From the Perspective of Dynamic Assessment Theory: Investigating the Effects of Table Tennis Training on Cognitive Flexibility and Reaction Speed in Children with Special Needs

Abstract

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and intellectual disabilities display significant deficits in the area of executive functions that result in diminished academic and adaptive functioning with motor-based interventions such as table tennis training found to be promising non-pharmacologically beneficial techniques in improving the cognitive abilities found in these groups. Based on the Dynamic Theory and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Theory models of development and learning and taking into consideration that there exists an underlying need to explore further on how to augment these interventions to improve the previously mentioned areas in these children successfully without practical applications past the theoretical construct stage with quasi-experimental study models with 126 subjects between the ages of 8 to 12 with the inclusion criteria that each group must go through 12 weeks with structured intervention sessions consisting of 3 sessions consisting of 60 minutes each weekly, this study aims to ascertain through empirical evidence that structured table tennis training is successful in improving subjects’ motor-auditive reaction time with results showing 42.6% improvement in learning potential. ADHD subjects demonstrated 144.9% improvement in motor-auditive reaction time, while autism subjects showed 130.4% improvement in cognitive flexibility measures.