Physical and Mental Health of Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by poor motor proficiency that interferes with an individual’s activities of daily living. These problems in motor coordination are prevalent despite children’s intelligence levels. Common symptoms include marked delays in achieving motor milestones and clumsiness, typically associated with poor balance, coordination, and especially handwriting skills. Currently, DCD is said to impact about 2–7% of school-age children. More importantly, DCD is considered to be one of the major health problems among school-aged children worldwide, with unique consequences to physical and mental health. Because these children and adolescents often experience difficulties participating in typical childhood activities (e.g., riding a bike), they tend to be more sedentary, more overweight/obese, at a higher risk for coronary vascular disease, and have lower cardiorespiratory and physical fitness than their typically developing peers. From another perspective, the motor difficulties have also been linked to an increased risk for mental health issues, such as higher anxiety and depression. The understanding of the health consequences associated with DCD offers practical applications for the understanding of the mechanisms and intervention protocols that can improve the consequences of this condition. In this review, I will explore such consequences and provide evidence for the implementation of interventions that focus on improving physical and mental health in this population.

Research Review: Internalising symptoms in developmental coordination disorder: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…The findings are in line with the emerging consensus that DCD can have a significant impact on an individual's mental health (Caçola, ; Mancini et al., , ; Missiuna & Campbell, ). Notably, the magnitude of the effect identified is comparable, if not greater, than that found in meta‐analyses of a wide range of chronic physical health conditions (Pinquart & Shen, , ).…”

“…Understanding the link between DCD and mental health has important implications for assessment and intervention with this population, including at schools, physical health services and mental health services. To date, several reviews have summarised the findings on internalising symptoms in DCD (Caçola, ; Mancini et al., , ; Missiuna & Campbell, ). However, they consist of narrative summaries only.…”

Identifying Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder via Parental Questionnaires. Spanish Reference Norms for the DCDDaily-Q-ES and Correlation with the DCDQ-ES

“…Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders in school-aged children, and it is considered one of the major health concerns in this population [1][2][3][4]. Consequences of DCD often span across psychosocial, occupational, and physical health dimensions, and usually persist into adulthood [2,[5][6][7].…”

Catching-up: Children with developmental coordination disorder compared to healthy children before and after sensorimotor therapy

“…Children are sensitive to noise not the least given that their ability to ignore irrelevant sounds is not yet developed [ 30 , 34 ] and, not unexpectedly, there is a positive association between high levels of noise, headaches, and fatigue [ 35 ]. Motor skills problems are serious threats to both physiologial and psychological health [ 36 , 37 ] but so far, the role of aberrant primary reflexes, postural reactions, and delayed gross motor milestones beyond infancy has been overlooked in developmental research and the same is true of vestibular function [ 38 ]. Empirical data indicate [ 15 , 24 , 25 ] that it is most probable that these motor patterns together with vestibular function are of importance when a child’s nervous system adopts one pathway of development versus another.…”