The effect of laboratory-developed video games on balance performance in children with developmental coordination disorder

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) refers to the motor skill difficulty without any explainable medical conditions. The prevalence rate of DCD is estimated to be 5-12% in Taiwan. Balance deficit is one of the main characteristics of children with DCD. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a self-developed balance training program on the balance performance in children with DCD. Twenty four children aged 5-10 years old with DCD and 12 age-matched typically developing (TD) children participated in the study. Children with DCD were randomly divided between an experimental group (DCD-exp) who received treatment with the iBalance training program and the control group (DCD-con) who did not received treatment. TD children also did not receive treatment as a comparison group. All the children were tested with the movement assessment battery for children-2nd edition (MABC-2) and iBalance assessment system before and after the intervention period. A significant improvement of the MABC-2 balance component score, time duration of one-leg standing and the number of success trials with dynamic balance tasks were noted in the children of DCD-exp but not in the children of DCD-con and TD. The results suggest that the iBalance training program is effective for a short time treatment effect for children with DCD. The long term effect and transfer effect need to be examined.