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Motor, physical, and behavioural performance of 3- to 5-year-old children at risk of developmental coordination
Amy De Roubaix1, Griet Dewitte1,2, Nina Vens1,2
1Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Insights
Children at risk of developmental coordination disorder (rDCD) show poorer motor, physical, and behavioral performance from age 3. These differences persist through age 5, highlighting early intervention needs.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric developmental psychology
- Motor development research
- Childhood disability studies
Background:
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) affects motor skills in children.
- Early identification of children at risk (rDCD) is crucial for timely intervention.
- Longitudinal studies are needed to understand the developmental trajectory of rDCD.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare motor, physical, and behavioral performance between children at risk of DCD (rDCD) and typically developing children.
- To track performance differences from 3 to 5 years of age.
- To analyze performance in subgroups of children with confirmed or cleared DCD at 5 years.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study with 35 rDCD and 34 typically developing children.
- Utilized assessments including MABC-2-NL, Beery VMI-6, LDCDQ-BE, and Child Behavior Checklist.
- Linear mixed-model analyses compared performance between groups and subgroups over time.
Main Results:
- Children with rDCD consistently performed worse than typically developing peers across all measures except visual perception.
- Motor coordination and questionnaire scores for rDCD children were below average.
- Performance in the rDCD group remained stable, with slight improvement only in LDCDQ-BE scores.
Conclusions:
- Significant performance differences in children at risk for DCD are evident as early as 3 years of age.
- These motor and behavioral deficits tend to persist between ages 3 and 5.
- Children not diagnosed with DCD at 5 years showed performance similar to typically developing peers.
Aim:
To compare the motor, physical, and behavioural performance of children at risk of developmental coordination disorder (rDCD) and typically developing children at 3, 4, and 5 years of age.
Method:
Following a longitudinal design, 35 mainly high-risk children identified as rDCD by a multidisciplinary team at a centre for developmental disabilities and 34 typically developing children participated. Children were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, Dutch/Belgian version (MABC-2-NL), Beery-Buktenica Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI-6), Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire - Belgian version (LDCDQ-BE), Motor Skill Checklist, Functional Strength Measurement, body mass index, and Child Behavior Checklist. Linear mixed-model analyses compared performance between groups (rDCD and typically developing) and subgroups (confirmed and cleared DCD at 5 years).
Results:
Children with rDCD scored significantly worse on all outcomes at every time point compared with typically developing children, except for visual perception. Performance on the MABC-2-NL, Beery VMI-6 subtest motor coordination, and LDCDQ-BE was also consistently below average for those in the rDCD group. Performance across time points was stable in the rDCD group, with only a significant improvement in LDCDQ-BE. Children not diagnosed with DCD (n = 5) were mostly similar in performance to the typically developing group.
Interpretation:
Performance differences are present at 3 years in high-risk children at rDCD and tend to persist between 3 and 5 years.
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