Knowra Developmental coordination disorder Developmental coordination disorder Developmental coordination disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by motor skills substantially below expectations for age and opportunity. The difficulties interfere with everyday activities, schoolwork, or both, and are not explained by another medical condition.
Developmental coordination disorder diagnostic criteria : Clinical criteria requiring persistent motor-skill difficulties, functional impact, childhood onset, and exclusion of better explanations. These criteria distinguish the disorder from ordinary variation in coordination.
Motor coordination : The ability to organize body movements smoothly and accurately toward a goal. This is the core ability substantially impaired in developmental coordination disorder.
Occupational therapy : A health profession that supports participation in meaningful everyday activities. Therapists can adapt tasks and environments while teaching useful motor strategies.
Dyspraxia : A term used in different settings for difficulties with planning or performing coordinated actions. It is often used informally for developmental coordination disorder, but terminology varies.
Specific learning disorder : A neurodevelopmental disorder involving persistent difficulty learning or using academic skills. Motor demands such as handwriting can complicate schoolwork alongside academic difficulties.
Motor learning : The process by which practice and experience change the ability to perform movements. Difficulty acquiring and automating motor skills is central to the disorder.
Fine motor skills : Small, precise movements involving the hands and fingers. Handwriting, fastening clothes, and handling utensils can expose fine-motor difficulties.
Physical therapy : A health profession that assesses and treats movement and physical function. Task-specific practice can target balance, mobility, and other functional motor goals.
Cerebral palsy : A group of permanent disorders of movement and posture caused by injury to the developing brain. Unlike developmental coordination disorder, it involves an underlying neurological condition.
School participation : A student's involvement in learning, routines, and social life at school. Coordination demands can limit access to classroom tasks and extracurricular activities.
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