Development Coordination Disorder in Children Need for Information in a Transitional Post-Communist Country in Southeastern Europe

Abstract

The purpose of this essay/study is: to provide general information about past and actual situation in Albania (data from a study conducted in Tirana); to promote awareness of DCD in Albania in order to create a better understanding of the difficulties children and parents face. A large number of cities and rural areas in Albania do not have special education institutions and especially rural areas where resides about 46.3% of the population (Albanian Census Preliminary Results 2011). Effectiveness and work of the institutions leaves much to be desired. Also, heterogeneity of the children contingents and the problems they had to face has shown that these institutions have no clear profiles, an aspect which has result in lower quality work. Data from a cross sectional on 1177 children (619 boys and 558 girls) aged {7-10 years old; grade 1-4) randomly selected in Tirana, using body coordination test for children-KTK (Kiphard and Schilling 1974, 2007), show that children categorized at normal level represented only 30.5% of the entire sample, while almost half of the sample were categorized below the normal level as having moderate motor disorder. To be concerned is the number of children that fall into the level of severe motor disorder (19.4%) that will be the focus of future studies to be evaluated for having probably motor coordination disorder (possible DCD). In summary, increasing awareness of DCD and terminology used on parents and teachers is needed and providing effective and consistent management models based on a good evidence base to support families and children with DCD DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n4p459