Developmental Coordination Disorder and Self-Esteem: Do Occupational Therapy Groups Have a Positive Effect?

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have motor difficulties that impede the acquisition of both functional and academic skills and evidence suggests that these children may also have reduced self-esteem. One approach to treatment often adopted by occupational therapists is in the form of group therapy. Anecdotal evidence indicates that although these groups may produce little improvement in motor skills, there may be an associated increase in the children's self-confidence and self-esteem. This pilot study aimed to evaluate whether this was the case.

A mixed methodology was used to evaluate the self-esteem of 12 children with DCD and to obtain the views of their parents/carers. A repeated measure design was used to assess the children using a validated measure of self-esteem, the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventories (CFSEI-2, Battle 1992), at initial assessment and pre and post therapy group. The parents/carers of the children were asked to complete a questionnaire during the last therapy group session and this formed the basis of a post-group interview.

The results indicated that for this group of children the therapy groups did have a positive effect on their self-esteem in the majority of cases. Although it is unreasonable to draw definite conclusions from this pilot study because of the small sample size, possible implications for policy and practice are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.