Task specific balance training improves the sensory organisation of balance control in children with developmental coordination disorder a randomised controlled trial

Task Specific Balance Training Improves the Sensory Organisation of Balance Control in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder A Randomised Controlled Trial 1Scientific RepoRts | 6 20945 | D[.]

www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN received: 23 June 2015 accepted: 14 January 2016 Published: 11 February 2016 Task-Specific Balance Training Improves the Sensory Organisation of Balance Control in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Randomised Controlled Trial Shirley S.M. Fong1, X. Guo2, Karen P.Y. Liu3, W.Y. Ki1,4, Lobo H.T. Louie5, Raymond C.K. Chung2 & Duncan J. Macfarlane1 Sensory organisation of balance control is compromised in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) A randomised controlled trial involving 88 children with DCD was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a task-specific balance training (functional-movement training, FMT) programme in improving balance deficits in a DCD population The DCD participants were randomly assigned to either a FMT group or a control group The FMT group received two training sessions/ week for months Measurements of the participants’ sensory organisation (somatosensory, vestibular and visual ratios), balance and motor proficiency (Movement Assessment Battery for Children, MABC scores) and center of pressure sway velocity (Unilateral Stance Test, UST scores) were taken at baseline, immediately after FMT and months after FMT The FMT group showed greater improvements than the controls in somatosensory ratio at and months (all P  0.05) The results of both the MABC and the UST also indicated that the balance performance of the FMT group was significantly better than that of the control group at and months (all P