Developmental Coordination Disorder - Developmental Dyspraxia

Developmental dyspraxia is a motor learning difficulty that affects co-ordination of complex motor stereotypes and impairs dexterity. According to various references, dyspraxia occurs in 6-10% of the population, boys being affected four times more frequently than girls. Dyspraxia is classified as a specific type of motor learning impairment similar to dyslexia and dysgraphia. It may occur as a separate diagnosis or comorbidity with other types of motor learning difficulties may be identified. Dyspraxia is further subcategorized into ideational (gnostic, sensory, perceptional), motor (executive, expressive) and ideomotor types. Ideational dyspraxia results from abnormal processing of one or more (multi-sensory dyspraxia) types of sensory information: proprioceptive, tactile, vestibular, optic or acoustic. Executive dyspraxia manifests with impaired selective movements, postural adaptation failure, insufficient muscular relaxation, impaired equilibrium, inadequate strength adaptation, impairment of motor fluency, speed and rhythm and compromised movement estimation. To diagnose dyspraxia is quite difficult and various standardized tests serve that purpose, e.g. the movement assessment battery for children (MABC) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency (BOTMP) were designed to identify children with developmental dyspraxia. Various studies have demonstrated that children usually do not improve spontaneously without treatment. Research indicates that childhood problems resulting from developmental dyspraxia are highly resistant to short-term treatment. The sooner the child receives treatment, the better the prognosis. Treatment at pre-school age is the most effective. Therapeutic strategies should be integrated into the activities of daily life.