Evaluation of the Japanese version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire as a screening tool for clumsiness of Japanese children.
The Japanese DCDQ quickly finds clumsy kids and links to ADHD traits, not IQ.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Nakai et al. (2011) translated the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire into Japanese.
Parents of 3- to young learners children filled out the 15-item form.
The team compared scores to teacher ADHD ratings and kids’ IQ tests.
What they found
Older children scored lower on the DCDQ-J, matching the expected pattern.
High scores lined up with high ADHD ratings, but not with IQ scores.
The tool flagged clumsy kids without being fooled by intelligence level.
How this fits with other research
Pearson et al. (2023) extend this work backward. They asked parents of babies and toddlers what early signs they saw. Together the two studies cover birth to teens, giving you a full parent-report timeline.
McKenzie et al. (2012) ran a parallel study. They checked a short parent screen for intellectual disability. Both papers show a quick caregiver form can reliably separate kids who need deeper testing.
Pichardo et al. (2026) add trust in caregiver data. They found parents correctly caught feeding-treatment effects 87-100 % of the time. The three studies together say: parents notice real differences, not just guesses.
Why it matters
You now have a free, 15-question Japanese form that spots motor problems without an IQ bias. Pair it with the early-milestone questions from Pearson et al. (2023) to screen from toddlerhood up. If the DCDQ-J is high and ADHD flags are up, refer for full motor evaluation while you keep teaching skills.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is characterized by clumsiness and coordination difficulties. DCD interferes with academic performance and participation in physical activities and psychosocial functions, such as self-esteem, cognition, or emotion, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. DCD is a common pediatric condition and its prevalence is estimated to be 6% worldwide. Although English questionnaires are available, there is no questionnaire to identify DCD in Japan, and therefore, no information on its prevalence is available. Recently, we developed the Japanese version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ-J). The purpose of this study was to describe the applicability of the DCDQ-J for use with a community-based population of children in Japan and to investigate the relationships between coordination and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tendencies or intelligence. The DCDQ-J was completed by 6330 parents or guardians of children and adolescents. We employed the ADHD-rating scale and determined the intelligence quotient (IQ) of the children. Two-way analysis of variance showed that the scores linearly increased as the children's grades advanced in 2 subscales, namely, control during movement and fine motor. In contrast, non-linear changes were found in the scores of the general coordination subscale. The total scores of the DCDQ-J and ADHD-RS were significantly correlated, but no relationship between DCDQ-J scores and IQ was found. The DCDQ-J is expected to be a useful screening tool to identify and assess motor coordination difficulties of children in Japan and enable cross-cultural comparisons.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.02.012