How do paediatric physical therapists teach motor skills to children with Developmental Coordination Disorder? An interview study

• Published in: PloS one 2024-02, Vol.19 (2), p.e0297119-e0297119
• Main Authors: van der Veer, Ingrid P A, Rameckers, Eugene A A, Steenbergen, Bert, Bastiaenen, Caroline H G, Klingels, Katrijn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Apraxia; Biology and Life Sciences; Child development; Children; Complications and side effects; Decision-making; Health aspects; Learning strategies; Medicine and Health Sciences; Motor ability; Patient outcomes; Pediatrics; People and Places; Physical therapists; Physical therapy; Research and Analysis Methods; Social Sciences; Study and teaching; Therapeutics, Physiological; Training
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297119

When teaching motor skills, paediatric physical therapists (PPTs) use various motor learning strategies (MLSs), adapting these to suit the individual child and the task being practised. Knowledge about the clinical decision-making process of PPTs in choosing and adapting MLSs when treating children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is currently lacking. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore PPTs' use of MLSs when teaching motor skills to children with DCD. Semi-structured individual and group interviews were conducted with PPTs with a wide range of experience in treating children with DCD. A conventional content analysis approach was used where all transcripts were open-coded by two reviewers independently. Categories and themes were discussed within the research group. Data were collected until saturation was reached. Twenty-six PPTs (median age: 49 years; range: 26-66) participated in 12 individual interviews and two focus-group interviews. Six themes were identified: (1) PPTs treated children in a tailor-made way; (2) PPTs' teaching style was either more indirect or direct; (3) PPTs used various strategies to improve children's motivation; (4) PPTs had reached the optimal level of practice when children were challenged; (5) PPTs gave special attention to automatization and transfer during treatment; and (6) PPTs considered task complexity when choosing MLSs, which appeared determined by task constraints, environmental demands, child and therapist characteristics. PPTs' clinical decision-making processes in choosing MLSs appeared strongly influenced by therapist characteristics like knowledge and experience, resulting in large variation in the use of MLSs and teaching styles to enhance motivation, automatization, and transfer. This study indicates the importance of the level of education on using MLSs to teach children motor skills, and clinical decision-making. Future research should focus on implementing this knowledge into daily practice.