Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Journal

en Defining the Minimum Time Threshold for Natural Functional Development of Motor and Cognitive Skills: A Pilot Clinical Trial of Temporal Constraints in Hjelm’s Function-oriented Intervention Method for Children with Specific Learning Disorder Cognitive Neuroscience Cognitive Neuroscience Original Original <div style="text-align: justify;">Introduction: Children with specific learning disorders, having delay in brain development, need interventions developing brain functions. Hjelm’s function-oriented approach emphasizes sufficient time between sessions in natural functional development of brain functions. This study aimed to investigate whether a structurally restricted timeframe is sufficient to elicit developmental changes, thereby defining a minimum effective threshold for Hjelm’s function-oriented intervention. Methods: Nineteen children aged 7-12 years with specific learning disorders participated in 16 weeks-intervention, one 20-minutes-session weekly. The outcome measures included Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Continuous Performance Test, Wechsler Memory Scale, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency and Clinical Observation of Motor and Postural Skills. Repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyze differences between the groups and paired t-tests to compare pre-and post-values for both groups separately. Results: The intervention showed no significant differences between the groups. The intervention group showed significant improvements in gross motor skills, regression in some variables of motor skills and no changes in the cognitive skills. The control group showed significant improvements in postural motor skills. The control group demonstrated within-group improvements, particularly in total motor scores (𝑑𝑧 = −1.49, 95% CI [-2.33, -0.63]), exceeding the changes in the intervention group. Conclusion: The applied timeframe falls below the minimum effective threshold required to engage the central nervous system and the natural functional development productively. This study shows the importance of time in natural functional development, and a restricted timeframe is not sufficient to elicit developmental changes, which should be considered when using Hjelm’s function-oriented intervention.</div> Hjelm’s function-oriented intervention, Functional brain development, Minimum Time Threshold, Motor and postural skills, Cognition, Time factor 0 0 http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-8423-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mitra Khalafbeigi ot_mitra@yahoo.com 13700319475328460059215 13700319475328460059215 Yes Hjelm Research Center of Hjelm Academy, Faculty of Human Functional Overall Development and Hjelm Approach, Hjelm Institute for Natural Functional Development and the FMT Method, Uppsala, Sweden www.hjelminstitutet.se Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Elin JA Svanström kontakt@hjelminstitutet.se 13700319475328460059216 13700319475328460059216 No Hjelm Research Center of Hjelm Academy, Faculty of Human Functional Overall Development and Hjelm Approach, Hjelm Institute for Natural Functional Development and the FMT Method, Uppsala, Sweden Samaneh Karamali Esmaili esmaeili.s@iums.ac.i 13700319475328460059217 13700319475328460059217 No Rehabilitation Research Center, Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mehdi Alizadeh Zarei alizadeh.m@iums.ac.ir 13700319475328460059218 13700319475328460059218 No Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran