Insights in Developmental Coordination Disorder

Title:Insights in Developmental Coordination Disorder

Volume: 13 Issue: 2

Author(s): Marie Farmer, Bernard Échenne, Régen Drouin and M'hamed Bentourkia*

Affiliation:

• Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiobiology, 3001, 12th Avenue North, Sherbrooke (Qc) J1H 5N4,Canada

Keywords: DCD, movement disorder, brain development, learning, motor impairment, neurological dysfunctions, dyspraxia, clumsiness.

Abstract: Background: Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurological impairment occurring in nearly 6% of general population, and sometimes mimics other developmental disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or, in the most severe cases, intellectual deficiency.

Objectives: To review the general portrait of DCD, the physiology, the clinical assessments, and to provide an overview of functional studies on the subject. We finally report some proposed DCD managements which vary depending on the manifestation of the disorder and on the goals of the therapy.

Results: DCD can be stated as a sum of fine motor, perceptual visual and executive difficulties, emerging during childhood brain development and lasting throughout adulthood. Even if DCD can be isolated from other co-morbidities in certain individuals, it is still difficult to categorize it in delimited subclasses of characteristics, e.g. problems of vision or language. The findings in functional imaging also diverge in locating the cerebral deficit for a given motor task.

Conclusion: Finding a single explanation seems difficult as many cerebral regions are associated with DCD and many clinical aspects are involved, but, further studies could explore genetic (or epigenetic) explanation for the prevalence of DCD in population.

Cite this article as:

Farmer Marie , Échenne Bernard , Drouin Régen and Bentourkia M'hamed *, Insights in Developmental Coordination Disorder, Current Pediatric Reviews 2017; 13 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1573396313666170726113550