Motor skills in Brazilian children with developmental coordination disorder versus children with motor typical development.

Abstract

The aims of the study were to compare the performance of children with probable developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and motor typically developing peers on items from the Assessment of Motor Coordination and Dexterity (AMCD), to determine whether age, gender and type of school had significant impact on the scores of the AMCD items, to estimate the frequency of DCD among Brazilian children ages 7 and 8 years and to investigate whether children with DCD exhibit more symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder than children with motor typical development. A total of 793 children were screened by the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire - Brazilian version (DCDQ-Brazil); 90 were identified as at risk for DCD; 91 matched controls were selected from the remaining participants. Children in both groups were evaluated with the AMCD, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-II) and Raven's coloured progressive matrices. Thirty-four children were classified as probable DCD, as defined by a combination of the DCDQ-Brazil and MABC-II scores (fifth percentile). The final frequency of DCD among children ages 7 and 8 years was 4.3%. There were significant differences between children with and without DCD on the majority of AMCD items, indicating its potential for identifying DCD in Brazilian children. The use of a motor test (MABC-II) that is not validated for the Brazilian children is a limitation of the present study. Further studies should investigate whether the AMCD is useful for identifying DCD in other age groups and in children from different regions of Brazil. The application of the AMCD may potentially contribute in improving occupational therapy practice in Brazil and in identifying children that could benefit from occupational therapy services.