Effects of a Motor Intervention Program on Motor Skills and Executive Functions in Children With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This study examined the effect of a motor intervention based on the attention, balance, and coordination (ABC) learning approach on motor proficiency and executive functions in children with learning disabilities (LD). Forty-five male elementary school students with LD aged 7-9 years were recruited and randomly assigned into one of three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. Experimental Group A received only the motor intervention. Experimental Group B simultaneously received both motor intervention and regular educational services. The control group received only regular educational services. The motor intervention involved sequential station exercises based on ABC; this training took place in 24 sessions, scheduled three times a week for eight weeks. We obtained children’s scores on the Bruininks-Oseretsky Tests of Motor Proficiency, N-Back Test, Tower of London, and Continuous Performance Tests at pretest, posttest, and follow-up testing. Our results showed that both experimental groups significantly improved their motor skills and most measures of executive functions, relative to no significant improvement for the control group. The improvements on some measures of executive functions in Experimental Group B were just slightly better than in Experimental Group A. This study supported Blythe’s ABC learning approach emphasizing ABC, and it extended earlier findings of benefits of this approach to populations of children with LD.

Efficacy of a Task-Oriented Intervention for Children with a Dual Diagnosis of Specific Learning Disabilities and Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Pilot Study

“…Response to intervention was 50%. This finding concurs with findings of reviews of interventions for learners with DCD where large effect sizes for task-oriented approaches were reported [ 20 , 22 ]. In contrast, the usual care group showed no statistically significant change.…”

“…However, two studies investigated motor-based training in children with a single diagnosis of learning disorders. Emami Kashfi et al investigated the effectiveness of a psychomotor intervention to improve motor skills in boys with LD (reading, writing, and/or mathematics) by focusing on laterality, balance, and coordination [ 20 ]. They compared the psychomotor training with supplemental regular educational services for their LD, but also with a group who received only regular educational services.…”

Effects of a Coordinative Ability Training Program on Adolescents’ Cognitive Functioning

“…Several studies have indicated that children and adolescent who spend more time in physical activities have better academic performance than those who are sedentary (Ayers and Sariscsany, 2010). Researchers suggesting that young people may improve mental acuity, skills, and strategies through physical exercise (Donnelly et al, 2016) and supports the idea that cognitive performance improves with physical exercise that makes adolescents more efficient on reaction time tasks and more flexible on attention-orientation tasks Ballesteros, 2014, 2018;Alesi et al, 2016;Zach and Shalom, 2016;Burns et al, 2017;Kashfi et al, 2019). Furthermore, a well-managed physical exercise may facilitate certain aspects of information processing in children and adolescent (Tomporowski et al, 2011).…”

Effect of a psychomotor intervention program for children with ADHD

“…Historically, psychomotor stimulation is described in studies on motor education in the school setting, mainly in kindergarten and first grades (Le Boulch, 1988;Tani, 1987). In the current literature, even though most is related to education, existing research already associates motor characteristics to the cognitive, social, and psychological development of the child (Cardeal, Pereira, Silva, & França, 2013;Kashfi et al, 2019;Stein, Auerswald, & Ebersbach, 2017;Valentini, 2002).…”