Developmental coordination disorder in extremely low birth weight children at nine years.

Full Abstract

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is defined as an impairment in the development of motor coordination that interferes with academic achievement or activities of daily living (DSM-IV). DCD has been reported to affect 5% to 9% of children in the normal population. This study describes the prevalence of DCD in a cohort of extremely low birth weight children (ELBW, < or = l800 g) at 8.9 years of age, from which were excluded children with major impairments. Seventy-three children were included in the study group, along with 18 term-born, socially matched controls. Of the 73 ELBW children, 37 (51%) were classified as having DCD. ELBW children with DCD also had significantly lower Performance IQ (PIQ) scores and were more likely (43%) to have a learning difficulty in arithmetic than ELBW children who did not have DCD. This study found that DCD is a common problem in school-aged ELBW children.

Author information

Author/s: Holsti, Liisa (L); Grunau, Ruth V E (RV); Whitfield, Michael F (MF);

Affiliation: Occupational Therapy Department and Neonatal Follow-Up Programme, British Columbia's Children Hospital, Vancouver, Canada. lholsti(-atsign-)cw.bc.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP (J Dev Behav Pediatr), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Feb; vol 23 (issue 1) : pp 9-15

Dates: Created 2002/03/12; Completed 2002/04/26; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11889346, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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