Abstract: For the last 100 years, poor motor coordination in children has been recognized as a developmental problem.1 As early as 1937, these children were classified as “clumsy.”1 Since then, other terms such as “motorically awkward,” “motor impaired,” and “physically awkward” have been used to describe these children, and the terms “developmental apraxia” and “perceptual motor difficulties” have been used to characterize this developmental problem.2,3 Since the 1994 International Consensus Conference on Children and Clumsiness, the term “developmental coordination disorder” (DCD) has been used to describe the condition of children with motor incoordination.1,4
The purpose of this article is to provide the following information about DCD: (1) definition, (2) prevalence, (3) etiology, (4) discussion regarding the difficulties in classifying these children, (5) common characteristics, (6) long-term prognosis, and (7) brief review of treatment approaches.
Developmental coordination disorder , a chronic and usually permanent condition found in children, is characterized by motor impairment that interferes with the child's activities of daily living and academic achievement.3,5 In order for a child to be diagnosed with DCD, these motor impairments must negatively affect some other aspect of his or her life.6 Impairment alone, however, does not qualify a child for the diagnosis of DCD; the motor impairment must not be caused by or have the symptoms of an identifiable neurological problem.2,5 That is, the child must not have any disturbances of muscle tone (ataxia or spasticity), sensory loss, or involuntary movements. If mental retardation is present, the testable IQ of the child must be greater than 70 and the motor impairments must be greater than what would normally be expected for children with mental retardation.5 Finally, a child diagnosed with DCD must not meet the criteria for a …