Comparing the Effect of Group and Individual Games on the Motor Development in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is an atypical motor development with an undiscovered etiology, which has recently attracted extensive attention. A significant challenge regarding motor development in children with DCD is identifying the constraints that affect the optimization of interventions, i.e., designed for motor development. The present study attempted to compare the effects of group and individual games on the development of fundamental movement skills in children with DCD.

This was a quasi–experimental research with a pretest–posttest and a control group design. The statistical population of the present study included all females aged 9–10 years with DCD in Tehran City, Iran, in 2018. The DCD was diagnosed using the second edition of the movement assessment battery (2001) for children followed by a psychiatrist’s approval. A total of 20 students with DCD were selected through convenience sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups, as follows: group games and individual games (10 children per group). The study groups performed the selected exercises during eighteen 60–minute sessions. The games played by the two groups were the same, and the only difference concerned the organization of the games. To design the games, several activities and games were extracted through exploring relevant literature (Peens et al., 2006). The selected activities and games were then included in the process of 18 daily lesson plans and were approved by 10 physical education professors. Prior to conducting the research, these games were tested on 12 children with DCD that were excluded from the research sample. Moreover, the games were completely consistent with the research objectives in terms of severity, duration, and time. The study subjects were evaluated before and after conducting the exercises by the Test of Gross Motor Development–Second Edition (TGMD–2). This test was presented by Ulrich (2000) for the qualitative assessment of gross motor skills. The TGMD–2 measures the locomotion and manipulation skills in subtests. The total score obtained in both subtests is considered as the value for fundamental movement skills. The validity and reliability of this tool have been approved by Soltanian et al., (2013) in Iran. Based on this study, the coefficient of internal consistency and reliability for locomotion and manipulation score, as well as the total score were reported as 78%, 74%, and 80%, respectively. Data analysis was performed in SPSS using repeated–measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at a significance level of 0.05.

The obtained data were normalized using Shapiro–Wilk test; then, the scores of the pretest and posttest was compared between the study groups. Due to the heterogeneity of the data between the two groups, using the analysis of covariance was impossible. Therefore, to investigate the effect of the exercises, a 2 (groups) × 2 (pretest and posttest phases) repeated–measures ANOVA was performed through which the time factor was repeatedly measured. The collected findings revealed that group and individual game approaches had a significant effect on motor development in the studied children (p<0.001). The superior effect of group games in comparison with individual games (p=0.012) was confirmed considering the higher level of progress made by the group games research group (mean±SD: from 66.90±8.14 to 73.20±3.32), compared to the individual games study group (mean±SD: from 64.80±6.56 to 66.10±5.42).

Considering the advantages of group games and the results of this research study, motor development interventions in children with DCD could lead to more favorable outcomes in the development of fundamental movement skills; this goal is achieved if using group methods. Such practice proved effectiveness in preparing an individual for social life and teamwork that is encountered in everyday life. Social relationships could also be improved through these types of games.