Health-related quality of life in developmental coordination disorder and typical developing children.
Preschoolers with DCD already feel worse about daily life than peers, so catch and support them before kindergarten.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Redondo-Tébar et al. (2021) compared quality-of-life scores between preschoolers with developmental coordination disorder and typically developing peers. Parents and children answered the same set of questions about daily living, play, and feelings. The study looked at kids aged four to seven years old.
What they found
Children with DCD scored lower on every quality-of-life area. Parents and kids agreed fairly well in the DCD group, but both saw more problems than the typical group. The gaps were already clear before first grade.
How this fits with other research
Chezan et al. (2019) saw the same pattern in older kids, so the new study simply shows the trouble starts earlier. Caçola et al. (2018) used two different quality-of-life checklists and got matching low scores, proving the result is not a fluke of one form.
Lee et al. (2024) now covers preschool through high school and finds even larger drops, so the 2021 data is part of a stronger, wider picture. The newer paper does not contradict the older ones; it just fills the missing bottom age rung.
Rihtman et al. (2011) built a preschool screening tool for DCD. Pair that screener with the 2021 quality-of-life findings and you can spot both motor delay and daily-life impact in the same three-year-old visit.
Why it matters
If you work with young children, screen for clumsy or slow motor play and ask two quick quality-of-life questions. Low scores on both warn you the child is already feeling the hit. Early motor play groups or parent coaching could protect later self-esteem and peer rejection.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: To analyse: 1) the differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between typically developing (TD) children and children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) according to parents' and children's perception, and 2) the differences and level of agreement between parents and children's perceptions in HRQoL in both children's samples. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis in 115 Spanish schoolchildren 4-to-7 years. Motor competence and HRQoL were assessed using the MACB-2 and the KINDL-R questionnaire, respectively. RESULTS: ANCOVA model showed that children with DCD children obtained lower scores in physical well-being, friends, school and total HRQoL dimensions than TD peers after controlling for covariates (p < 0.05). Moreover, parents' perception scores in HRQoL were lower in children with DCD than in TD peers (79.7 vs 84.8; p = 0.022). Student T-tests for repeated-measures showed non-significant differences between children and parents' perceptions in mean HRQoL scores, by motor competence categories. The intraclass correlations coefficients between parents and children's perception of HRQoL was moderate in DCD category (0.62; p = 0.024) and small in TD category (0.29; p = 0.049). CONCLUSIONS: Children under 6 years old with DCD have lower HRQoL scores than their TD peers. No differences were found between children's and parents' perceptions in total HRQoL, although the perceptions of children and parents in DCD category showed a significantly higher level of agreement than TD children. Interventions aimed at promoting motor skills in school settings during the preschool age seem necessary to improve children's quality of life.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104087