| It has been hypothesised that defcits in the functions of predictive motor control and internal
modeling may contribute to motor control issues of children with Developmental Coordination
Disorder (DCD). Virtual reality (VR) technologies have great potential to provide opportunity for
Motor observation and motor imagery (MI) which could enhance learning and development of
motor skills in children with DCD. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the benefts of a
VR training intervention to improve predictive motor control functions of children with DCD.
Forty female children with DCD (aged 7–10) were randomly assigned to VR and control groups. In
this study, an experimental pre-post and follow-up design was used, and Predictive motor control
functions were measured before and after the VR intervention and two-months later. Predictive
motor control was evaluated using MI (by hand rotation task), action planning (by sword
placement task), and rapid and online control (by rotational tracking task) tests. VR intervention
consisted of a selection of Xbox 360 Kinect games that were performed for sixteen 30-min sessions
over 8 weeks. Compared to the control group, the VR group improved signifcantly on measures
of MI, motor planning, and rapid and online control scores from pre- to post-test and retained
their performance to follow-up. Overall, it seems that virtual reality training program may be
used as an appropriate intervention approach for developing the ability of MI and predictive
motor control functions in DCD children. |