Postural responses to a suprapostural visual task among children with and without developmental coordination disorder.
Kids with DCD sway more when the visual task gets harder—opposite to typical kids—so add postural demands gradually during tabletop tasks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched 8- to young learners stand on a force plate.
Each child stared at a computer screen and counted moving dots.
Some kids had developmental coordination disorder (DCD).
Others were typically developing.
The team measured how much each child swayed.
What they found
Typical kids stiffened up when the dot task got harder.
Their sway dropped.
Kids with DCD did the opposite.
They wobbled more as the task grew tough.
Their bodies could not handle both balance and vision at once.
How this fits with other research
MacFarland et al. (2025) later showed that six weeks of home balance games helped kids with DCD.
That study builds on the 2011 finding by proving the deficit can be trained.
Crossman et al. (2018) found the same kids also track moving balls too slowly.
Together, the papers show vision and balance problems travel together in DCD.
Gepner et al. (2002) looked at autistic kids and found less sway to fast visual motion.
That seems opposite to the DCD pattern, but the tasks were different.
Bruno used quick flashes, while C et al. used a steady tracking task.
Why it matters
When you give a tabletop task to a child with DCD, start simple.
Add visual demands slowly.
Watch for extra sway or fidgeting.
If you see it, lower the challenge or give physical support.
This tiny tweak can keep therapy on track.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We sought to determine the effects of varying the perceptual demands of a suprapostural visual task on the postural activity of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and typically developing children (TDC). Sixty-four (32 per group) children aged between 9 and 10 years participated. In a within-participants design, each child performed a signal detection task at two levels of difficulty, low (LD) and high difficulty (HD). During performance of the signal detection tasks we recorded positional variability of the head and torso using a magnetic tracking system. We found that task difficulty had a greater effect on task performance among the TDC group than among children with DCD. Overall positional variability was greater the DCD group than in the TDC group. In the TDC group, positional variability was reduced during performance of the HD task, relative to sway during performance of the LD task. In the DCD group, positional variability was greater during performance of the HD task than during performance of the LD task. In children, DCD may reduce the strength of functional integration of postural activity with the demands of suprapostural visual tasks.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.03.027