Benefits of an Intensive Individual CO-OP Intervention in a Group Setting for Children with DCD

The present study focused on the impact of an adapted Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) five-day intervention program for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Important adaptations were the new combination of individual CO-OP sessions and group activities, the short and intensive program that was followed by a training and coaching trajectory, and the use of video logs.

Eighteen children with DCD (aged 8-16 years) participated in the five-day intervention during which they worked on three intervention goals. After the intervention, during an eight-week training and coaching trajectory for parents and children, children worked on a transfer goal. Assessment took place at four moments in time: two pretest measures, a posttest measure, and a 3-month follow-up measure. Primary outcome measures focused on changes in performance and satisfaction of self-chosen intervention and transfer goals. The secondary outcome measure explored changes in children's attitude, motivation, and confidence in relation to motor skill activities, social skills, and level of participation.

Significant improvements were found with regard to the performance and satisfaction of intervention goals. For the transfer goal, only parents reported significant improvements. Finally, parents indicated potential improvements with regard to the attitude, motivation, and confidence of their children, but not for their social skills or level of participation.

The findings are promising with regard to the efficacy of this adapted CO-OP intervention for improving intervention goals, but less effective for transfer of learned skills to other goals after the intervention. Future research should focus on how postintervention parental coaching can be improved in order to increase generalization and transfer.