NCT04158960

Motor Skill Proficiency After Equine-assisted Activities and Brain-building Tasks

Changes in Motor Skill Proficiency After Equine-Assisted Activities and Brain-Building Tasks in Youth With Neurodevelopmental Disorders

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 25 (actual)
• Sponsor: Texas Woman's University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 5 Years – 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

There is no current research to support the efficacy of a combination of equine-assisted activities (EAA) and brain building activities to influence motor skill competencies in youth with neurodevelopmental disorders (ND). The primary objective of this study was to quantify changes in motor skill proficiency before and after 8 weeks of EAA and brain-building activities in youth with ND. A secondary objective was to quantify changes in motor skill proficiency before and after 1 year of EAA and brain-building activities in youth with ND.

Detailed description

Twenty-five youth completed the same 32-week protocol that was separated into 4, 8-week blocks, in the following order: a) control, b) EAA-only, c) washout, and d) GaitWay block (EAA and brain building activities). Before and after each block, motor skills were assessed using the Short Form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Version 2 (BOT-2). Seven youth continued with the GaitWay intervention for one additional year, and the BOT-2 Short Form was also administered following this intervention. A repeated-measures analysis-of-variance was performed to compare BOT-2 subtest and overall scores between interventions. A significance of .05 was used. Manual dexterity was higher at Post-Washout versus Pre-Control (p = .018) and Post-Control (p = .024), and at Post-GaitWay versus Pre-Control (p = .037). Upper-limb coordination was higher Post-GaitWay versus Post-Control (p = .050). When compared to Pre-Control, strength was higher at Post-EAA (p = .028) and at Post-GaitWay (p = .015). Overall scores were higher at Post-GaitWay when compared to Pre-Control (p = .003) and Post-Control (p = .009). Among the seven participants who participated in the 1-year follow-up GaitWay motor skills were maintained for one year following the Post-GaitWay testing session. A combination of EAA and brain building activities may be an effective therapeutic modality to improve and maintain motor skill proficiency in youth with ND.

Conditions

• Motor Delay
• Motor Skills Disorders
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Attention Deficit Hyper Activity
• Intellectual Disability
• Sensory Disorders

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Equine-assisted activities	Participants performed riding-related activities on and off of a horse once per week for 8 weeks
BEHAVIORAL	GaitWay program	Participants performed riding-related activities on and off of a horse, along with brain-building activities including balance tasks, swinging, spinning, music therapy, and sensory tasks, all once per week for 8 weeks

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-02-01
• Primary completion: 2018-05-31
• Completion: 2018-05-31
• First posted: 2019-11-12
• Last updated: 2019-11-12