Effects of virtual reality training intervention on predictive motor control of children with DCD - A randomized controlled trial.
Eight weeks of Xbox Kinect VR games twice a week meaningfully boosts predictive motor control in 7-young learners girls with DCD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers in Iran tested Xbox 360 Kinect games on 30 girls with Developmental Coordination Disorder.
Kids played 30-minute VR games twice a week for eight weeks.
The team measured motor imagery, action planning, and online control before, after, and two months later.
What they found
Girls who played VR games got much better at picturing moves and adjusting mid-action.
The gains stayed strong two months later.
Wait-list kids showed no change.
How this fits with other research
Mombarg et al. (2013) saw the same pattern with Wii balance boards six years earlier.
Both studies show cheap gaming gear can fix motor skills in kids with delays.
Wuang et al. (2011) also found Wii games plus therapy beat therapy alone for Down syndrome kids.
Together, these three papers say off-the-shelf consoles work across different delays and ages.
Why it matters
You can grab a $50 used Kinect and run evidence-based motor training next week. No special software. No big budget. Just pick games that need planning and quick fixes, like Kinect Sports or Fruit Ninja. Track the same three skills with simple pre-post checks.
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Join Free →Set up a Kinect station and run 15-minute game rounds targeting reach-and-grab or balance tasks, then chart the child’s ability to self-correct mid-move.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
It has been hypothesised that deficits in the functions of predictive motor control and internal modeling may contribute to motor control issues of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Virtual reality (VR) technologies have great potential to provide opportunity for Motor observation and motor imagery (MI) which could enhance learning and development of motor skills in children with DCD. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the benefits of a VR training intervention to improve predictive motor control functions of children with DCD. Forty female children with DCD (aged 7-10) were randomly assigned to VR and control groups. In this study, an experimental pre-post and follow-up design was used, and Predictive motor control functions were measured before and after the VR intervention and two-months later. Predictive motor control was evaluated using MI (by hand rotation task), action planning (by sword placement task), and rapid and online control (by rotational tracking task) tests. VR intervention consisted of a selection of Xbox 360 Kinect games that were performed for sixteen 30-min sessions over 8 weeks. Compared to the control group, the VR group improved significantly on measures of MI, motor planning, and rapid and online control scores from pre- to post-test and retained their performance to follow-up. Overall, it seems that virtual reality training program may be used as an appropriate intervention approach for developing the ability of MI and predictive motor control functions in DCD children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103768