Are teaching principles associated with improved motor performance in children with developmental coordination disorder? A pilot study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Physical therapists' teaching skills often are disregarded in research studies. We examined whether the use of different teaching principles during neuromotor task training was associated with treatment effects. SUBJECTS Nineteen children (mean age=7 years 5 months, range=5-10 years) who had developmental coordination disorder and who performed below the 15th percentile on the age-related Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) and 11 physical therapists participated in the study. METHODS One intervention session for each child was videotaped. The frequency of the use of principles included in the motor teaching principles taxonomy (Niemeijer et al, 2003) was correlated with changes in motor performance on the M-ABC and the second edition of the Test of Gross Motor Development. RESULTS Providing clues on how to perform a task, asking children about a task, and explaining why a movement should be executed in a certain way were related to better movement performance. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Teaching principles may be associated with success in therapeutic situations.