The effect of combining strategic self-talk and mental imagery interventions on aiming - catching skills in children with developmental coordination disorder

10.22034/ijmbsp.2024.490848.1128
Volume 4, Issue 4
Autumn 2024
Pages 28-36

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Motor behavior and sport psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Motor Behavior, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of combining strategic self-talk and mental imagery interventions on the aiming-catching skills of children with developmental coordination disorder. In this quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design, 60 boys and girls with developmental coordination disorder in Tehran, aged 7 to 10 years, were purposively selected based on the inclusion criteria and placed in four groups of 15: strategic self-talk, mental imagery, strategic self-talk + mental imagery (combined), and control. In the pre-test phase, participants threw 10 balls at the wall and simultaneously received the returned ball. The intervention phase was conducted over six weeks, with three sessions per week, each session lasting 30 minutes, during which participants performed the relevant exercises. After completing the training phase, the post-test phase was conducted in the same manner as the pre-test phase. Data were analyzed using the paired t-test, univariate covariance test, and Bonferroni post hoc test. The results showed that mental imagery intervention alone, strategic self-talk intervention alone, and the combination of strategic self-talk intervention and mental imagery had a significant effect on improving the performance of aiming-catching skills in children with developmental coordination disorder (P<0.01). Other results showed that the combination of strategic self-talk interventions and mental imagery statistically resulted in better performance of aiming- catching skills in children with developmental coordination disorder compared to the implementation of these interventions alone (P<0.05).

Keywords

Subjects
  • Receive Date 27 September 2024
  • Revise Date 06 December 2024
  • Accept Date 08 December 2024