Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan CY (1), Siu HK (1), Yeung KC (1), Cheuk NL (1), Lui LC (1), Cheung CH (1), Tam HL (1), Chan NC (1), Tao PW (1), Fung HW (1), Fung NH (1), Suen NC (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Physiotherapy Department, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
Around 6% of primary school-aged children are affected by Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). The carrying effect of hospital-based training to home exercise requires much parental involvement.
Objectives :
DCD Telehealth (TELE) service was designed with the aim of increasing parents’ understanding of their children’s condition and empowering both children and parents in continuing home exercises as prescribed.
Methodology :
21 children aged 6-12 diagnosed with gross motor delay or DCD were recruited and divided into TELE-group (N=11) and conventional group (N=10) from July 2022 to October 2023. The TELE-group received 6-week gross motor training including 3 hospital-based face-to-face training (40mins) and 3 TELE-training at home (40mins), while the conventional group received 6 lessons of hospital-based training (40mins). The upper limb coordination, bilateral coordination, balance, running speed and agility and strength sub-scores from Bruininks-Oseretysky Test of Motor Proficiency Second Edition (BOT-II) were used to assess the gross motor function of the children pre and post treatment. Telephone interviews were made with TELE-group’s parents at least one-month post-intervention to understand their opinions on TELE-training.
Result & Outcome :
10 children from the TELE-group and 9 children from the conventional group completed the study. The TELE-group showed significant improvement in upper limb coordination (p=0.008), bilateral coordination (p=0.003), running speed and agility (p=0.006) and strength (p=0.02) post-intervention, while the conventional group only showed significant improvement in balance (p=0.043). The TELE-group showed greater improvements in bilateral coordination (168.75% vs 57.89%, p=0.059), running speed and agility (69.57% vs 0%, p=0.064) when compared with the conventional group. Phone interviews with 10 TELE-group parents showed the overall satisfaction of TELE-training was 7/10; helping in their understanding of home exercises was 7.6/10, and understanding of patients’ gross motor ability was 8.1/10.
With the same number of training sessions, Telehealth training with a special education package could replace hospital-based face-to-face training with better gross motor outcomes, more flexibility in patients’ preferred consultation time, and more space-saving with the growing clinical demands. Further enhancement of Tele-care with HA-GO App is planned to monitor home exercises compliance. To conclude, TELE-training can be a new form of training with greater reinforcement of home exercises and parents’ empowerment.
