Visual evoked potentials in children with developmental coordination disorder

Abstract

Children who demonstrate problems with skilled movement in the absence of physical handicap are formally designated as suffering from developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Diagnosis of DCD was confirmed by the ‘movement assessment battery for children’. Visually evoked potentials (VEPs) were recorded to evaluate the integrity of the visual pathway and to rule out the presence of any neurological lesions affecting visual input. Binocular, pattern onset VEPs were recorded in 14 children with DCD aged between five and seven years, and an agematched control group using pattern onset, high contrast, grating stimuli. Implicit times to the first and second peaks and troughs were measured, and results between the two groups were compared. Inattention and movement artefact meant that VEPs were more difficult to record within the DCD group, resulting in smaller amplitudes of the waveform, but no significant differences in the implicit times were observed between the DCD group and controls. Further research is required to determine the specific source of the neurological deficits in DCD but a problem with the integrity of the afferent visual pathway does not appear to be a causal factor.