Visuomotor Skills, Executive Functions, and Academic Performance: A Comparative Analysis of Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder And Typical Development

Abstract

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is known for impairments in performing and learning motor skills, and these impairments interfere with a child's daily life, school development, and leisure. A child with DCD tends to have impairments in visual input called visuomotor adaptation and deficits in inhibitory control, working memory, and planning, and these functions are related to executive functions (EF). These impairments are studied and demonstrate that children with typical development (TD) develop within the expected range for their age and improve throughout childhood. The objective of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis between children with DCD and children with TD to analyze and compare visuomotor skills, performance in the speed of sequential naming of common stimuli, reading comprehension skills, and academic performance through the application of reliable tests with a standardized norm. Children from 10 public schools in the northern region of Santa Catarina, Brazil, were recruited, and 230 children were selected, of whom 98 met all four criteria for the diagnosis of DCD, comprising 44 girls and 54 boys. The remaining 132 children were classified as a control group, called the TD group, comprising 74 girls and 58 boys, who participated in the application of the following tests: Nine Hole Peg Test (NHPT), which assesses visuomotor skills; Rapid Automated Naming (RAN) test, which evaluates the speed of sequential naming of common stimuli; Expository Text Reading Comprehension Assessment Test, which assesses comprehension skills; and a test to evaluate academic performance with 20 questions. Through a statistical analysis of each test, our results revealed differences between children with DCD and children with TD in visuomotor skills, rapid automatized naming, reading comprehension, and academic performance