Movement Strategies During Balance Tasks in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Hasselt University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Development Coordination Disorder; Typical Developed Children

Treatments: Other: Single-session balance intervention in virtual reality

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06802094

B1152024000023

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main objective of the study is to gain insights in how children learn a balance task and whether there is a difference between children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder. Furthermore, the investigators are interested in the brain activity of these children while learning this new balance task.

Enrollment: 50 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 7 to 12 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

For children with DCD

• Children with the clinical diagnosis of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) based on criteria of the DSM-5 (APA, 2013), diagnosed by a pediatrician.
• Children who have no formal diagnosis are evaluated by the research team using the diagnostic criteria as outlined in the inclusion criteria, these children will be included as "suspected of having DCD"
• Balance problems need to be present and objectified with the Balance Evaluation Systems Test for Children, second edition (Kids-BESTest-2). (total score below 80%)

For children without DCD

• Total score at or below the 25th percentile on the Movement Assessment Battery for children, second edition
• Normal postural control, objectified by the Kids-BESTest-2 (score at or above 80%)
• Match with children with DCD based on their sex, age and potential comorbidities.

Exclusion criteria

Presence of:

• Intellectual problems
• Visual problems
• Vestibular problems
• Neurological conditions
• Not able to follow instructions due to behavioral problems
• Refuse to participate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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50 participants in 1 patient group

Learning of a new balance task in virtual reality

Experimental group

Description:

All children will perform a single training session (30 minutes) in a virtual reality environment, where one game will be played to challenge their balance. After one week, the children will play two games in the virtual reality environment to look at the retention (same game as first session) and transfer (similar game as first session).

Treatment:

Other: Single-session balance intervention in virtual reality