Identifying Issues in Effective Motor Imagery Training Practice in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Scoping Review.
Akira Nakashima, Takuya Higasionnna, Yuto Iwanaga and 4 others
PMID 40401120WHAT IT FOUND
Motor imagery training studies in children with developmental coordination disorder varied in tasks, dose, and imagery checks.
Some reported motor skill gains, but no standard method exists, and this scoping review could not confirm effectiveness.
Key findings
01Imagery ability was usually tested with mental rotation or mental chronometry, while imagery vividness was rarely tested.
02Many basic studies reported lower motor imagery ability in children with developmental coordination disorder than in typically developing children, but not all studies agreed.
03The review did not evaluate whether motor imagery training works, and it could not describe effectiveness for occupational therapy interventions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
This was a scoping review, so it did not evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each study. The authors could not describe the effectiveness of motor imagery training in occupational therapy interventions. Many included studies were low quality, so their reported effects should be interpreted cautiously. Only English articles from the databases searched were included, so relevant studies in other languages or sources may have been missed. The clinical studies varied in tasks, session length, frequency, and duration, and no fixed intervention protocols or standards were provided. Imagery vividness was rarely assessed, so it is unclear whether children could form the mental images needed for training.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this review as proof that motor imagery training improves motor skills in children with developmental coordination disorder. It did not evaluate the advantages or disadvantages of the included studies, and many studies were low quality.