•The LDCDQ-NL has good internal consistency.•Factor analysis provided three factors, i.e., Fine motor, Locomotor and Ball skills.•Correlation between the LDCDQ-NL and the M-ABC2 increases with ...age.•The LDCDQ-NL does not discriminate between 3 year old children who are typically developing and those at risk.•The sensitivity of the Little DCDQ-NL increases with age.
Early recognition of children at risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is important, but variability in motor development in preschool children affects the validity of instruments to reliably detect children at risk of DCD.
To investigate the age-related validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (LDCDQ-NL).
Two hundred and sixty 3- to 5-year old children were recruited in the Netherlands. Parents filled out the LDCDQ-NL and children were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 Test (MABC-2 Test). Internal consistency of the LDCDQ-NL was determined by Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was investigated using factor analysis. Concurrent validity was measured by calculating correlations between the LDCDQ-NL and MABC-2. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) were calculated to assess discriminant validity.
Internal consistency of the LDCDQ-NL was 0.91. Factor analysis resulted in three factors (Fine motor skills, Locomotor skills, Ball skills). Correlation between the LDCDQ-NL and MABC-2 Test increased with increasing age. With a sensitivity of 80%, specificity increased with age.
The LDCDQ-NL is a reliable and valid screening instrument for 4- and 5-year old Dutch children; concurrent and discriminant validity are low for 3-year olds.
Background and Aim: Evaluating variability can help to investigate the process underlying motor coordination problems. The current study aimed to measure motor coordination and its variability in ...children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Moreover, the symmetry of motor coordination variability in these children and the relation between motor skills and variability were explored. Materials and Methods: After evaluating motor skills in children, aged 7-10 years using Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2), 15 children with DCD and 20 non-DCD children performed a bilateral coordination task. Using motion capture system, motor coordination and variability were recorded and calculated by computing continuous relative phase and its standard deviation, respectively. Ethical Considerations: The study with an ethical code of IR.UT.SPORT.REC.1396030 was approved by Ethics Committee of Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences of University of Tehran. Findings: Children with DCD showed significantly higher variability, while there was no significant difference between the groups in performing the coordination task. Moreover, the variability of motor coordination was found asymmetrical in children with DCD. Finally, more variability was shown to be accompanied with lower score in motor skills of the participants. Conclusion: The current study shows the necessity of employing assessments related to underlying process of movement coordination such as variability, which can help to provide more comprehensive understanding of motor patterns of children with DCD and the strategies that they adopt to execute and produce movement.
•Children with neurodevelopmental disorders share executive dysfunction.•Transdiagnistic impairments in cognitive control underlie this dysfunction.•Cognitive enhancements following exercise are due ...to improved cognitive control.•Neurocognitive effects of exercise may counteract executive dysfunction.
Exercise is an integral part of children’s lives, and research in educational settings has found that regular engagement promises improvements in executive function (i.e. top-down control of goal-directed behavior). Based on recent advances in understanding the moderators and the neurocognitive mechanisms of these effects, we highlight a potential application of exercise in the treatment of executive dysfunction. Even though different neurodevelopmental disorders are characterized by a heterogeneity in core symptoms, children affected by these disorders often face common executive function deficits. So far, exercise has not been recognized as an alternative or additional treatment for this specific cognitive impairment. The limited experimental evidence in children with neurodevelopmental disorders provides a first indication that regular exercise engagement benefits executive function. However, we identified key research questions that need to be answered before a prescription of exercise to children with executive dysfunction can be encouraged in clinical practice.
To identify the research hotspots on cognitive function in developmental coordination disorder (DCD) in recent years, predict the research frontier and development trend, and provide more ...perspectives for the study of the DCD population.
Using CiteSpace and VOSviewer software to draw charts, 1,082 pieces of literature about DCD and cognitive function in the Web of Science core collection database from 2010 to 2022 were visually analyzed.
Interest in the cognitive function of DCD has been on the rise in the past 10 years. Over 40 countries and regions, 117 institutions and 200 researchers have participated in the corresponding research, mainly in the United States, and their institutions have published more highly influential results. The hot keywords are DCD, children, attention, working memory, performance, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and the main research hot topics include functional performance, population, cognitive psychology. The research directions include "DCD," "Asperger syndrome," "memory," "infant," "clumsiness," "neurodevelopmental disorder," "occupational therapy," "preschool children," "motor competence," "model," and "online control." Future research should focus on motor imagery and intrinsic models and use more neurophysiological techniques to reveal the cognitive characteristics of children with DCD and develop intervention programs.
The Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (LDCDQ) is a parental questionnaire designed to identify preschool children at risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). This ...study aimed to translate and cross-culturally adapt the LDCDQ for French European informants (Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire-French European LDCDQ-FE) and to undertake a pilot examination of its psychometric properties on a French sample.
A thorough process of cultural adaptation was completed. The psychometric properties were examined with a sample of 154 French children aged to 5y11m (control = 121; clinically referred = 33). A sub-group of 34 children was assessed using the MABC-2 to measure convergent validity.
Principal component analysis demonstrated a four-component structure, accounting for 67.5% of the variance. Internal consistency was acceptable to good (α = 0.74-0.89). Significant correlation between the LDCDQ-FE and the MABC-2 total scores showed convergent validity. Discriminant validity was supported by significant score differences between the clinically referred and a matched control sub-group. Using ROC curves, a cutoff of 67 was proposed for a sensitivity of 81.3% and a specificity of 77.8%.
Results show initial evidence of the psychometric properties of the LDCDQ-FE and are encouraging of its use to identify young preschoolers at risk for DCD. In future studies, the test-retest reliability should be investigated, and study sample sizes expanded.
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) demonstrate deficits in predictive motor control and aspects of cognitive control compared with their typically developing (TD) peers. ...Adjustment to dynamic environments depends on both aspects of control and the deficits for children with DCD may constrain their ability to perform daily actions that involve dual-tasking. Under the assumption that motor-cognitive integration is compromised in children with DCD, we examined proportional dual-task costs using a novel locomotor-cognitive dual-task paradigm that enlisted augmented reality. We expect proportional dual-task performance costs to be greater for children with DCD compared to their TD peers.
Participants were 34 children aged 6-12 years (16 TD, 18 DCD) who walked along a straight 12 m path under single- and dual-task conditions, the cognitive task being visual discrimination under simple or complex stimulus conditions presented via augmented reality. Dual-task performance was measured in two ways: first, proportional dual-task costs (pDTC) were computed for cognitive and gait outcomes and, second, within-trial costs (p-WTC) were measured as the difference on gait outcomes between pre- and post-stimulus presentation.
On measures of pDTC, TD children increased their double-limb support time when walking in response to a dual-task, while the children with DCD increased their locomotor velocity. On p-WTC, both groups increased their gait variability (step length and step width) when walking in response to a dual-task, of which the TD group had a larger proportional change than the DCD group. Greater pDTCs on motor rather than cognitive outcomes were consistent across groups and method of dual-task performance measurement.
Contrary to predictions, our results failed to support dramatic differences in locomotor-cognitive dual-task performance between children with DCD and TD, with both groups tending to priorities the cognitive over the motor task. Inclusion of a within-trial calculation of dual-task interference revealed an expectancy effect for both groups in relation to an impending visual stimulus. It is recommended that dual-task paradigms in the future continue to use augmented reality to present the cognitive task and consider motor tasks of sufficient complexity to probe the limits of performance in children with DCD.
Background/ Objective: This study surveyed the probable incidence of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), a medical condition marked by poor motor coordination and clumsiness, in college-aged ...students. Methods: A total of 4,014 individuals at Texas A&M University, aged 18-23 (40% males and 60% females), completed the Adolescents and Adults Coordination Questionnaire (AAC-Q) using Qualtrics, a web-based survey procedure. Results/ Conclusion: Results indicated that about 7% of individuals fell into the category of ‘probable’ or ‘likely’ to have DCD. Although marginal, age differences were found to be significant with participants below 20 years old having more difficulty (greater perceived clumsiness) than those 20 years and older. In regard to gender, 5 of the 12 total items were statistically significant with females having a greater proportion of perceived clumsiness than males in 4 out of the 5 questions. That is, females indicated more difficulty with gross motor skills, such as learning to drive or to ride a bike, whereas males indicated more difficulty with fine motor tasks, such as handwriting, and completing tasks requiring fine detail. Interestingly, the 7% clumsiness level found here is similar to the well-documented level of 6% found in children; therefore, giving some credence to the likelihood that children may not ‘simply mature out of the condition.’ This was a preliminary study and future research needs to examine actual (rather than perceived level) of DCD.
In this study we investigated the effects of an 8-week table tennis exercise program with a task-oriented approach on visual perception and motor performance of 31 adolescents with developmental ...coordination disorder (DCD). The participants were identified by their teachers as having greater difficulty than their peers (450 students from three Korean middle schools) in physical education (PE) classes. On the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2, these adolescents scored below the 15th percentile and showed difficulties in performing daily life activities due to motor performance problems; they did not have physical defects, intellectual or neurological impairments, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Of 98 prospective adolescents with PE difficulties, we obtained personal assent and parents' informed consent from 54, and 31 of these met screening criteria for DCD through the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire-Korean. This final group was divided in non-random fashion (based on the proximal geographic grouping of the children's schools) between an experimental group (
= 16) and a control group (
= 15). The experimental group participated in the 8-week task-oriented table tennis training program with three 90-minute sessions per week, while the control group only participated in regular PE classes twice per week. We measured participants' visual perception and motor performance in the same environment before and after the intervention program. Participants' visual perception was significantly more improved in the experimental group than the control group, with specific improved skills in visual-motor search, visual-motor speed, figure-ground, and visual closure; copying and perceptual constancy skills did not improve significantly. In addition, total motor performance and motor sub-skills, including fine manual control, manual coordination, body coordination, strength, and agility were significantly more improved in the experimental group than in the control group. Thus, our task-oriented table tennis exercise program was of greater assistance than general PE classes for improving visual perception and motor performance in adolescents at risk of DCD.
Background
Receiving a diagnosis can have a major impact on the child and its family. Parental satisfaction concerning the diagnostic trajectory is important with regard to acceptance and coping with ...their child's problems. Our aim was to describe the diagnostic trajectory of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) in the Netherlands and identify factors that are related to parents' satisfaction.
Method
Mothers of 60 children with a DCD diagnosis completed an online survey concerning their experiences during and after the diagnostic trajectory of obtaining this diagnosis.
Results
Forty percent of the mothers rated the diagnostic trajectory towards a DCD diagnosis as stressful and 47% rated the knowledgeability of the first professional they consulted (mostly a general practitioner, paediatric physical therapist, or youth health care physician) as having no or just superficial knowledge about DCD. Around 60% of the mothers described a lack of knowledge and support at their child's school after receiving the diagnosis. Notwithstanding this, the majority of the participating mothers was (very) satisfied with the diagnostic trajectory. Higher appreciation of both the manner of the diagnosing professional and the post‐diagnostic support provided were predictive of higher satisfaction.
Conclusions
Our results underline the importance of improving the knowledgeability in primary schools and primary health care professionals with regard to DCD.
Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have been commonly observed and drawn an increasing amount of attention over the past decades. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the ...origin, current hotspots, and research trends on children with DCD using a bibliometric tool. After searching with "children" and "developmental coordination disorder" as the "topic" and "title" words, respectively, 635 original articles with 12,559 references were obtained from the electronic databases, Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). CiteSpace V.5.7.R2 was used to perform the analysis. The number of publications in this field was increasing over the past two decades. John Cairney from the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Canada, was found to be the most productive researcher. Meanwhile, McMaster University and Canada were the most productive research institution and country, respectively. Reference and journal co-citation analyses revealed the top landmark articles and clusters in this field.
was the most strength burst keyword. Moreover,
, and
will be the active research hotspots in future. These findings provide the trends and frontiers in the field of children with DCD, and valuable information for clinicians and scientists to identify new perspectives with potential collaborators and cooperative countries.
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