Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty mastering the motor skills needed for daily tasks. The trouble children face performing these motor skills does not only influence their motor activities, but also influences their social life, emotional wellbeing, school career and health.
In this thesis of Jessika van Hoorn we reviewed studies to identify risk factors for DCD, focusing on sociodemographic, prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal factors. We found strong evidence for two main risk factors: male sex and preterm birth. Other factors with lower evidence included parental subfertility, maternal smoking during pregnancy, postnatal corticosteroids, need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, retinopathy of prematurity, abnormal MRI findings at term age, and multiple perinatal or neonatal risk factors. These early risk factors for DCD are similar to those for cerebral palsy but with weaker associations. A study using data from LifeLines, a large cohort study in Northern Netherlands, confirmed that male sex and admission in the first week after birth are risk factors for DCD. The same cohort study also indicates a familial predisposition to DCD, suggesting possible genetic causes.
Little is known about the neurological substrate of handwriting problems in childhood. In a review, we found that more brain regions are involved in writing in children than in adults. At two primary schools, we investigated the relationship between handwriting skills and visual-motor integration on the one hand, and the type and severity of minor motor dysfunctions on the other. We observed that a dysgraphic handwriting is strongly related to the severity of minor neurological dysfunctions, while reduced visuomotor integration is more associated with the presence of minor neurological dysfunctions.
