The subtypes of developmental coordination disorder.
Jessica M Lust, Bert Steenbergen, Johanna Ankie E M Diepstraten and 3 others
PMID 35578393WHAT IT FOUND
Children with developmental coordination disorder fall into four distinct performance profiles.
Some show broad difficulties across motor, cognitive, and visual skills, while others have isolated gross or fine motor issues. This means a single test score can hide very different needs.
Key findings
01Cluster analysis identified four distinct subgroups of children with DCD, ranging from broad difficulties across motor and cognitive skills to isolated deficits in either gross or fine motor abilities.
02Impaired balance was present in all four subtypes, suggesting postural control is a universal issue in DCD rather than specific to one subgroup.
03Children in the subtypes with broader motor and perceptual difficulties had significantly higher rates of repeating a school year compared to the national average.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample size (98 children) was just sufficient for the number of variables analyzed, limiting the stability of the clusters. The study was retrospective and used data from a specialized rehabilitation center, which may not represent children with DCD in primary care settings. Executive functioning was not assessed, so its contribution to the identified subtypes is unknown. Only children with complete data for all measures were included, potentially introducing selection bias. The study did not examine aetiology or neurocognitive mechanisms, only performance profiles.
Declared interests
No specific conflicts of interest were declared in the provided text. The study was conducted using data from the Sint Maartenskliniek, a rehabilitation centre.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a child with normal ball skills (Cluster 4) has no significant motor coordination disorder. This group had marked deficits in fine motor skills and visual perception, which can severely impact handwriting and daily tasks, and they require specific occupational therapy assessment.