The efficacy of Le Bon Départ and Sensory Integration treatment for children with developmental coordination disorder: a randomized study with six single cases.

OBJECTIVE Evaluation of the efficacy of Le Bon Départ (LBD) treatment and Sensory Integration (SI) treatment on motor performance of children with developmental coordination disorder. DESIGN A single subject design with multiple baseline and alternating treatments. Order of treatment and length of phase were randomized. Measurements were blinded. SETTING Department of Occupational Therapy at the Academic Hospital Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. SUBJECTS Five boys and one girl with developmental coordination disorder (age: 6.0-8.1 years). INTERVENTIONS Baseline condition, Le Bon Départ treatment and Sensory Integration treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The Movement ABC, Praxis Tests, a rhythm test and visual analogue scales. With the exception of the Praxis Tests, lower scores indicate better performance. RESULTS During both treatments, the performance on the Movement ABC (x = 7.21) and the scores on the visual analogue scales (x = 46.64) were significantly better than in the baseline (Movement ABC(baseline): x = 17.38; visual analogue scales(baseline): x = 68.18). After treatment 2, performance on the Praxis Tests and scores on the visual analogue scales were significantly better than after treatment 1 (Praxis Tests: 113.54 versus 104.68; visual analogue scales: 34.74 versus 58.54). All six children performed better on the Movement ABC during treatment as compared to the baseline. Le Bon Départ led to significant improvement on all dependent variables, Sensory Integration on the visual analogue scales only. The improvements after Le Bon Départ were larger than the improvements after Sensory Integration treatment. On the rhythm test this difference was significant: LBD led to an improvement of 43.01 points, while the improvement after SI was 17.59 points (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION Motor performance of children with developmental coordination disorder improved significantly on all dependent variables after the combination of treatments. Le Bon Départ led to more improvement than Sensory Integration. LBD appears to be a valuable treatment method for children with developmental coordination disorder.