Perceptual skills of children with developmental coordination disorder

The aim of this study was to investigate whether children with a Developmen tal Coordination Disorder (DCD) experience problems in the processing of vi sual, proprioceptive or tactile information. Different aspects of visual pe rception were tested with the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP -2), tactile perception was assessed with the Tactual Performance Test (TPT ), and a manual pointing task was employed to measure the ability to use vi sual and proprioceptive information in goal-directed movements. Nineteen ch ildren with DCD and nineteen age and sex-matched controls participated in t his study. Differences between groups were most pronounced in the subtests measuring visual-motor integration of the DTVP-2, and in two subtests measu ring visual perception (visual closure and position in space). On average t he children with DCD performed slightly below the norm for tactile percepti on, with only three children failing the norm. On the manual pointing task, children with DCD made inconsistent responses towards the targets in all t hree conditions (visual, visual-proprioceptive and proprioceptive condition ). No significant differences between groups were found for absolute error. Inspection of the individual data revealed that only two children failed o n the majority of perceptual tasks in the three modalities. Across tasks. n o consistent pattern of deficits appeared. illustrating the heterogeneity o f the problems of children with DCD. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.