Oral Presentation

Paper ID : 2056-SSRC

دانشگاه شیراز

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment in the development of motor coordination that interfere with academic achievement. This study aimed to investigate the effects of rhythmic motor intervention on the fundamental motor skills (FMS) and handwriting of children with DCD. In this semi-experimental study with pre-test/post-test design, Forty DCD boys with an age range of 8 to 12 years were divided into two groups: the experimental group (rhythmic motor exercise) and control group (free plays). The experimental group performed the intervention for 8 weeks (3 days a week, 45 minutes per day), while the control group had their normal daily activities. Each session consisted of warm-up (10 minutes), rhythmic exercise (25 minutes) and cool down (10 minutes). The Test of Gross Motor Skills- third edition (TGMD-3) and The Minnesota handwriting skill test were used to measure FMS and handwriting at pre and post intervention. Dependent t-test was used for intra-group comparison and ANCOVA test was used for inter-group comparison. The data was analyzed at a significance level of 0.05 using SPSS software version 24. The results showed that rhythmic motor intervention had a significant effect on improving FMS of boys with developmental coordination disorders (p<0.05). Rhythmic motor intervention is also effective in improving handwriting skills of boys with developmental coordination disorders (p<0.05). Other results indicated the significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the research variables (p<0.05). The current findings indicate that rhythmic motor intervention is useful for motor performance and academic achievement of boys with developmental coordination disorders.

rhythmic intervention; Fundamental motor skills; DCD; academic achievement