Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder Play Active Virtual Reality Games Differently Than Children With Typical Development

Background Active virtual reality gaming (AVG) may be useful for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) to practice motor skills if their movement patterns are of good quality while engaged in AVG.

Objective This study aimed to examine: (1) the quality of motor patterns of children with DCD participating in AVG by comparing them with children with typical development (TD) and (2) whether differences existed in the motor patterns utilized with 2 AVG types: Sony PlayStation 3 Move and Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect.

Design This was a quasi-experimental, biomechanical laboratory–based study.

Methods Twenty-one children with DCD, aged 10 to 12 years, and 19 age- and sex-matched children with TD played a match of table tennis on each AVG type. Hand path, wrist angle, and elbow angle were recorded using a motion analysis system. Linear mixed-model analyses were used to determine differences between DCD and TD groups and Move and Kinect AVG type for forehands and backhands.

Results Children with DCD utilized a slower hand path speed (backhand mean difference [MD]=1.20 m/s; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]=0.41, 1.98); greater wrist extension (forehand MD=34.3°; 95% CI=22.6, 47.0); and greater elbow flexion (forehand MD=22.3°; 95% CI=7.4, 37.1) compared with children with TD when engaged in AVG. There also were differences in movement patterns utilized between AVG types.

Limitations Only simple kinematic measures were compared, and no data regarding movement outcome were assessed.

Conclusions If a therapeutic treatment goal is to promote movement quality in children with DCD, clinical judgment is required to select the most appropriate AVG type and determine whether movement quality is adequate for unsupervised practice.