Kinesthetic deficit in children with developmental coordination disorder.
Kids with DCD feel passive motion later than peers, and the gap is stable from age seven on.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Li et al. (2015) tested how fast kids notice a tiny, slow bend at their elbow. They compared children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) to typically developing peers.
The team used a quiet lab machine that moved the arm while the child watched a cartoon. Kids pressed a button the moment they felt motion.
What they found
Children with DCD needed more time to feel the movement. The gap starts at age seven and stays wide: an 11-year-old with DCD reacted like a seven-year-old without DCD.
The lag is not due to weak muscles or poor attention. It points to a slow body-signal pathway in the brain.
How this fits with other research
Kuang et al. (2025) extend the story downward. They show that motor skill gaps are already present in preschoolers at risk for DCD, even before these kids move less on the playground.
Schott et al. (2016) and Cignetti et al. (2018) use the same lab-task style and also find unique motor bottlenecks. Nadja shows extra slowing when kids walk while counting; Fabien shows delayed muscle preparation when kids expect a load. Each paper spots a different weak link in the DCD chain.
Takahashi et al. (2023) pull many studies together and confirm large movement-skill deficits across developmental diagnoses, including DCD. The meta-analysis supports the size of the kinesthetic lag reported here.
Why it matters
If a child cannot feel where her arm is in space, every catching, writing, or climbing task becomes guesswork. Screen for kinesthetic delay with simple motion-detection games before you teach sports or handwriting. Build in extra practice trials, slow the speed of new movements, and give immediate body feedback such as light resistance bands or verbal cues. These small tweaks honor the sensory lag and can speed up real-world skill gains.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this study was to measure and compare kinesthetic sensitivity in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and typically developing (TD) children between 6 and 11 years old. 30 children with DCD aged 6 to 11 years (5 in each age group) and 30 TD children participated in the study. Participants placed their forearms on a passive motion apparatus which extended the elbow joint at constant velocities between 0.15 and 1.35°s(-1). Participants were required to concentrate on detection of passive arm motion and press a trigger held in their left hand once they sensed it. The detection time was measured for each trial. The DCD group was significantly less sensitive in detection of passive motion than TD children. Further analysis of individual age groups revealed that kinesthetic sensitivity was worse in DCD than TD children for age groups beyond six years of age. Our findings suggested that individual with DCD lag behind their TD counterparts in kinesthetic sensitivity. Between the ages of 7 and 11 years the difference between groups is quantifiable and significant with 11 year old children with DCD performing similar to 7 year old TD children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.12.013