The Effects of Two Different Physical Activity Organizing Methods on the Executive Functions of the Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Since the people with developmental coordination disorder are weak in executive functions, the present study was aimed to investigate the effect of two different physical activity organizing methods on the executive functions of children with developmental coordination disorder. Among the children with developmental coordination disorder that were eligible to enter the study, 45 subjects were randomly selected and after completing Conner’s Executive Functioning Scale as pretest, randomly divided into three groups; random practice group (15 subjects), blocked practice group (15 subjects), and control group (15 subjects). Then, the two interventional groups performed physical practices with different underlying interactions for 8 weeks, with three 45-minute sessions each week. At the end, all the subjects underwent a posttest by executive functioning scale. After the interventions, the results showed a significant improvement in the executive functions of the two intervention groups. However, no significant improvement was observed in the executive functions of the control group. In addition, a significant difference between random and blocked practice groups was observed. However, the random practice group had a greater improvement in the sensory-motor functions. According to our data, random physical practices can be considered as an ideal method to improve executive functions of the children with developmental coordination disorder.