Examining the cognitive profile of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder.
Expect lower WISC-IV Processing Speed and Working Memory in students with DCD, but double-check if the motor task itself is dragging the score down.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lough et al. (2016) gave the WISC-IV to two groups of elementary-age kids. One group had Developmental Coordination Disorder. The other group had typical development.
They wanted to see if the DCD group scored lower on any of the four main WISC-IV index scores.
What they found
Kids with DCD earned lower Processing Speed and Working Memory scores. The gap was real, but scores inside each group still spread wide.
Because the spread was so large, you cannot use a low score alone to predict who has DCD.
How this fits with other research
Bieber et al. (2023) later showed the same DCD kids also struggle to watch and copy simple hand actions. Together the papers paint a picture: slow thinking plus slow imitation.
Mouga et al. (2016) saw the same Processing Speed weakness in kids with autism. The pattern looks similar across diagnoses, so check motor demands before you blame pure cognition.
Rosenblum et al. (2013) timed kids on Interactive Metronome and found longer pauses between moves. Their timing data help explain why WISC-IV Processing Speed subtests, which are clocked and motor-heavy, dip low in DCD.
Matson et al. (2011) and Missiuna et al. (2014) both report higher anxiety in the same population. Slow, effortful work may feed that anxiety, so cognitive and emotional screens should travel together.
Why it matters
When you see low Processing Speed or Working Memory on a WISC-IV, ask: could this be DCD? Watch the child write or type. If the pencil grip is weak or the strokes are slow, the score may reflect motor load more than pure thinking speed. Share this possibility with teachers so they give extra time instead of extra drills.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: While primarily a motor disorder, research considering the cognitive abilities in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is limited; even though these children often struggle academically. AIMS: The present study aimed to characterise the IQ profile of children with and without DCD, and to identify whether children with DCD exhibit specific cognitive weaknesses. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: 104 children participated in the study. Fifty-two children (mean age, 9 years) with a diagnosis of DCD were matched to 52 typically-developing children by age and gender. Cognitive ability was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV). OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Children with DCD performed poorer than their peers on processing speed and working memory measures. Individual analyses revealed varied performance in the DCD group across all cognitive indices, despite displaying Full-Scale IQs in the typical range. Discriminant function analyses show processing speed and working memory performance predicted only 23% of between-group variability. CONCLUSIONS: Children with DCD present with a heterogeneous cognitive profile, lending support to individual case analyses in research and when designing educational assistance plans. The motorically-demanding nature of the WISC-IV processing speed tasks raises specific concerns about using this index of the IQ assessment in this population. Research and practical implications are raised.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2016.05.012