Graduation Semester and Year
Summer 2026
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology
Department
Kinesiology
First Advisor
Priscila Tamplain
Abstract
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) affects an estimated 5–6% of school-aged children and is characterized by persistent motor coordination difficulties that interfere with daily functioning across home, school, and community settings (Blank et al., 2019). Beyond motor performance, children with DCD engage in substantially less physical activity than their peers, show reduced physical fitness, and face consistent barriers to participation in movement-based activities — patterns that tend to persist into adulthood, with consequences for social participation, well-being, and health (Rivilis et al., 2011; Cermak et al., 2015; Tan et al., 2022).
Despite this, intervention research in DCD has largely focused on motor skill performance rather than physical fitness and has relied on delivery models that limit reach. It remains unclear which strategies produce meaningful fitness gains when fitness is explicitly targeted — and why, even when effective approaches exist, families continue to struggle to sustain physical activity engagement.
This dissertation addresses both questions through four interrelated studies that examine physical activity participation and physical fitness in DCD from quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods perspectives.
The first study (Chapter 1) evaluated an eHealth intervention combining social media-delivered education, family-centered goal setting, and wearable activity monitoring in a randomized waitlist-control trial with 18 families. The intervention did not significantly increase daily step counts but was associated with meaningful improvements in health-related quality of life — including physical and school functioning. Parents and children reported divergent perceptions of social and psychosocial well-being, suggesting that benefits may be domain-specific and experienced differently by adults and children.
The second study (Chapter 2) explored what families were actually experiencing through an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis with four mothers who participated in the intervention. Three themes emerged: movement as a family-embedded practice sustained through routine integration and small adaptations; technology as both enabler and source of friction depending on sensory fit and goal proximity; and participation decisions consistently shaped by a weighing of physical activity opportunity against social-emotional risk for the child.
The third study (Chapter 3) examined what the broader literature establishes about fitness outcomes through a systematic review of randomized controlled trials on physical activity and exercise interventions in DCD. Ten RCTs met inclusion criteria. Structured interventions produced consistent gains in muscular strength and speed/agility; evidence for cardiorespiratory fitness was limited and inconsistent. Physical activity promotion alone — without adequately dosed exercise content — did not reliably produce measurable fitness improvements.
The fourth study (Chapter 4) used a mixed-methods design to examine parents' capability, opportunity, and motivation to support physical activity in their children with DCD, using the COM-B model as a framework (Michie et al., 2011). Quantitative data captured parents' own activity levels, exercise motivation, and perceived neighborhood walkability; qualitative interviews explored how parents interpret and attempt to apply current physical activity guidelines. Barriers operated primarily at the level of opportunity and motivation, not knowledge — parents understood the guidelines but lacked access to suitable programs and structural supports to sustain engagement over time.
Taken together, these studies move from evaluating an intervention, to understanding how families experience it, to reviewing the fitness evidence base, to examining whether current recommendations are realistic for families in practice. The central argument is that improving physical activity participation and fitness in children with DCD requires more than identifying effective interventions — it requires delivery systems and family supports that respond to the ecological realities of families' lives.
Keywords
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), Physical Activity, E-health Intervention, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), Physical Fitness, Systematic Review, Parents, Children, physical activity guidelines, COM-B model, behavior change
Disciplines
Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Motor Control | Occupational Therapy | Other Kinesiology | Physical Therapy | Public Health Education and Promotion
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ocampo-Plazas, Mary Luz, "Towards comprehensive strategies for promoting physical activity in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): Exploring program effectiveness, eHealth interventions, and practical recommendations for parents and children" (2026). Kinesiology Dissertations. 3.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/kinesiology_dissertations2/3
Included in
Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Motor Control Commons, Occupational Therapy Commons, Other Kinesiology Commons, Physical Therapy Commons, Public Health Education and Promotion Commons