Current Perspectives on Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), volume II

Book excerpt: Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is detected in approximately 5% of children and describes a condition in which motor coordination is below the level expected given a child’s age or opportunity for learning. Children with DCD display fine and/or gross motor difficulties which persist into adulthood and cannot be better explained by a medical or neurological condition. The difficulties that individuals with DCD experience have a significant impact on activities of daily living, scholastic achievement, inter-personal relationships, and employment. Motor difficulties such as these have been poorly defined and are poorly understood by healthcare and education professionals, rendering treatments and care more difficult. European guidelines from 2012 and further revisions in 2019, have helped to clarify the diagnostic issues and there has been a significant growth in research in this field over the last four decades. A search for the topic ‘Developmental Coordination Disorder’ using Web of Science yielded 4153 publications with 69% of these published in the last 10 years alone. Despite this growth there still are pending questions in research regarding our understanding of the etiology, the co-occurrence with other developmental disorders, and the lived experience.