Background: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) have a risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. We have revealed that children with CHD have deficit in sensorimotor functions. The goal of this study was to reveal the effect of body-oriented training on sensorimotor functions in 7 years of age children with CHD. We compared the efficacy of two methods of training (body-oriented training for children vs. conventional motor exercises) in a randomized controlled pilot study.

Methods: 14 children with CHD at the age of 7 were included and randomly assigned to training conditions according to a 2×2 cross-over design. The body-oriented training included the exercises from yoga. Children participated in 16 weeks of training. A total of 48 sessions lasting 40 minutes were performed.

To assess the sensorimotor functions in children we used 4 subtests from Luria's neuropsychological assessment battery for children (imitating hand positions, manual motor sequences, auditory-motor coordination and drawing the fence). Effects of training were analyzed by means of an ANOVA for repeated measurements.

Results: The ANOVA has revealed (p<.05) that for 3 subtests (imitating hand positions, manual motor sequences and drawing the fence) the body-oriented training was superior to the conventional motor training, with effect sizes in the medium-to-high range (0.45-0.87).

Conclusions: The findings from this pilot study suggest that body-oriented training has a positive effect on sensorimotor functions in 7 years of age children with CHD. However, it is necessary to do further research into the impact of body-oriented training on children with congenital heart disease.