Effects of motor skill interventions on fundamental movement skills in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities: a systematic review.
Balance training works for kids with ID, but running and ball skills need more study.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at 18 studies on motor skill training for kids and teens with intellectual disability.
They checked if balance, running, or ball skills got better after any kind of movement program.
All studies used real tests like the Test of Gross Motor Development to score the kids.
What they found
Balance skills improved in every age group after training.
Overall movement scores went up for children, but not for teens.
Running and ball skills stayed the same — we still don’t know if training helps those areas.
How this fits with other research
Smits-Engelsman et al. (2023) and Park et al. (2023) back up the balance gains. Both used video games and VR to boost balance in kids with DCD and other delays.
Liang et al. (2026) shows why this matters: kids with neurodevelopmental disorders already get 13 fewer minutes of active play each day. The training helps close that gap.
Cruz-Montecinos et al. (2024) adds a warning. When adults with ID walk while doing a second task, their steps get much worse. This tells us to keep balance drills simple and safe.
Why it matters
You can feel confident adding balance stations to your sessions for any child with ID. Use low-cost gear like foam pads or Wii Fit games. Keep running and ball-skill goals modest until better data arrive.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities (ID) are characterised by deficits in fundamental movement skills (FMS). In youth with typical development, motor skill interventions have been recognised as an efficient means to improve FMS. However, the effects of these interventions among youth with ID have not yet been systematically reviewed. PURPOSE: The purpose of the present systematic review was to summarise the findings from studies pertaining to the effects of motor skill interventions designed to improve FMS in children and adolescents with ID. METHOD: A systematic literature search (without year restriction) was performed in 12 databases. Studies in press or published in English in a peer-reviewed journal were included if: (1) participants were youth with ID aged 5 to 22; (2) motor skill interventions aimed to improve one or several FMS; and (3) they were experimental, quasi-experimental or pre-experimental. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale was used to assess the quality of the studies. RESULTS: Through the search strategy, 1083 articles were identified, and 14 studies published between 1969 and 2018 met the inclusion criteria. In studies with children, motor skill interventions successfully improved balance skills and overall FMS, whereas mixed and inconclusive results were found for locomotor skills. In studies with adolescents, motor skill interventions were shown to successfully improve balance skills. However, none of the motor skill interventions reviewed focused on locomotor and object control skills. CONCLUSIONS: The reviewed motor skill interventions were effective in improving balance skills in both children and adolescents with ID as well as overall FMS in children with ID. Conversely, the effects of motor skill interventions targeting locomotor and object control skills remain unclear. Therefore, given the relatively small number of studies and their limitations, the present findings need to be interpreted with caution, and further rigorous studies are necessary.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2019 · doi:10.1111/jir.12618