Task-specificity and transfer of skills in school-aged children with and without developmental coordination disorder.
Active video games sharpen balance and agility in kids with DCD, yet skills stay locked to the screen unless you add real-world cues.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Smits-Engelsman et al. (2023) split the kids into two Wii groups: ball games or agility games. Half had developmental coordination disorder (DCD), half were typical peers.
Each child played 30 min, 3 times a week, over the study period. Before and after, testers scored balance, agility, ball skills, and real-world playground moves.
What they found
Both Wii plans boosted balance and agility the same for DCD and typical kids. Ball skills stayed flat.
Real playground moves barely changed. Skills learned on the screen stayed on the screen.
How this fits with other research
Park et al. (2023) saw the same narrow win: VR cycling helped locomotor skills but not ball skills. Together the two RCTs show motion games help only the exact skill you train.
Liang et al. (2026) found kids with neurodevelopmental disorders average 13 fewer minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per day. AVG sessions are one way to close that gap indoors.
Ohan et al. (2015) got wider gains by adding quiet-eye gaze tips to catching drills. Their kids improved both virtual and real catching, showing transfer is possible when you teach attention cues alongside moves.
Why it matters
Use Wii or VR motion games to warm up balance and agility, but plan separate real-world practice if you want playground or sports gains. Pair AVG time with gaze or attention cues to boost transfer, just like L et al. did with quiet-eye training.
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Join Free →Run a 10-min Wii agility warm-up, then take kids to the gym to practice the same moves on real equipment while giving clear gaze or verbal cues.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIM: To compare the effects of two Active Video Game (AVG) protocols on transfer of learning in children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). METHODS: Fifty children, aged 6-10 years were randomly allocated to either group A or B. Children in group A participated in a set of Nintendo Wii ball games whereas group B played agility games (8 DCD and 17 typically developing children (TD) per group). Participants in each group practiced Wii games for 20 min twice a week for 10 weeks. All children also practiced ball and agility games in real-world settings, once per week. RESULTS: Both protocols yielded positive effects with the largest effect sizes shown on agility and balance items of the PERF-FIT and KTK tests. No interaction was found on learning real-world games and the virtual protocol, except for a Ping-Pong game. A significant interaction of time by protocol group indicated that the Ball group improved more on BOT-2-Upper-Limb Coordination than the Agility group. Importantly, children with DCD improved comparably with TD peers in virtual and real-world games. CONCLUSION: Independent of training protocol, both children with DCD and TD children performed better on trained and non-trained ball, balance and agility tasks after 10 weeks of training.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104399