High prevalence of developmental coordination disorder risk in childhood apraxia of speech

To explore motor impairments linked to developmental coordination disorder (DCD) in children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).

This prospective cohort study included 105 children (79 male, aged 5-15 years) with CAS. Assessments included the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire, Revised, the visuomotor precision subtest of the Neuropsychological Assessment, Second Edition, the motor subtest of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales, Third Edition (Vineland-3), and Full-scale IQ (FSIQ) scores. Data analysis used multiple imputation for missing data, along with descriptive statistics, repeated-measures analysis of variance, multiple binary logistic regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses.

Eighty-two per cent of participants showed motor impairments; 63% screened positive for DCD risk; and 71% had visuomotor precision impairments. Fine-motor scores were lower than gross-motor and coordination scores. The logistic regression model accurately predicted DCD risk at 73%, identifying the Vineland-3 (odds ratio [OR] = 7.17) and visuomotor precision subtest (OR = 4.90) as significant predictors, whereas the FSIQ was not. The Vineland-3 showed a high false negative rate (46%) for DCD risk, and the ROC analysis suggested a higher cut-off point for improved prediction accuracy.

This study highlights a high prevalence of DCD risk and visuomotor precision impairments among children with CAS, independent of FSIQ. The Vineland-3 motor subtest is not recommended for DCD assessment, whereas screening for DCD is essential for targeted interventions in CAS.