THE EFFECTS OF A PSYCHOMOTOR TRAINING-PROGRAM ON MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL LANGUAGE DISORDERS

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two appr oaches to movement intervention for children with a combination of lan guage and movement difficulties - a specialist approach labelled psych omotor training and regular PE lessons from trained PE teachers. From a sample of 76 children formally classified as suffering from developm ental language disorder, 54 (71%) fell below the 15th percentile on a test of motor competence. These 54 children were then divided into two groups, one of whom received a 10 week psychomotor training programme and the other regular PE lessons. Although all children, regardless o f the type of intervention, made progress, the differences between the se two approaches were small. However, the children in the psychomotor training programme did improve more than those who followed the regul ar physical education curriculum, particularly on the object control t ask of the Test of Gross Motor Development. Our results are discussed in terms of the contribution movement intervention can make to the ove rall development of children with developmental language disorders. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.