The Effects of aquatic and land-based interventions on children with developmental coordination disorder

LÚCIO FERNANDES FERREIRA^1,2*CLEVERTON JOSÉ FARIAS DE SOUZA^1,2Jorge A De Oliveira³Andrea Michele Freudenheim³

• ¹Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Federal University of Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil
• ²Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil
• ³Universidade de Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Background: Knowledge about the effects of aquatic intervention on children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), as well as the maintenance of these effects over time, is still scarce. We believe that there is a need to advance our knowledge of this subject, for which we have set ourselves the following objectives: (1) to test whether the effects of aquatic and land-based interventions influence the motor performance of children with DCD; (2) to check whether these effects persist over time; and (3) whether the effects of aquatic and land-based interventions bring motor performance values closer together between children with DCD and those with typical development. Method: The final sample consisted of 66 children, 27 girls and 39 boys. The groups of children with DCD were randomized according to their initial total score on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children Test - second edition (MABC-2). The interventions lasted 4.5 months (18 weeks) with three sessions a week, totaling 54 sessions of 60 minutes each. Results: Effects were detected for group, F(2, 54.7) = 3.78, p < 0.05, and for time point F(3, 131) = 22.91, p < 0.001. The Tukey-Kramer post hoc test found a difference between the T-DCD and C-DCD groups (p < 0.05). For time point, differences were deteced (p < 0.001). Regarding the analysis of the Z score, the results indicated an interaction effect for the group and time point F(6, 132) = 2.30, p = 0.038. This difference was located by post hoc between the C-DCD group and the A-DCD (p < 0.05; independent groups pre-test - post-test effect size (digpp= 1.72) and dig= 0.79) and T-DCD (p < 0.05 ES digpp= 1.65 and dig= 0.79) groups at 6 months-post-test. Conclusion: We conclude that both aquatic and terrestrial interventions have positive effects on the motor performance of children with DCD, that these effects are maintained over time but also bring the motor performance of children with DCD closer to that of children with typical development.