Identifying Indicators in Pregnancy, Infancy and Childhood for Development of Probable Developmental Coordination Disorder

Background: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) (APA, 2013) refers to a chronic neuro-developmental condition characterized by a marked impairment in the performance of motor skills and activities of daily living, a deficit in physical activity, poor fitness and obesity. The prevalence of DCD ranges from 5 % to 6 % in all children. Little attention has been devoted to exploring the markers in pregnancy, infancy and childhood for the development of DCD.

Aim: To detect perinatal, neonatal and childhood variables which are significantly associated with probable DCD.

Methods: Parents who suspected that their child has DCD or that he/she has already been diagnosed with DCD, had normal-range IQs and showed no evidence of physical or neurological disorder nor a chronic illness, filled two questionnaires distributed in Israeli social networks: The Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) (Wilson et al., 2009) and a closed retrospective questionnaire including questions regarding perinatal, neonatal, infancy, childhood and background information . The 67 subjects, 31 boys (45%) and 36 girls (55%), from the age of five to 15 years old (M=9.0; S.D.= 2.67), were those whom their parents consented to their child’s participation in the study, signed and returned the consent form and the questionnaires.

Statistical Analysis: The overall score for coordination was calculated for each child, and this grade was converted according to the age of the child to a dichotomous variable (with or without probable DCD. Of the 67 children, 23 (34.3%) were classified as having probable DCD (11 boys and 12 girls) and 44 (65.7%) were classified as typically developed children without probable DCD (20 boys and 24 girls). An independent t-test was used to find differences between children with and without probable DCD for continuous variables and a chi square test was used for categorical variables.

Results: The results indicated that children with probable DCD had significantly lower scores in all the items of the DCDQ questionnaire comparing to the scores of children without probable DCD. Also, the following indicators were found to be significantly associated with later development of probable DCD: Perinatal and postnatal history complications during pregnancy, eventful delivery and Apgar score; in infancy- delay in the age of creeping; in childhood – falling and bumping into others or objects, difficulties in fine and gross motor skills and being physically inactive during leisure time.

Discussion and Conclusions: The indicators for the development of probable DCD detected in this study have clinical and practical implications for clinicians, parents and physical educators in facilitating intervention as early as possible for lessening the severity of DCD symptoms and for preventing the development of negative accompanying psycho-social experiences.