Evaluation of effectiveness of the therapeutic program combining elements of occupational therapy and Veronica Sherborne’s Developmental Movement approach in autistic children. A preliminary study

Cognitive and Academic Outcomes of Fundamental Motor Skill and Physical Activity Interventions Designed for Children with Special Educational Needs: A Systematic Review

“…Three of the studies [ 38 , 39 , 40 ] included two intervention programs that met the eligibility criteria, and thus, were analyzed separately. A total of 14 intervention programs focused on FMS only interventions [ 30 , 31 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ], PA only interventions [ 35 , 40 ], or FMS and PA only interventions [ 32 , 45 ], while 11 programs combined FMS [ 3 , 21 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 46 , 47 ], PA [ 34 , 48 ], or FMS and PA [ 40 , 49 ] with cognitive or academic skill practices. Intervention duration ranged from five weeks [ 35 ] to one academic year [ 3 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 41 , 45 ].…”

“…Of these, the confounders were 80–100% controlled in three studies [ 21 , 36 , 40 ], while in seven studies [ 3 , 32 , 34 , 41 , 43 , 45 , 48 ], no important confounders were observed between the groups. While most of the studies [ 3 , 21 , 30 , 33 , 34 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ] did not report the outcome assessors’ blinding, six of the studies [ 31 , 35 , 36 , 40 , 43 , 45 ] reported that the outcome assessors were not aware, and only one study [ 32 ] reported that the outcome assessors were aware of the intervention or exposure status of the participants. Data collection methods were shown to be valid in seven studies [ 30 , 32 , 33 , 39 , 40 , 44 , 45 ] and of these, only three studies [ 30 , 40 , 44 ] reported that the data collection methods demonstrated good reliability in that particular data.…”

“…Of the included studies, ten (45%) were found to be underpowered to detect a medium effect size [ 31 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 46 , 48 ], while seven (32%) were confirmed to be adequately powered [ 3 , 21 , 30 , 32 , 35 , 41 , 45 ]; for the remaining five (23%) post hoc power could not be determined (i.e., within-group designs without required information) [ 33 , 37 , 42 , 47 , 49 ]. Only three (14%) of the included studies reported the conducting of a priori power analysis [ 32 , 36 , 37 ], and six studies stated small sample size as a limitation of the study [ 31 , 34 , 35 , 42 , 43 , 48 ].…”

“…Children with learning disabilities. Three of the included studies investigated the effects of FMS and PA interventions in children with autism spectrum disorder [ 32 , 42 , 47 ]. One study with two separate interventions involved children with significant delays in cognition, social, motor, speech, or language development [ 40 ] and one study was on children with global developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder, or speech development delay [ 3 ].…”

“…One study with two separate interventions involved children with significant delays in cognition, social, motor, speech, or language development [ 40 ] and one study was on children with global developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder, or speech development delay [ 3 ]. Two studies assessed the effects on cognitive skills with combined FMS interventions [ 3 , 47 ], and both demonstrated beneficial effects; one study with large effects ( d = 1.15) [ 47 ], while the other demonstrated a medium beneficial effect ( d = 0.52) [ 3 ]. Three studies (one with two interventions) [ 40 ] assessed the effects on language skills [ 3 , 40 , 42 ].…”