Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists March 2016

Effective Frequency for Motor Skill Groups As pediatric therapists, we often recommend how many sessions of therapy to provide. Here is a small but relevant study regarding the effectiveness of two group programs on visual-motor integration, motor proficiency, gross-motor skills, and parental perception of motor difficulties in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Children with DCD were divided into two frequency groups who either received 10 one hour sessions – once/week for 10 weeks (6 children with DCD ages 7-12) or 24 one hour sessions – twice/week for 12 weeks (8 children with DCD ages 7-12). All of the children were evaluated before and after each program with the MABC-2, DCD-Q, BOT-2, Beery-VMI-6, and the TGMD-2 assessments. The motor skill groups focused on activities that required collaboration while performing skills that utilized upper-body coordination, balance, and fine-motor abilities. The results indicated the following: the 24-session (60 minute sessions 2x/week for 12 weeks) intervention program revealed significant improvements in the Manual Coordination and Total Score of the BOT-2, and parents reported significantly higher scores for all categories of the DCD-Q. no significant changes were observed after the 10-session once/week intervention program. The researchers concluded that 24 one-hour sessions- twice a week for 12 weeks group intervention program can be an effective intervention method for improvement of motor skills in children with DCD. Reference: Caçola PM, Ibana M, Romero M, Chuang J. The Effectiveness of a Group Motor Skill Intervention Program in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: Program Frequency Matters.. The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. 2016 Jan 01;14(1), Article 4. Get 25 instant sensory motor activity ideas for your group occupational or physical therapy sessions. The ideas require absolutely NO equipment, just a little imagination and fun. These activities allow you to get your group therapy sessions off to an immediate, productive start taking full advantage of your students’ desire to move. FIND OUT MORE at http://yourtherapysource.com/instant.html www.YourTherapySource.com

Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists March 2016 | Page 9