A descriptive review of the cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) approach and its impact on mobility problems in children with developmental coordination disorder

Motor skills and functional mobility are mainly necessary for children to perform motor tasks especially their activity daily living. These skills are extremely essential for independence in self-care activities. Delays in self-care may be evident in children with motor problems. Treatment approaches are used by occupational therapists to improve motor function. In recent decades، cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (also known as CO-OP) is one of the therapeutic approaches. CO-OP is a client-centered and individualized approach. This study reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of the CO-OP approach on motor function in children with developmental coordination disorder.

In this study، a comprehensive review of the literature was conducted via PubMed، Proquest، Informa، Scopus and Google Scholar data bases. The keywords used in this search were “motor-based occupational performance problems”، “CO-OP”. All articles were initially evaluated according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and then selected articles were reviewed.

Of 60 articles found، 8 articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were considered as appropriate for this study.

The review of the studies showed that CO-OP approach is an appropriate approach to improving motor-based occupational performance of children with motor problems.