Knowledge of the Development Coordination Disorder of caregivers and Teachers in India

Abstract

For the early diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder, there is a need to understand the salient features of the disorder among the children. There are few researchers tat evaluate the awareness of developmental coordination disorder among caregivers, teachers, medical professionals as well as allied health professional in Indian context. Online survey was completed by 100 participants, 20 caregivers, 30 school teachers, 30 allied health professionals and 20 medical professionals were completed the survey. Results of the study suggest that developmental coordination disorder is the least known disorder among majority of the caregivers and allied health professionals. However half of the sample was familiar with the term developmental coordination disorder but every participant were familiar with the term dyspraxia. Among all the participants, it has been documented that allied health professionals were more familiar with the characteristic features of developmental coordination disorder children. They were familiar with the motor coordination difficulty. Every participant demonstrates poor recognition of psychological effects in developmental coordination disorder. Low percentage of medical professionals reported that they were exposed to diagnose the children with developmental coordination disorder. Teachers play a vital role in evaluating the warning signs of the disorder and they believe that 80% of children in primary schools were lazy and have motor skill impairment. The study concludes that there is a need for appropriate service delivery and timely evaluation to prevent the development of co-morbidities associated with developmental coordination disorder.