Children with developmental motor coordination struggle to perform accurately the motor activities of daily life, such as jumping, hopping, running, or catching a ball. Children with coordination problems may also agonize to use utensils correctly, tie their shoelaces, or write. A child with developmental coordination disorder may exhibit delays in achieving motor milestones, such as sitting, crawling, and walking, because of clumsiness and yet excel at verbal skills.

Developmental coordination disorder thus may be characterized by either clumsy gross or fine motor skills, resulting in poor performance in sports and even in academic achievement because of poor writing skills. A child with developmental coordination disorder may bump into things more often than siblings or drop things.

Children with developmental coordination disorder may resemble younger children because of their inability to master motor activities typical for their age group. For example, children with developmental coordination disorder in elementary school may not be adept at bicycle riding, skateboarding, running, skipping, or hopping. In the middle school years, children with this disorder may have trouble in team sports, such as soccer, baseball, or basketball. Fine motor skill manifestations of developmental coordination disorder typically include clumsiness using utensils and difficulty with buttons and zippers in the preschool age group. In older children, using scissors and more complex grooming skills, such as styling hair or putting on makeup, is difficult. Children with developmental coordination disorder are often ostracized by peers because of their poor skills in many sports, and they often have long-standing difficulties with peer relationships. Developmental coordination disorder is the sole disorder in the text revision of the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) category motor skills disorder. Gross and fine motor impairment in this disorder cannot be explained on the basis of a medical condition, such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or any other neuromuscular disorder.

Students should study the questions and answers below for a useful review of this disorder.