Psychometric properties of the DCD-Q-07 in children ages to 4-6

It is important to identify Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) early in a child's life to allow for proper and timely intervention and support, and to reduce the negative secondary consequences associated with this condition. In this study we assessed the psychometric properties (construct validity, concurrent validity, reliability and test accuracy) of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCD-Q-07) in preschool children. A community-based sample of children ages 4-6 (n=181) were screened for motor difficulties using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC-2). Use of the M-ABC-2 resulted in the identification of 29 children below the 15th percentile, which we classified as probable DCD. Parents of these children concurrently completed the DCD-Q-07 to report their child's motor performance. The DCD-Q-07 demonstrated high internal consistency for both the full scale (alpha=0.881) and each subscale: control during movement (alpha=0.813), fine motor and handwriting (alpha=0.869) and general coordination (alpha=0.728). Moderate correlations (r=0.47-0.63) were also seen between the subscales on the DCD-Q-07, the strongest correlation being between control during movement and general coordination (r=0.63). Based on published age and sex cut points, the DCD-Q-07 showed poor sensitivity (20.7%) but high specificity (92.1%) against the M-ABC-2. Overall agreement with the M-ABC-2 was low using ROC analysis (area under the curve=0.654). Although it is important to screen for DCD in young children, the DCD-Q-07 may not be the best choice as a screening tool for DCD in preschool children ages 4-6 due to its low test accuracy.