). Inclusion criteria for participation in this study are the following: children 7-10 years old, diagnosis of DCD, MABC-2 score less than or equal to 16, DCDQ score <46 (age 7), <55 (age 8-9), <57 (age 10). Exclusion criteria involve children with motor delays secondary to known intellectual, visual, or neurologic conditions. Children will also be excluded if they are inattentive to the intervention program activities. Participants will be recruited from private and public elementary schools in São Paulo, Brazil. Evaluators will be blinded to each participant’s intervention group assignment. Interventions for both groups will take place 2x/week for 60 minutes each session. Participants will complete a total of 12-16 training sessions. Wii games each session are to include frisbee, table tennis, bowling, archery, tightrope walk, and marble balance. Comparable, non-VR intervention activities are frisbee, table tennis, modified bowling, bow and arrow, vinyl balance disk, and balance beam walking.

The authors suggested that most prior literature comparing VR interventions to non-VR interventions for motor training with this population did not conduct similar activities between groups. One strength of this proposed protocol is that the virtual activities directly mimic the actual non-VR intervention activities. Other VR systems that have been developed more recently than the Nintendo Wii may facilitate more real-life movement patterns, and should be considered for use in this study instead of the Wii. Ultimately, the major limitation of this article is that the study has not been conducted, thus no conclusions can be drawn from results.

In conclusion, motor training for children with DCD may benefit from use of VR technology due to the immediate feedback available and high repetition of activities. However, current literature does not provide strong evidence, and the protocol presented in the article has not yet been conducted.

 

One response to “Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) – Article Summary”

  1. chaynes7 says:

    I personally have not heard of DCD before. It is interesting that the test domains include only those 3 categories. I can see how each of the 3 domains can impact a child’s social or school participation, and as I was trying to think of other areas I think those are broad enough to encompass a lot of what a child does during the day. I think kids probably enjoy the use of VR as well and may not even view it as therapy!

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