Attention and motor profiles in children with developmental coordination disorder: A neuropsychological and neuroimaging investigation.
Alexandra F Bonthrone, Dido Green, Angela T Morgan and 3 others
PMID 37667426WHAT IT FOUND
Children with developmental coordination disorder showed impaired attention, processing speed, and executive functioning regardless of motor severity or ADHD status.
MRI scans linked poorer gross motor skills to reduced surface area in the left posterior cingulate and altered left corticospinal tract structure.
Key findings
01Children with DCD scored significantly worse than controls on selective attention, sustained attention, attentional control, and non-motor processing speed.
02Attention and executive function deficits were not associated with the type or severity of motor impairment in children with DCD.
03Lower gross motor scores were associated with reduced surface area in the left posterior cingulate cortex and altered fibre morphology in the left corticospinal tract.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample included children with various co-occurring disorders and those taking ADHD medication, creating heterogeneity that may influence results. The typically developing control group was a small convenience sample, limiting comparisons with other conditions like ADHD. The study did not exclude children who had previously received motor interventions. Some attention tasks required counting, which may be affected by mathematical abilities rather than attention alone.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Waterloo Foundation. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that attention and executive function deficits in children with DCD are secondary to their motor problems or co-occurring ADHD. The study found these non-motor impairments were present regardless of motor severity and remained significant after adjusting for ADHD probability, suggesting they are core features of DCD.