The Effect of Combination of Action Observation and Imagery on the Aiming-Catching Skills in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the combination of action observation and imagery on the accuracy of aiming and catching skills in children with developmental coordination disorder.Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, and a control group design. 44 participants with the age range of 7 to 9 years were selected purposively from girls and boys with developmental coordination disorder in Qom City and were assigned to four Action Observation, Imagery, Action Observation + Imagery (combined), and Control groups. In the pre-test phase, the participants threw 10 balls towards the wall and simultaneously caught the returned ball. The intervention phase was conducted in six weeks and three sessions per week and each session lasted 10 minutes. The post-test phase was conducted similar to the pre-test phase. The data were analyzed using one-way ANCOVA.Results: The results showed that both the imagery and the action observation interventions and also the combination of these two interventions have a significant effect on improving the performance of the children’s aiming and catching skills (P<0.05). Also, results showed that the combination of action observation and imagery interventions significantly led to a better performance of aiming and catching skills in participants.Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, it is possible to use the combination of action observation and imagery interventions to improve the performance of the aiming and catching skill in children with developmental coordination disorder.

Keywords

• action observation developmental coordination disorder imagery motor performance